My favorite font

For experienced computer users, font is one of the important things to consider wheneverthey want to create a document. It is important because it reflects their personalpreference, sometime reflecting their personalities too. The other reasons of choosing afont can be its unique design which can serve unique purpose and its sentimental look. Tome, my choice of font is a matter of artistic taste and, through the course of my life, I havechanged my favorite font six times for various reasons.

In the beginning

My first favorite font was Times New Roman. The reason was simply because it was the first font Iknew when I learned using computer, a PC, for the first time. My first encounter with Times beganwhen my computer instructor in high school taught me using Microsoft Word. As a computer novice, Times New Roman became the first font I used since it is the default font of Word.However, after a long period of time, I slowly grew tired with TNR. Somehow, I feel that Times is just way too formal in appearance, as opposed to my less formal personality. Another reason is itssize and shape--too small and too condensed. At size 12, TNR looks really small in computer screen, I have to zoom its window at the size of 175%. In terms of readability, Times letters standtoo adjacent among another. As a result, a page of Word document written in Times New Romancreates a paper overcrowded with letters. It is really not comfortable to look at.

My second favorite font was Arial. I used it when I started learning Microsoft Excel. As Arialis the default font of Excel, I always used it every time I created an Excel project. It lookedgreat to me since its line and shape were simpler than TNR. Moreover, at size 12, Arialwas bigger than Times. Also, the shape of it was relaxing, not stiff like TNR. For thosereasons, I began using Arial in my Word document and abandoned TNR temporarily. But,this change did not last long. Though different in appearance, I soon became bored with it.Somehow, I feel that Arial is rigid, not as free as I wanted it to be. Plus, Arial letters looktoo thick, as if they were printed in bold. Another reason, it is too simple and not as artisticas I want.

In the middle

After leaving TNR for a while, I suddenly was forced to use Times again. Thishappened when I studied in university. My lecturers wanted all students to use Times in every paper they submitted. I have had enough with TNR and I do notwant to use it again. What I did next was to find a font that looks like TNR butstill in my personal preference. After browsing Word’s font collection, my choicefell on Garamond. It was a good choice since it retained the look of TNR but itwas not too conservative. Besides, the letters in Garamond are a bit expanded.However, a problem slowly crept upon me. It turned out that it was too small,as compared to Times. After using it for three months, I decided to look for abetter font.

Bookman Old Style was my fourth favorite font. I thought I would settle with thisone because it was a combination of Times’ style, Garamond’s width, and Arial’ssize. Clearly, Bookman has similar conservative style with Times, but it is asexpanded as Garamond. Although it does not have cool and relaxing appearance,in terms of size, Bookman’s is as big as Arial, making it more comfortable to read

and to look at. The funny thing about this change was that my lecturers neverrealized that I did not use Times as they requested. So, I thought Bookman wouldbe my final font since I used it for more than two years.

After more than two years, I changed personal font again. This time, I did not have anyspecific complaint on Bookman. I changed because I was looking for a new atmosphere.Browsing Word’s font collection again, I selected Palatino Linotype to replace the oldBookman :). As if Times influence was still great on me, Palatino became my default font because it retains the formality of TNR with less conservative. Even though it is not asexpanded as Bookman, it has the size of Arial. Its thin letters are the other thing I like fromPalatino. Therefore, Palatino served me in making Word docs and Excel files for more thanfive years. Funnily, many people who know and knew me never realized that I switchedfrom Bookman to Palatino. Whenever they read my printed documents, they often thoughtthat I used Times or another form of TNR, even went on saying that I used a lighter TNR,:D. But one person noticed that I used a different font and guessed correctly that it must bePalatino. Then, he told me that Palatino has lately been a popular alternative to TNR formany people. Wow, I never realize that.

At present

Helvetica is my sixth favorite font and there is a funny story behind it. Palatino was thelongest font I used in every office document I made, be that doc., xls., and ppt. But in 2007,I switched computer from PC to Mac. My Mac came with a trial version of iWork 06 and atrial version of 2004 MS Office for Mac. For the first few months, I used Office for Mac tocreate documents, presentation, and spreadsheet files. After my friend, a veteran Macuser, gave a demo of iWork, I became interested to use it and slowly abandoned Office forMac. Now, unlike Office for Mac, there is no option to change default font in iWork. So,whenever I create document, presentation or spreadsheet file with it, I have to start withHelvetica. Even so, I can always change the font in my document project to Palatino everytime I am finished with it. This process of changing font was quite exhausting and irritatingme. I felt as if I was forced to use Helvetica all the time. Despite the fact I can alwaysswitch to my favorite font, the process of clicking the font style and changing font everytime I open an iWork project became very tiring. Where is the freedom of setting mypersonal default font? On the other hand, iWork is just too good to ignore. With grumbleand mutter, I finally accept the reality of living with Helvetica.Slowly and confidently, I unconsciously find comfort with Helvetica. If I hated Helvetica atthe beginning, now, I gradually started to build keen interest in it. Little by little, I began tolearn and appreciate Helvetica’s uniqueness. It turns out, it is not poles apart from Arial interms of size. The letters shape are interesting too; thin, straight, relax, expanded andstylish. Moreover, from other sources, I learn that it is one popular font in design world. Itsstrength is its neutrality, no inclination to other established fonts. And after a year of use,