CompuServe Messages

As luck would have it, my free fonts and type catalogue from Bitstream arrived today, the day after my lengthy message to you. So, as per my promise in MacDesign Forum, here are some choices I think you should consider for 300 dpi output. I remember your asking about a "serif font with enough charm and interest to be interesting and fun to use, but not so mannered that it's unusable" and also your liking for Optima. Although I don't know for what kind of documents you're planning to use these for, I'll try to direct you to good-old-all-around-use type faces. But bear in mind that I have never used Bitstream fonts, as so am only giving these a recommendation based on my ideas of what should look good at 300 dpi, not what these might actually turn out to look like. Plus, don't forget that one person's charming may be another person's cloying. Serif: Bitstream Carmina: The angles on the vertical strokes on the uppercase "M" alarm me a bit, but otherwise this looks (from the sample) like a decent face, with some interesting touches. Not exactly to my taste, but not without some appeal. The characters are very open and somewhat squarish, which is good. If you're buying Type F fonts, you may have to end up buying all eight styles, which may be overkill for you, though. (I'm don't know how Bitstream's prepackaging of Type F fonts works.) If you can pick and choose, go for the medium/medium italic and bold/bold italic. ITC Garamond: Yes, I know you've heard us dumping on this face, and it is a bland version, but for your uses, it's the best of the Garamonds, I think. Skip the light version if you can, and go for the book/book italic and bold/bold italic. If you want a bit more flavour go for… Classical Garamond (Sabon): The characters are a little bit tighter, with a smaller x-height, but the regular version also seems a touch heavier than the ITC Garamond Light, so I expect it would hold up better. ITC Zapf Book: This one fills all my criteria for what would make a decent 300 dpi face. The italics are a bit boring, but nicer than the italics in Zapf [continued in reply]