[Photo walk] Spring Street #1

I attended a business lunch near Parliament House in Melbourne, so afterwards I walked up to it took a few photos.

Free Palestine, at the tram stop outside Parliament House in Melbourne

Black-and-white photo of the sidewalk at a tram stop. Graffiti written in chalk on the wall of this sidewalk reads, “Free Palestine”.

Photo and video projects in progress on the steps of Parliament House

Photo of a large stonework building with tall pillars and a very set of stairs across the front. Several people are sitting and standing on these stairs. In the foreground of the photo are a bride, groom, and bridesmaid who are having their photos taken. Next to them is a film crew that has paused filming while the wedding photo group relocates to a different section of the building. In the background, at the top of the steps, in another photographer taking a photo of someone standing on the steps.

Talent and crew ready for the next take

Photo of an actress in a black, formal outfit and maroon high heels standing on the inclined driveway that leads up to the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne. In the foreground is a camera operator holding his camera on a self-stabilising gimbal at knee height as he prepares to video the talent as she walks up to the building. This photo is taken through the gap between the pillars of the stone banister that lines the driveway.

Actress ready for the next take

Photo of an actress in a black, formal outfit and maroon high heels standing on the inclined driveway that leads up to the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne. She is waiting for the director to call, “Action!” before walking up the driveway. This photo is taken through the gap between the pillars of the stone banister that lines the driveway.

Camera operator filming

Photo of a camera operator holding his camera on a self-stabilising gimbal at knee height as he shoots his video. This photo is taken through the gap between the pillars of a stone banister.

Escalator down to Town Hall Station in Melbourne

Black-and-white photo looking down at a bank of escalators leading to an underground train station. The escalators are empty, but the legs of one traveller are visible in the top-right corner of the photo.

Melbourne Pride March 2026, part 3

Finally, here my photos of some of the dogs at Melbourne’s Midsumma Pride March 2026 :)

Tiny puppy

Photo of a tiny, tan-and-white puppy straining on a leash in a grassy field. The puppy is only slightly taller than the ankle of the person it is standing next to. A small Progress Pride flag has been attached to its leash.

Dog playing fetch

Photo of a medium-sized, brown-and-white dog wearing a baseball cap. The dog is walking across a grassy field as it carries a stick back to its owner.

Fluffy white dog

Photo of a small, fluffy, white dog with lots of pride paraphernalia attached to it. The dog is being walked on a lead across a grassy field.

Fluffy white assistance dog

Photo of a small, fluffy, white dog wearing an assistance-dog harness and a poofy, colourful skirt. A rainbow pride flag has been attached to the dog's harness. The dog is being walked on a blue leash that has an “assistance dog” label on it. The dog and its owner are walking across a grassy field.

Pride noodle

Photo of a greyhound dog wearing a rainbow-coloured sweater is being walked on a yellow leash across a grassy field before Melbourne Pride March 2026.

Fluffy backpack dog

Photo of a fluffy, white, medium-sized dog in a backpack. The backpack is being work by a man in a bright orange t-shirt with the Commission for Children and Young People logo on it. The man has a Progress Pride flag sticker on his cheek.

Fluffy white dog in a backpack

Photo of a fluffy, white, medium-sized dog in a backpack. The backpack is worn by a man in a bright orange t-shirt. Next to the man is a woman wearing a rainbow-heart-themed tie-dye t-shirt, with rainbow paint on her cheek and a rainbow hair tie.

Enjoying the event from a distance

Photo of a woman and her large, white dog sitting calmly in a children's play area close to the start of Melbourne Pride March 2026. The dog is looking off-camera at the crowd of people preparing to march.

Melbourne Pride March 2026, part 2

Here are my photos of some of the marchers at Melbourne’s Midsummer Pride March 2026.

The kids are alright

Photo of dozens of teenagers holding pride signs getting ready to march at Melbourne Pride 2026. Signs include, “Bi, shy & ready to cry”, “Non-binary & proud”, and “Lesbians are lovely”.

This is pride at work

Photo of a placard being held by employees from Seek as they march at Melbourne Pride 2026. The placard reads, in bright-pink, all-caps lettering, “this is pride at work”.

RACV Pilot Service car

Photo of a bright yellow 1967 Morris Mini Deluxe car with “RACV Pilot Service” painted on it. The car is being driven along the Melbourne Pride March route by a woman in a bright pink t-shirt and a rainbow-coloured feather boa around her neck. A woman in the passenger seat, who is wearing a bright blue t-shirt, is smiling a she looks straight at the photographer taking this photo.

All-sparkly

Photo of two women in red and purple sparkly, strappy dresses and rainbow-coloured headpieces marching at Melbourne Pride March 2026.

