I have already read a 400 page novel set in 9 pt futura, it was not difficult to do, the only problem i had was finding the lines when i had to leave the reading for a while.

Kyle, I'm with you. In some ways Fartura is actually worse than Helvomita.
Sometimes I feel that Futura is in fact a parody of type design.

hhp

Futura is wonderful. You simply don

> You simply don

I won't "fall on the sword" for Futura. I like it, it's versitle, but I know it has it's faults and is quite overused. In the challege I mentioned above it was a good chioce.

However, In the big picture I could never have a "be all, end all" typeface that could serve every purpose. That would be impossible. Typefaces inherently have way too much baggage(sterotypical style, era and emotional feel) for there to ever be "the great typeface to end all typefaces."

As a designer, I am challenged to work within one or two typefaces all the time (oh, so many times it is Helvetica and Times

> You simply don

One typeface or one family?? Has anyone asked this question? Or is it just assumed it is a family?

ND Futura (family)

i used to like Futura a lot, but that was loooong ago.

there's a fairly new women's magazine out in germany called 'woman' (how creative is that?) and it uses Futura for everything. along with its 80's layout it looks extremely outdated. i said "five issues and goodbye", but i was wrong. it's selling fairly well, and my wife, who's an editiorial designer, even reads it once in a while. must be some kind of retro-thingie.

anyway, after long consideration, i would have to choose Luc de Groot's Thesis family. the whole package, of course. not very elegant, but extremely versatile, imho.