Re: Fonts

[Bill Troop billtroop@xxxxxxxx]

> I really like ITC Souvenir, which I use for the screen and printouts (in
> XyWrite for Windows). It is wider than Times Roman, making it more legible.
It is true that, when a font is used at a small size, it will be more
legible when it is widened. But conversely it is also true that a font
needs to be narrowed as the size increases. That is one of the main
principles of optical scaling. There is more to it than that:
intercharacter spacing (the each letter's 'sidebearings') should be
increased at smaller sizes.
That said, I would be astounded if ITC Souvenir existed in a good screen
version. ITC Souvenir is universally considered to be one of the most
ghastly type designs in the entire history of the printed page (though it
was phenomenally popular in the 70s and 80s, keeping ITC afloat and buying
Ed Benguiat his private plane), so it requires a real contrarian (such as
me) to find virtue in it. But the virtues I find (most simply, the way the
letterforms agreeably fit together in words, perhaps never more artfully
achieved) are evident to me only on the printed page. It would be most
surprising if it actually functioned well on the screen. And of course I
can't test the possibility you bring up for myself, since I wouldn't be
caught dead installing it. Your suggestion is intriguing and could give
this font a new lease on life.