Rainbow earrings

Photo of a woman smiling while marching at Melbourne Pride March 2026. The woman is wearing a blue RACV t-shirt and rainbow earrings.

Melbourne Pride March 2026, part 1

I didn’t spend as much at time as I wanted at this year’s Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne, but I did get a few good photos.

There are my general photos and photos of some of the kids there. Coming up after this are my photos of marchers and dogs :)

From Paris to Melbourne

Zoomed-in photo of a man wearing rainbow coloured sneakers and rainbow coloured socks with an outline of the Eiffel Tower on them. The man is standing in a grassy field alongside other people and a black-and-white dog.

Kinetic’s Pride Bus

Photo of a man wearing a rainbow jacket attaching a rainbow flag to a city bus that's been painted in rainbow colours. A heart shaped sign attached to the front windscreen reads, “You are loved”.

Riding along

Photo of a young girl in pink-and-blue clothes, with long, light-pink coloured hair extensions in two braids, riding on the shoulders of a person walking through the crown at Melbourne Pride 2026. Slightly out of focus, and in the background on the photo, is a large Progress Pride flag.

Having an important conversation

Photo of two toddlers sitting near a crowd of people who are preparing to march at Melbourne Pride 2026. One of the girls is pointing her finger at something while explaining something to the other girl. A slightly older boy who is walking nearby is looking at this exchange with a smile on his face.

Unicorn toddler

Photo of a small child sitting in a stroller while wearing a rainbow-coloured unicorn-horn headband.

Stepping up to take a photo

Photo of a young man in a purple t-shirt standing on something so he can raise himself well above the spectators and supporters lining the Melbourne Pride March route. The man has a phone in his hand is taking a photo or video of the group that is marching by.

Cleaning up after the crowds

Photo of a man in the section of a large, grassy, sports field that is now empty of people. The man is wearing a high-visibility vest and blue, plastic gloves. He is picking up fallen bits of pride-march costumes and is packing them into a very large garbage back. In the far background are marchers who have not yet started marching at Melbourne Pride March 2026.

It is cool to see how much I’ve improved as a photographer since 2023 (part 1, part 2), which is when I last took my mirrorless camera (Fujifilm X-S10) to Pride to take photos.

Because I got almost everything right in-camera, this year’s photos are brighter and cleaner, and I’ve had to do far less cropping and post-processing on them.

Also, because I now know how to use my camera’s burst modes properly, this year I missed far fewer “moments” and expressions that I wanted to capture.

The difference in skill is even more stark when you look back at the photos I took in 2020 (with my Google Pixel 3XL phone) or, heck, my photos from as far back as 2010 (with my Canon IXUS 80 IS). Though to see those 2010 photos you’ll have to scroll to the bottom of my ‘Melbourne Pride March’ album of Flickr.

So yay for experience and, of course, better cameras and lenses!

[Photo walk] Little Collins Street, Melbourne #1

It’s been a while since I did a photo walk in the city, so today I grabbed my trusty 40mm prime lens and walked a few blocks down Little Collins Street.

It was a hot, sunny, 30 degree day, but it was quite pleasant in the shade. And not only did I get a couple of decent photos, I also got to check out a half-assembled film set, which was fun :)

Fonz electric motorcycle parked in the corner on Little Collins Street

Photo of a dark green, classic Italian style, electric motorcycle parked on the pavement outside a building.

Things are looking bright for this Fonz electric motorcycle

Photo of a dark green, classic Italian style, electric motorcycle parked on the pavement outside a building. The font of the motorcycle is in shadow of the building, but the back is brightly lit by the sun.

After-hours at Five Points Cafe on Little Collins Street

Photo through the shop window of a stack of paper coffee cups stacked neatly next to a coffee machine in a cafe. The ‘Five Points’ wordmark is stamped on each coffee cup.

Ready for the night shoot with this lantern soft box mounted on a crane

Photo looking up at a powerful cinema light mounted on a crane. The light is covered by a large, lantern-shaped soft box, which is a box made out of white cloth that softens the light that's coming from the LED bulbs.

I don’t know which movie is being filmed here, but I do know what city Melbourne is standing in for today

Photo of a white Ford sedan parked on the side of a narrow city road in Melbourne, Australia that will eventually become a film set. An orange crane with cinema lights mounted on top of it is parked behind this car. There are lights on top of this car that identify it as an American police vehicle. Blue stickers pasted on the car read, “NYPD Police”.

Australian Open 2026

Unlike last year’s Australian Open tennis tournament – during which there was a thunderstorm – this year’s tournament featured two heatwaves.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We were there during the second of those heatwaves, but we took good care of ourselves :)

Here are my photos from this year’s tournament.

