Science

Bigger Words Make Emotions More Intense

Scientists have shown that words printed in larger font sizes elicit a stronger emotional response. A report, published in PLoS ONE, has show that reading all kinds of words — positive, neutral or negative — printed in larger fonts causes higher electrical potential in the brain than when words are printed in smaller fonts. Those increased voltages are experienced as more extreme, longer-lasting emotions.


April 19, 2012
Geek Out

The First Digital Font Wasn’t Made For Computers

This is Digi Grotesk. On the suface it might not look like much. But it’s the first font that could truly call itself digital.


April 18, 2012
Geek Out

If This Creepy Typeface Had A Name, It Would Be ‘Murder’

Someday, hopefully an intrepid computer designer will convert these crazy letters made by Austrian artist Andreas Scheiger into a font. Talk about taking “the living word” to a whole other (grosser) level.


December 13, 2011
Geek Out

Turning Every Logo Into Comic Sans Is The Best Worst Idea

Oh, Comic Sans. You’re so approachable, so childlike, so human and… so disgustingly awful. As an eye gouge for many, the favouritest font of horrible rich people and vision vomit for the rest of us, Comic Sans should die 2136 times and then be wiped from our memories. OR SHOULD IT!? The Comic Sans Project hilariously flips famous logos into the deepest pits of font hell.


October 30, 2011
Gaming

Shape Type: How Font Designers Have Fun

You wouldn’t think an online game that has players painstakingly adjusting bezier handles to reshape letters from various fonts would be remotely interesting. But even if you’re not a font designer or graphically inclined, I guarantee your years of sub-consciously staring at well crafted magazines, newspapers and ads will help you play, and even enjoy, Shape Type.


October 23, 2011
Geek Out

A Font Made From Model Railroads

It will probably make the memos in the break room about stealing lunches considerably harder to read, but this unique font made from model railroad layouts is still far more pleasing to the eye than Comic Sans.


September 22, 2011
Geek Out

Watching The Alphabet Animate Itself Is Way Too Much Fun

I’ve never had this much fun reading the alphabet since I was a kid and finally conquered the L, M, N, O stretch of my ABCs. But this video is way cooler — the letters actually animates itself to represent a word it begins with. It’s so goddamn clever.


September 21, 2011
Geek Out

900+ Fonts Mashed Together Create Beautiful Typographical Art

I’m a sucker for a great font. Even ones built entirely out of other fonts. In the video above, Moritz Resl took low opacity versions of the 900+ fonts on his computer and placed them on top of one another until it created something more than the sum of all its parts.


August 27, 2011
Geek Out

Why Comic Sans Is So Darn Funny, Scientifically Speaking

If there’s one thing every last one of us can agree on, it’s that there’s no text more fun-loving that Comic Sans. And if you don’t believe me, maybe science will sort you out. Well, The Onion science, anyway.


August 12, 2011
Geek Out

Omipotent Colonialist Photoshopping Hand Remakes Third World

Oh, wretched, impoverished shopkeepers of the developing world! If only you could put down your weary, paint-splattered arm and stop making handcrafted signs for your stores. If only you had the brilliant Swiss diamond-light of Helvetica. Enter your minimalist paradise.