Typography

I've recently become interested in typography; the design and use of fonts, again. Especially some of the newer fonts from Microsoft included in Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. The so called 'C' fonts (Microsoft Clear Type Font Collection); Calibri, Cambria, Candara, Consolas, Corbel and Constantia.

This collection is also distributed with the free Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer and the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack. My special favourite is the sans-serif Candara with the non-lining numerals and small-caps. These are all full feature, OpenType fonts which are really modern designs for screen and print. I've used these fonts to improve a couple of my working documents such as price-lists and configuration examples. They are very refreshing and give a more modern appearance that the usual Arial and Times New Roman text.

I re-read a couple of my old books; The Word for Windows Print and Presentation Kit by Christine Solomon ©1992 (with 5¼" floppy disc) and Making digital type look good by Bob Gordon ©2001, which helped with basic layout principles plus kerning, tracking, leading, etc.

I've also had to remove a lot (over 150) fonts and corresponding files from my Windows 7 and later systems as they contain Arabic, Far Eastern and other languages that I don't need. This helps when you have to scroll through font lists in Word and other programs. To purchase these new 'C' fonts from a commercial supplier cost hundreds of pounds, so to have them freely available to use in the modern versions of Windows is a real bargain.