Our 2026 annual Australian Open selfie

Selfie of a man and a woman sitting outside a tennis complex on a sunny day. The man is wearing a black t-shirt and glasses; the woman is wearing a black sleeveless top and sunglasses. They are both wearing straw hats.

Lots of shaded seating at ANZ Arena

Wide-angle photo of an outdoor tennis court at a tennis tournament. The tennis court has seating all around, and shading has been erected so that almost all the seats are in the shade. The blue-coloured tennis court is empty because the next scheduled match has not yet started.

Hanyu Guo serving in her round 2 women’s doubles match

Photo of professional tennis player Hanyu Guo (China) in the air while in the middle of her tennis serve. The players are playing in a tennis court with a hard, blue coloured surface.

Australian supporters at Australian Open 2026

Photo of five women sitting in a row in the stands of a tennis court during a tournament. They are all wearing identical, patterned green-and-yellow tops as well as green straw hats with a yellow tennis ball affixed to the top.

View of Rod Laver Arena from ANZ Arena

Photo of the signage at the top of the Rod Laver Arena tennis court, as seem from the stands of a nearby outdoor tennis court.

Ball kid running to grab a tennis ball

Photo of a ball kid in blue shorts, a blue shirt, and a blue hat stopping his run across a blue-coloured tennis court as he approaches a tennis ball lying on the ground.

Ball kid running back having grabbed a tennis ball

Photo of a ball kid in blue shorts, a blue shirt, and a blue hat running back across a blue-coloured tennis court after he has retrieved the tennis ball that was lying on the ground.

Ball kid passing tennis balls across the court

Photo of a ball kid in blue shorts, a blue shirt, and a blue hat rolling tennis balls across a blue-coloured tennis court to another ball kid that’s off-camera.

Ball kid holding up a tennis ball for the serving tennis player

Photo of a ball kid holding up a tennis ball in case the serving tennis player wants another ball. Only the top of the ball kid’s hat at the ball kid’s arm are visible, with the rest being blocked from view by the wall of the tennis court.

Talia Gibson’s ball toss

Photo of professional tennis player Talia Gibson (Australia) tossing a tennis ball in the air at the start of her serve during a tennis match.

Talia Gibson ready to strike the ball

Photo of professional tennis player Talia Gibson (Australia) mid-swing as she prepares to strike a tennis ball during her women’s doubles match.

Sara Errani winning the point / everyone going in a different direction

Photo of professional tennis player Sara Errani (Italy) as she hits a ball into the opposing court during a tennis match.

Ball kid waiting for Kimbery Birrell to serve

Photo of a ball kid waiting by the side of the net at a tennis tournament. In the background of the photo professional tennis player Kimbery Birrell (Australia) prepares to serve.

A fun convergence around the monospace typeface aesthetic

Let’s talk about monospaced typefaces.

Who still uses monospace typefaces?

One of the only places normies will read anything in a monospaced typeface these days is when they buy something from a store and they get a long paper receipt from a point-of-sale machine (aka cash register).

Screenshot of a digital receipt from Australian retailer JB Hi-Fi for a Microsoft Surface laptop and pen. The typeface used here is Courier.

There are, however, two groups of people who still frequently use monospace typefaces.

Computer nerds

The first group is software programmers and computer nerds like me.

We read and write things in plain text files (software code, system configurations, etc) and we use our computer’s command line all the time, both of which use a monospace typeface by default.

Screenshot of a computer’s command line showing the list of files in a directory (aka folder). The typeface used here is Hack.

Film nerds

The second group is folks who work in the film and television industry, as well as film nerds like me.

We work with – or, in my case, just read – screenplays all the time, and virtually all of those are written in a monospace typeface. (At least all the screenplays written in the Latin script.)

The font used in these screenplays is almost always 12pt Courier, Courier Prime (which was designed specifically for screenplays), or Courier Sans Mono.

Screenshot of the screenplay to the film ‘Sinners’ by Ryan Coogler. Source: SimplyScripts. The typeface used here is Courier.

Old-school cool

Even though most of us rarely use monospace typefaces in our daily lives, the impact that geekdom and filmdom have had on popular culture means that there’s an “old-school cool” aesthetic about using monospace typefaces.

Of course this is also partly because Courier was the typeface used by IBM Selectric typewriters, and that was the typewriter of choice for many famous authors and journalists from the 1960s onwards.

‘Thomson and his typewriter’ (Source). Photo of American author and journalist Hunter S. Thomson standing calf-deep in snow outside his cabin in Aspen, Colorado, USA in 1989. Thomson is wearing blue jeans, a blue jacket, and a brown fedora hat. He is pointing a silver handgun at beige coloured IBM Selectric typewriter lying on the snow a short distance away from him.

