The Death of Serif Fonts

[Ryan Maelhorn]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

In 2375, after a long, hard fought battle, the last piece of media is released with the use of a sans serif font. Old Vendome, was the last to go down. From this point onward, nothing containing serif fonts is created, physically or electronically. The death bell for serifs tolls in 2375.

[George Thomas]

Try making some sense of that after you sober up.

[quadibloc]

When I was a young lad, I thought that serifs were needless embellishments, and that they were old-fashioned, and we should move to sans-serif typefaces. Now, I appreciate the readability and beauty of serif typefaces, and I expect they will be around as long as the Latin alphabet.

[typerror]

In all deference to Ganeau, (as much as I think of Vendome and its unique qualities)... if that face is the last vestige of serif fonts left in the year 2375 then we truly are undone. And as Majus said, sober up! Sans are a passing, boring/uninspired, fad.

[rs_donsata]

Reminds me of Carson.

[hrant]

I think head-serifs will actually grow considerably by 2375, on account of global warming.

An aside about Vendôme: In David Rault's recent book about Excoffon, José Mendoza y Almeida states: "I saw Ganeau’s test proofs and I can attest that all, or almost all of Vendôme’s originality, including the deliberate (and in my view excessive) aggressiveness is due to Excoffon’s hand, to his indulgence in the subtle interplay of forms, designs, practices, traditions. Very dynamic, very novel, fresh and intense, Vendôme is a typeface for combat rather than comfort." (My translation.)

hhp

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Today, learn about the Armenian Genocide.

[CanwllCorfe]

When I was a young lad, I thought that serifs were needless embellishments, and that they were old-fashioned, and we should move to sans-serif typefaces.

I actually had that very experience in my first typography class. They were fanatical about Helvetica, but not so much about any serif fonts. I'm partial to most anything, but I had quite a fondness for Baskerville. I still do. I don't see them dying any time soon. On second thought, Baskerville is over 200 years old.

[Riccardo Sartori]

Baskerville is over 200 years old

The model for Trajan is almost 2000 years old, and still going strong ;-)

[sko]

I actually had that very experience in my first typography class. They were fanatical about Helvetica, but not so much about any serif fonts.

Something similar happened during my graphic design classes. Serifs were not used chosen very often, except rather than Helvetica, the 'in-thing' was Gotham.

[Riccardo Sartori]

http://v4.jasonsantamaria.com/articles/change-of-heart/

[Ryan Maelhorn]

The serifs days are numbered. You wait...

I didn't know Excoffon had anything to do with Vendome. No wonder I like it.

[oldnick]

Trends come and trends go. Even now—when the Space Race has been co-opted by the Race to Develop the Sans Face with the Quirkiest Double-story Lowercase A—serifs are alive and well in fanciful type. Those severe lines and blunt terminals just can’t compete with the swirls and curls that come natural to serifs.

Just sayin’…

[CanwllCorfe]

@riccard0 I forgot about Trajan... I should have used that. But then again I don't think there's many 2,000 year old people (that's two Methuselahs!), so my unbelievably witty joke wouldn't have worked as well. I haven't used Trajan in forever. I did use Cyan, which is based off of it though. I'm gonna stop now before I keep rambling.

@sko I'm surprised I didn't hear much about Gotham! I actually think that behind Helvetica, there wasn't much of any other popular choices. It was kind of like a free for all. I did see a lot of Bleeding Cowboys.

[Ryan Maelhorn]

rs, which Carson?

[hrant]

The font, NotCarson. It's incredibly readable.

hhp

[Ryan Maelhorn]

You think rs donsata is comparing Vendome to NotCarson?

[hrant]

Dude, how young are you?
http://www.emigre.com/EF.php?fid=111

hhp

[Ryan Maelhorn]

Do you think NotCaslon was an attack against Sans Serifs?

[hrant]

I think it was an attack on fonts.

hhp

[sko]

@CanwllCorfe It wasn't really when we started, but while the classes went on they started talking about Gotham. Early on there was a lot of display face (ab?)use too.

Behind those, it was mostly a mix of different flavours of Sans with a few serifs popping up.

[rs_donsata]

Yeah... David Carson and some other people went berserk about type and expected a riotous revolution on type in the 90's which later turned into typographic revisionism on the 2000's.

We are not very likely to get rid of serif faces until someone invents some better performing style or we stop reading thing longer than a magazine spread.

[Nick Shinn]

The idea that serifs will become functionally obsolete is a nice little myth of modernism.
Whether serifs are useful to the process of reading-as-deciphering-text is besides the point.
Type forms are invested with far more meaning than that, and it is not just an aesthetic veneer.

[hrant]

Throw into the mix that "serif face" is not as easy to define as one might like... Remember the serif axis of Penumbra? :-)

hhp

[Ryan Maelhorn]

Ok, Carson using NotCaslon, or something like that. I get it. I really do. Dada. and then some. anyway, 2375 shall not be the end of type design, or rather a whiplash reaction to neoclassicism, which was what NotCaslon actually was, and which, by the way has been rather defeated across most artistic disciplines, but the end to Serif Fonts. And there are Serifs all over NotCaslon.

[rs_donsata]

Once people tought radio would kill the newspapers, then television was meant to kill radio, then internet was meant to kill television. I am really curious about what would be meant to kill the internet.