[HN Gopher] Typography of 2001: A Space Odyssey (2014)
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Typography of 2001: A Space Odyssey (2014)
Author : sudobash1
Score : 119 points
Date : 2021-10-13 20:38 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (typesetinthefuture.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (typesetinthefuture.com)
| RicoElectrico wrote:
| On a related note, I just could not stand how Witcher 3 chose to
| use DIN font for the UI. Sure, it's hyper-legible, but detracts
| from the "medievalesque" setting. There must have been better
| alternatives to choose from, even if only lightly stylized. Hell,
| just any humanist font like Optima, Gill Sans would better blend
| in. Or something similar to Chiaro (admittedly Japanese-first
| font) used in the Ocarina of Time.
| bmitc wrote:
| It's this very blog post that inspired me to start using
| Eurostile Bold Extended in my user interfaces.
| atoav wrote:
| Being trained in typography is like a curse. You will suddenly
| see all the mistakes and amateurish design decisions everywhere,
| and you will hate them.
|
| On the other hand you can create something that looks good in 5
| minutes.
| MauranKilom wrote:
| Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1015/
| pathOf_aFineMan wrote:
| Would you be able to recommend resources on learning towards
| becoming somewhat trained in typography? Beyond blogs and
| coursera courses, where might one start?
| allenu wrote:
| This is a good one and has been discussed on HN before:
| https://practicaltypography.com/
| sam1r wrote:
| Look at open source fonts, study how they are created, and
| which components are frequently updated, and create one of
| your own. It's much harder than it seems. But definitely do-
| able.
| creativenolo wrote:
| Grid Systems in Graphic Design: A Visual Communication Manual
| for Graphic Designers, Typographers and Three Dimensional
| Designers
|
| By
|
| Josef Muller-Brockmann
|
| https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MLYiAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y
| flir wrote:
| The Elements Of Typographic Style, Robert Bringhurst. Just
| enough to be dangerous, and a great read to boot.
| kleer001 wrote:
| Typography is one of those ancient skills that's so well
| covered you can't go wrong anywhere you start. The only
| problem would be if you needed a class room environment or a
| one on one instruction. If you're a self starter then (as
| cliche as it sounds) launch off the wikipedia page :
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typography
|
| There'll be tons of instructional websites too. This is a 600
| year old art that hasn't fundamentally changed its
| terminology. Anything on the nerdy to practical spectrum of
| knowledge is out there for you to grasp.
| atoav wrote:
| I learned it from an typographer who himself still learned
| how to craft typefaces by hand, so there is not much in
| current material I can recommend.
| chungy wrote:
| Typesetting is related and has a similar effect. Being able to
| spot every document authored in Microsoft Word and its,
| frankly, ugly decisions is not that fun.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| (2014)
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| more recent discussion / popular one a year ago about Star Trek
| The Motion Picture:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24567455
| petschge wrote:
| Awesome as always, but unfortunately from January 2014, not a new
| post by Dave Addey.
| nielsbot wrote:
| Needs a (2014)
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| reminder: you can enjoy the content/link without upvoting it.
| hanoz wrote:
| The author has a series of these by the way, including a rather
| wonderful one on Moon:
| https://typesetinthefuture.com/2014/02/11/moon/
| 600frogs wrote:
| Typography, to me, is one of those things that's simultaneously
| incredibly boring and completely fascinating. On the one hand,
| it's something you experience (whether consciously or not) for a
| large part of your day, and each font you read in your day has
| been meticulously chosen for all the supposed qualities it gives
| off. But on the other hand - it's just a bloody font.
| outworlder wrote:
| Just a bloody font, the choice of which can greatly enhance
| your experience (or detract from it).
|
| I would recommend https://practicaltypography.com/
|
| EDIT: mind you, typography is much more than 'just fonts'.
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| I've started reading it. I'll finish it.
|
| But it's subjectively the worst font (or layout, or kerning,
| or aliasing, or _something_ - I 'm extremely not an expert:)
| I've seen since... mid-90's? I don't know HOW they made it
| look that bad; I checked if they were accidentally-enlarged
| images, but nope.
|
| In addition to letters looking (subjectively) bad, it also
| looks strange. Kernings looks slightly off, and the "Small
| but necessary interruption" feels like it has another 3 fonts
| in there. Perhaps They're just lighter or narrow variations
| (again, not an expert), and then the user-added ALL CAPS with
| different spacing yet... it feels I'm reading 19th century
| print. Which is quaint, might be _precisely_ what author is
| looking for (I once spent an hour trying to get letters on a
| CD look JUST the right amount of offset and wobbly :P ), but
| feels a bit... old school.
|
| https://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-
| minutes.ht...
| throwdecro wrote:
| Yeah it's strange, the content is about typography, but
| something about it is really hard to look at, at least on
| Mozilla Firefox. On some pages e.g. the typography-in-ten-
| minutes page it looks like the first paragraph is slightly,
| but not obviously, larger than the subsequent paragraphs.
|
| Everything seems stretched vertically, and the stuff in
| all-caps is borderline A E S T H E T I C with the
| horizontal spacing.
