The coolest typeface:
Times.

Luckily it only says ‘Times’, not ‘Times New Roman’ — but something tells me that’s what everyone was the one everyone was thinking of.

Target Practice

Now, I'm not saying anything negative about the people who has responded, here. Most of them could never tell a Garamond from a Times (or perhaps even a Futura from a Bodoni). But the people I do have a problem with, are the maker(s) of this question.

If you're asking non-typographical people, you should let the question revolve around their frame of reference. The six fonts in the question should then probably be:

1. Arial
2. Verdana
3. Comic Sans
4. Palatino
5. Times New Roman
6. Garamond

We all know that Comic Sans would win hands down, but that would be OK, because at least you have asked the people a question they fully understood.

If a carpenter asked me if I preferred a Stanley or a Bondhus screwdriver, I would say a Stanley, as that is the only one of the two screwdrivers I've heard of.

If it were up to me, though, I'd take Times out of the question (most people confuse that one with Times New Roman, and some may even vote it, thinking of the new Times-font released only a month ago), and replace it with Caslon.

The typefaces chosen are actually quite a good sample, so let us for a moment pretend that the poll really reflect the public opinion (and exclude the 39% that voted for Times).

The sans-serifs

Helvetica (at 21%) I understand. And agree. Helvetica is the father of most sans-serifs today (with the egyptiennes being the grandfathers), and it has a quality to it that none other is even close to.

How Futura (12%) so greatly surpassed Univers (3%) is beyond me, though. I tend to see Futura as a nice typographical experiment, little more.

The serifs

Now, finally a poll that Bodoni (3%) is loosing in! I can't even begin to describe how sick and tired I'm getting at Bodoni. I know Bodoni is, in pure and distilled theory a great typeface. It revolutionized the way typographers thought of type, in terms of not necessarily thinking that every typeface needed to be able to recreate by hand. Which also serves as a great reminder of how people thought about most things during the industrial revolution.

But I just don't like Bodoni.

I'm a bit saddened to see, though, that Baskerville (4%) is left so far behind in comparison to Garamond. Saddened, not surprised, since Garamond has had about three hundred years of revisions, even after Claude Garamond passed away.

That’s not to say that Sir Garamond wasn’t a great typographer — he was. But people continued to make typefaces, and calling them ‘Garamonds’ for hundreds of years after Garamond stopped cutting stamps and wood. So most of the Garamond-fonts you have installed on your systems today are merely digital re-renderings of copies of interpretations of copies of the typeface Garamond himself did.

The thing about this is, that while Garamond made one of the best typefaces ever, things have been added and removed and perfected ever since he made them, and up until today. John Baskerville has not had this done to his artworks (typefaces), and hence what you have installed of Baskervilles on your system more closely (though modified for digital use) resemble what Baskerville originally made.

As for the exclusion of William Caslon’s typeface, I find it understandable as it represent (in many ways) the same era and idea as Baskerville’s. And Baskerville is for some reason often seen as a better typeface than Caslon. Personally I beg to differ, but I can see why this consensus would impact a survey.

Lubalin Graph

Lubalin, poor thing, is loosing out. Badly. At only 2% it seems to be nobody’s favorite. Which sends somewhat of a message, as it is the most differing of the typefaces.

Now, as I said before, I cannot really take this survey seriously — but what if it was? Would it affect the choices we made in terms of type? Would we all grab for our Times and Helveticas, and suddenly stop using Baskerville and Futura? If the poll showed that people loved Comic Sans (and believe me, baby, they do) would we suddenly unban it?

And if 51% of Americans thought Bush deserved a second term in office... Oh, wait.