The Scourge of Arial and
Posted on: Feb 17
The Scourge of Arial and How to Spot Arial. (Actually, spotting Arial is easy. Just go to the "Font" menu and it's right at the top of the list.)
Personally, I dislike Arial. I find it hard to read, and I suppose I'd feel the same way about Helvetica if I had to read pages of it set at 10 pt. I'll even allow that Helvetica is superior to Arial in some ways (that are largely trivial for non-designers).
But the idea that Arial is bad because it's inauthentic, or because its 'a' lacks a tail, is ridiculous. Arial's key feature is that it's good enough--it's a decent sans-serif typeface at the right price.
Sure, Beta was better than VHS too...
Personally, I dislike Arial. I find it hard to read, and I suppose I'd feel the same way about Helvetica if I had to read pages of it set at 10 pt. I'll even allow that Helvetica is superior to Arial in some ways (that are largely trivial for non-designers).
But the idea that Arial is bad because it's inauthentic, or because its 'a' lacks a tail, is ridiculous. Arial's key feature is that it's good enough--it's a decent sans-serif typeface at the right price.
Sure, Beta was better than VHS too...
Posted by Gene Smith on Feb 17, 2002
