ZeichensatzBlog

It’s a good thing that Beijing’s Subway Line 4 is coming all that bit closer to reality — the new line’s ready for a late September 2009 opening. Hopefully by then, they’ll also have fixed this insane font mix…

OK — here’s what I think is wrong with the signpost, font-wise:

1. It uses Arial. This is a no-no for a pro service — or, at that, a pro-level mass transit service. The newest Beijing Subway lines are world-class. They shouldn’t have to settle for a less-than-world-class font.

2. It uses nonstandard fonts. There’s nothing wrong wtih Chinese fonts, but those A-Z letters in those Chinese fonts (especially Windows fonts) look out of whack.

3. It uses a mix of serif and sans-serif fonts. This is probably the biggest sin: mixing serif and sans-serif on public signs, a definite no-no.

4. The capitalization and spacing could see improvs. There’s little to no need to write “XIZHIMEN” in all caps, and finally, there could be an extra space between “Line” and the number (as in “Line2″ looks better as “Line 2″, and so on).

It’s a slow Sunday. You’re out for a drive on the county highways. The mileage markers — yes, these guys indeed. Another classic case of mixed fonts.

This is just — you know, the weirdest font mix. The 1 looks like it’s in Helvetica, but the 0 (zero) looks like it’s some bad Times stencil.

Found on: Zhangtai Highway, Tongzhou, Beijing, China.

Take a look at this:

The A in LANGFU and the R in BRIDGE all use Arial, while the rest of the sign uses Helvetica. Classic case of a bad font mix…

Found on: Langfu 4th Bridge (Langfu No. 4 Bridge), Jingshen Freeway, Tongzhou, Beijing, China

China Mobile is the latest victim to use a Frutiger-wannabe font. They must have updated their computers to Windows Vista, because their English language font looks very similar to Frutiger.

Delve deeper, though, and you’ll see that the lowercase “a” doesn’t look very Swiss. (Also, the dot on the lowercase “i” is round - not square.) That’s right: they’re using the copycat-ish font known as Segoe UI. Part of the copycat operating system of the evil MS imperialists (hey, as a Mac guy, I just can’t resist), the new font (Segoe UI) has already sparked quite a controversy.

Even Myriad (which is Adobe-and-Apple territory) looks less like a total Frutiger clone.

So I guess I’m not wrong in giving total typographical hell to Microsoft then… not only do they copy others in terms of user interface design, but they’re also copying other people’s fonts (Arial versus Helvetica, and now Segoe UI versus Frutiger).

(More ranting spared - watch this space!) 

Funny font behavior on the Airport Freeway…Just take a look…

“Through Lane” is legible, because the caps and the lowercase characters are at least in sync — the whole thing looks “normal”. The lowercase characters in “Emergency Vehicle Lane”, in the meantime, are way too small — they’re way out of whack, and out of proportion, too.

The Airport Freeway, by the way, used to have really legible Helvetica Narrow fonts until October 2006. A road resurfacing saw the introduction of those crazy “caps-are-too-big” fonts.

Excuse me, but that font that they’re using is a little… you know… too futuristic. Futuristic stuff, to me, just doesn’t mix with more “traditional stuff” like tea leaves…

The whole font’s wrong. Frankly… and to be totally honest… I thought that this was a spaceship ad the first time I looked at it — judging by the font alone.

There is a great article over at the Confide in me blog: Hong Kong seems to be hit badly by the Comic Sans bug. It so appears that Hong Kong is badly hit by all-caps Comic Sans posters!

Beijing is badly hit by Arial already… all victims of fonts that are “standard on PCs”…

Beijing is coming out with a lot of those really nice new traffic “info boards” (for lack of a better word). The whole idea, by the way, of having those “info boards” came from Shanghai. However, along with the really neat “info boards” (where you are finally informed which roads are full of stockender Kolonnenverkehr), there is a really, really bad — a really glaring typographical error.

It cannot be emphasized enough: Serifs and sans serifs simply do not mix — and especially not on the same line. Unfortunately, they didn’t just import the new “info boards” from Shanghai (apart from Pudong); they imported the “bad Shanghai serif G” bug, too. Take a look at this:

Not clear enough? Let’s blow it up for you:

Do you not see how much of a misfit that serif “g” is? Not to say that the whole thing in Arial is “poor” enough… Everything is in Arial, except for that “g”, which is in Times.

Look me in the eye and tell me it’s good… it’s not!

What beats me is that there are actually some “good” traffic “info boards” out there, written all in Univers, with the proper lowercase “g” intact:

It won’t be long before they’ll start thinking how they’re going to pull off that trick known as correcting those typographical mistakes hanging in mid-air…

Ever see a font that looks either fan-freakin’-tastic (apologies to Mr. Loughrin) or a font that makes you wonder if ET stuck it there? As a font maniac, I’m one for fonts, and one for a ZeichensatzBlog.

Zeichensatz — German for font — is where the whole thing starts splitting you into leagues — the pro leagues and the wannabe leagues. Use a font right — get pro. Use a font wrong — ow-wah.

Some people don’t care about Arial. Some people spend $300 on Akzidenz-Grotesk. Some people freak out the moment they see their font on the road signs. Some people fork out the cash for a custom-designed font.

Play your font cards right. Read the ZeichensatzBlog. Welcome to the new zeichensatzblog.com.