| outworlder wrote:
| Interesting, it does look different on Firefox (vs
| Chrome-based browsers).
| outworlder wrote:
| No problems with kerning on my device, that I can see.
|
| The fonts used, just like in books, each have their purpose
| - https://practicaltypography.com/how-to-use.html
|
| Also, you can change the body text font by clicking the
| font name at the bottom.
| BitAstronaut wrote:
| Any suggestions on good reading to learn?
| MengerSponge wrote:
| https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-comic-sans-asshole
| KineticLensman wrote:
| > it's just a bloody font.
|
| Obligatory http://wondermark.com/650/
| amelius wrote:
| That business card should have been in comic sans.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| It is not just the font it is how you use it.
|
| Out of the box in PowerPoint or Illustrator, you will
| struggle to set large characters in print unless you manually
| change character spacing.
|
| I look at the movie titles and think there are mistakes in
| the spacing and wonder what kind of machine they used to make
| it.
|
| All the above software is supposed to have automated
| 'Kerninq' of characters but it does not work well enough.
|
| If serif spacing is tight, the letters link together like
| cursive or Arabic calligraphy and form a meaningful
| composition. The default rules, however, avoid serifs
| crashing into each other at all costs, space letters too far
| apart, and create meaningless white spaces.
| gumby wrote:
| > I look at the movie titles and think there are mistakes
| in the spacing and wonder what kind of machine they used to
| make it.
|
| They were probably done by hand, especially given the
| swapping of characters from different fonts.
|
| I've forgotten the name of the company [flir reminds me in
| the comment below that it was Letraset], but it was common
| back then (yes, I'm an old fart, though was a kid when that
| film came out) to have a transparent sheet with adhesive
| vinyl (? or some other polymer) letters you could transfer
| over one by one to your workpiece. If you went into a an
| art supply house there would be racks of these things
| sorted by font and then size, down at least to 8 point.
|
| Back in 1968 phototypesetting was not super common. It was
| probably used for some of the larger blocks (like the
| toilet instructions) although just as likely to have been
| done with hot lead which survived almost to the end of the
| 1970s.
|
| It's hard to remember now (this mostly predated my working
| time since I started with laser printing in the 70s) but
| medium and large companies often had a lot of paper and
| data management departments with things like typing pools
| (completely retyping documents in order to incorporate
| edits was the state of the art) and print shops
| (photocopiers were expensive and uncommon into the 70s)
| flir wrote:
| Letraset?
| gumby wrote:
| Yes, that was it! Thanks so much.
| luca3v wrote:
| I am feeling really dumb for asking: the punchline of the
| comic is clearly that there is something terribly wrong with
| the typesetting of the business card, but what is it?
| asciimov wrote:
| Relevant SNL Skit:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVhlJNJopOQ
| ics wrote:
| The font on the business card is Papyrus.
| bewuethr wrote:
| See also https://youtu.be/jVhlJNJopOQ
| jfk13 wrote:
| ...which is a quite distinctive font that has shipped
| with Mac systems for years, so someone typeface-conscious
| is very likely to recognise it on sight.
| Sharlin wrote:
| The typeface is Papyrus [1], which is... not exactly adored
| by people who care about such things.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_(typeface)
| 45ure wrote:
| It does seem to stir up some strong emotions.
|
| _Years after Avatar 's release, there's one thing Steven
| (Ryan Gosling) just can't get over._
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVhlJNJopOQ
| 600frogs wrote:
| Heh, first time I've seen this. I'm of the opinion that as
| long as you're not using something wildly out of place like
| papyrus or comic sans in a professional setting, it's not
| hugely impactful what font you choose. You can spend hours
| comparing the subtle differences between helvetica and ariel
| but does it really make a difference?
|
| Also unrelated but the shocked dude in the last pane looks
| way too much like Elon Musk for my liking.
| KineticLensman wrote:
| I think fonts can make a difference where readability or
| accessibility is important. One example of a bad font
| choice in the UK is on the signs placed on roads after
| fatal accidents which ask witnesses to provide information.
| The contact number is written in a font that looks like a
| seven-segment display and that is virtually unreadable when
| you are driving past. The designer must have thought it
| looked good but it is unreadable.
|
| (Elon Musk lol)
| Xavdidtheshadow wrote:
| see also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVhlJNJopOQ
| mongol wrote:
| 2001 is in it's own class. Nothing compares to it. It set a
| standard in futurism that is very hard to match.
| tyingq wrote:
| John Carpenter apparently also liked that Albertus font used here
| in the "Dawn of Man" title card.
|
| It shows up in opening credits for _Escape from New York, The
| Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness, and They
| Live_.
| beautifulfreak wrote:
| Also Christine, Starman, and Escape From L.A.
| https://fontsinuse.com/uses/19085/directed-by-john-carpenter
| MarkLowenstein wrote:
| Wow. This is the answer to a prayer I didn't even realize I had.
| I have been in love with those 50s/60s-era computer-industry
| fonts for the longest time but never thought I'd know the names
| of these gems. Eurostile Bold Extended, I'm in heaven.
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(page generated 2021-10-13 23:00 UTC)