SR1: Rowland Reyes Martinez

VERDANA


Verdana began as a project directed by Microsoft with the aim of creating a typeface that was completely readable.  Microsoft had the practical idea of portraying art within their font, thus to accomplish this characteristic, they took upon the likes of Matthew Carter, the type designer, who in his own respect, created bitmaps for many other fonts, such as Georgia.  With the task before him, the experiment of creating a small typeface intended to be published upon low quality screens however with a greater quality standard as it was intended to be readable, Carter created bitmaps. He was accompanied by Thomas Rickner, of Monotype through font hinting whereby the font would be mathematically adjusted to thus fit upon a rasterized grid.  With the need to be legible under screen guidelines, hinting was utilized to gain a greater legibility of the font at low resolutions, thus gaining a sharper image (Will-Harris, 2003).  It was then released in 1996 to the Windows Operating System and accordingly through Internet Explorer and the Mac OS system.

Verdana, classified as a humanist sans serif was born in the twentieth century with the aim of being more of a humane.  This was exemplified by obtaining the two-story letter form ‘a’ and ‘g’ and experiencing the ‘stroke thickness thus being more graceful (Bergsland, 2007).  With this in mind, Verdana and its humanist classification allowed for a similarity between the font and a humane presence as its features derived from the medieval scribes of the Roman era.

There is a distinct clarity to why Verdana has become one of the most appealing fonts on and even out of the web.  There are greater open counters that have been utilized within the Verdana typeface, to thus create a flow and easy ability to be read, as there is greater space and less of a cramped nature.  Additionally, the considerably large x-height determines a nature that allows for the lower case letters to be read perfectly with ease.  It is also the versatile characteristics within the typeface that gives it an edge.  This is seen through the capital ‘J’ whereby there is a clear hook at the end of the letter that resonates.  As well as through the lower case, ‘i’ where there is a notable square dot representing the tittle.  These contributing features allows for comfort while being read on screen and when the font is decreased to a smaller point, the ability to be read is not of a significant issue. 

While being utilized widely as a web typeface, Verdana has shared its spotlight with print media, significantly with the private retail company IKEA.  After the 2010 shock change of font within the IKEA online catalog’s from Futura to Verdana, Verdana has become highly criticized as to how a web based font has now made its mark on print.  Although the change has been deemed as impractical, Verdana has grown in terms of editing the type face for print consumption, where there has been an introduction of typefaces of light, regular, semibold, bold and black options, thus becoming suitable for printing purposes.

Initially, Verdana was dubbed the typeface of the web, it is now clear to see that the recent advancements of the typeface has brought out a chance towards a new and greater spotlight, print media.  Although the typeface to some may be seen only for screen view, I believe that Verdana has a possibility in being projected through print now and in the future.

References

‘Georgia & Verdana, Typefaces designed for the screen (finally)’ (2003) Retrieved 4^th March 2012, from www.will-harris.com/verdana-georgia.htm

‘The Story of Verdana’ Retrieved 4^th March 2012 from www.fonts.com/aboutfonts/verdana.htm

‘Verdanagate’ (2009) Retrieved 4^th March 2012 from www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/verdanagate.php

‘The Font War:  Ikea Fans Fume over Verdana’ (2009) Retrieved 4^th March 2012 from www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1919127,00.html

‘Verdana Pro: Not just another pretty face’ (2009) Retrieved 4^th March 2012 from http://www.macworld.com.au/help/verdana-pro-not-just-another-pretty-face-4358/

‘Humanist sans serif type faces’ (2007) Retrieved 4^th March 2012 from http://www.graphic-design.com/Type/bergsland/humanist.html

‘Channel Verdana’ (1997) Retrieved 4^th March 2012 from http://www.microsoft.com/typography/web/fonts/verdana/default.htm