Sometimes education can be a big pain in the ass
I just watched this awesome documentary: Helvetica. It is all about typeface and design. I learned a lot. I also followed up with more research on my own.
Helvetica is the most used typeface in the world. The street signs around your town/city are done in Helvetica. Government forms are done in Helvetica. You are most likely reading this in Helvetica or a very close approximation of it that is included in Windows called Arial.
The problem is that I now know the difference between Helvetica and Arial. And without bringing up Mac/PC wars, Helvetica is the default font loaded on Macs and Arial was made to look like it for PCs.
I made a big stink about being "right" and "correct" about making the Coast Guard official imagery and distributing it for all to use as mine is the OFFICIAL version, but it's NOT!!! I now know it's not... The truth is that no one will care, because no one really cared before me, and there are plenty of graphics people around the Coast Guard not using the correct emblems. I've closed the gap quite a bit, but not 100%. And now, I know that if I did, then they would not be using the correct emblem.
Well, Here's the rub. I'm on a PC and the Official Emblems use Helvetica. To acquire Helvetica for a PC would cost hundreds of dollars to buy it from Linotype, the owners of Helvetica.
The only possibility available to me today is to outline all the fonts and then hand correct them for the variances between Arial and Helvetica.
No, I'm not going to do that, but this will stick in my craw because I am such a perfectionist and I even wrote and distributed an essay entitled the "Importance of Standard Branding in the U.S. Coast Guard".
Helvetica is the most used typeface in the world. The street signs around your town/city are done in Helvetica. Government forms are done in Helvetica. You are most likely reading this in Helvetica or a very close approximation of it that is included in Windows called Arial.
The problem is that I now know the difference between Helvetica and Arial. And without bringing up Mac/PC wars, Helvetica is the default font loaded on Macs and Arial was made to look like it for PCs.
I made a big stink about being "right" and "correct" about making the Coast Guard official imagery and distributing it for all to use as mine is the OFFICIAL version, but it's NOT!!! I now know it's not... The truth is that no one will care, because no one really cared before me, and there are plenty of graphics people around the Coast Guard not using the correct emblems. I've closed the gap quite a bit, but not 100%. And now, I know that if I did, then they would not be using the correct emblem.
Well, Here's the rub. I'm on a PC and the Official Emblems use Helvetica. To acquire Helvetica for a PC would cost hundreds of dollars to buy it from Linotype, the owners of Helvetica.
The only possibility available to me today is to outline all the fonts and then hand correct them for the variances between Arial and Helvetica.
No, I'm not going to do that, but this will stick in my craw because I am such a perfectionist and I even wrote and distributed an essay entitled the "Importance of Standard Branding in the U.S. Coast Guard".