TIMES NEW ROMAN IN THE COMPUTER AGE.

TIMES NEW ROMAN IN THE COMPUTER AGE. I posted here five years ago about the belief of David Ogilvy, the advertising legend, that ads should use typefaces that are used in newspaper and magazine text because that is what consumers are used to reading. I said then: “I wonder what will happen when eyes are accustomed to get information from a computer screen rather than a page of newsprint.”

Meredith Mann points out that: “In 1932, The Times specifically noted that their new typeface was not intended for books: ‘It is a newspaper type—and hardly a book type—for it is strictly appointed for use in short lines—i.e., in columns.’” She also acknowledges that fonts which have serifs—as Times New Roman does—are thought to be harder to read on a computer screen. Nevertheless, the answer to my question so far is that for a font that was designed over 80 years ago for newspaper readers, Times New Roman still seems to be doing very well in the computer age, competing successfully with Arial and Calibri, two fonts which don’t have serifs.

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