All that to say there are still plenty of monospace typefaces being designed and published every year. And some techie/nerdy websites and blogs also continue to use monospace typefaces for their body text and headings – like Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic, which uses your browser/computer’s default monospace typeface in all its text elements.

A convergence of aesthetics

This brings me to the fun convergence that is the topic of this post, where we have two type designers who approached the monospace-typeface aesthetic from opposite directions.

A monospaced typeface with a proportional typeface aesthetic

In 2021, Owen Earl from indestructable type* published the Drafting* Mono typeface.

This monospace typeface is a gloriously “weird, wildly inconsistent” serif/sans-serif hybrid that “[imitates] the spirit of typewriters, not the literal look”.

Basically, this is a typewriter-inspired, monospaced typeface that has the aesthetic of proportional typefaces (aka variable-width typefaces).

Meaning this typeface functions like a monospace typeface but reads like the regular serif/sans-serif typefaces we’re used to seeing every day.

Graphic showing the first two paragraphs of Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Carol set in the Courier Prime and Drafting* Mono typefaces.

A proportional typeface with a monospaced aesthetic

In 2024, Pedro Arilla from Arillatype.Studio published the At Textual typeface.

This is a typeface that “draws inspiration from the texture, readability, and honest utilitarianism of monospaced fonts”.

Basically, this is a proportional typeface that has the aesthetic of monospaced typefaces.

Meaning this typeface functions like a proportional typeface, but reads like the monospace typefaces you see in text files and film scripts.

Graphic showing the first two paragraphs of Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Carol set in the Courier Prime and At Textual typefaces.

Converging around an aesthetic

I love that the two designers started from completely opposite directions (and largely remained within their respective lanes) but they both ended up converging around the idea that the monospace typeface aesthetic is cool, even in body text applications, and that they should do something about it :)

Want a different typewriter aesthetic?

By the way, if you’re after a monospace typewriter aesthetic but Courier and Drafting* Mono are too plain and neutral for you, check out Clack by Matthew Hinders-Anderson.

Graphic showing the phrase “Rabbit hole” set in the Courier Prime, Drafting* Mono, At Textual, and Clack typefaces. The text set Courier Prime is flagged as being standard and neutral; the text set in Drafting* Mono is flagged as being stylish and quirky; the text set in At Textual is flagged as being stylish and proportionally-spaced; and the text set in Clack (Medium) is flagged as being elegant.

Clack is a lovely interpretation of the typefaces found on IBM Selectric typewriters (ie Courier and its variations) and is great for reading and writing text. It has weights that range from thin to black, and it has italics (which not all typewriter-inspired typefaces have, fyi) so it has a super versatile set of fonts as well.

Graphic showing the first two paragraphs of Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Carol set in the Courier Prime and Clack typefaces.

The only catch with all of Hinders-Anderson’s typefaces is that, while they’re free for anyone to use, they can only be used for non-commercial purposes.

This is why, for example, design agency Forge could use Hinders-Anderson’s Union Gothic typeface for the 2025 ‘Zohran for NYC’ campaign, but no brand can use that typeface for any commercial purpose – which I think is really cool :)

Screenshot from the Zohran for NYC campaign website showing headings set in the Union Gothic sans serif typeface.

Favourite monospace typefaces

That’s all I have to say about monospace typefaces today.

Though, if you want, you can check out my December 2025 list of favourite typefaces in which I include my favourite monospace typefaces towards the end.

Do you have any favourite monospaced typefaces? I’d love to know what they are. Especially the ones you use for writing text, not just code.

Cool type pairings on the web, part 3

Time for another instalment of my cool type-pairing series, this one featuring a range of online publications.

Ars Technica

You can build an excellent website using just free typefaces if you pair them well, which is what Ars Technica has done.

This site uses Source Sans 3 (Adobe, Paul D Hunt) for body text, Faustina (Omnibus-Type) for headings, and Exo 2 (Natanael Gama) for bylines and metadata. All of which help make this website look modern and serious/authoritative.

Screenshot from the Ars Technica website of an article titled, “A quirky guide to myths and lore based in actual science”.

Source Sans 3 and Faustina are both on my most recent (Dec 2025) favourite typefaces list, by the way :)

Semafor

While Ars Technica’s style is that of a modern, web-only publication, Semafor’s style is very classic newspaper/magazine, though also one that’s web-only. In fact, its two main typefaces were both originally designed for magazines that were published by the New York Times.

This website uses Lyon Text (Commercial Type) for body text and Feature Flat Display (Commercial Type) for its headings. Oh, and it uses good old Helvetica for its metadata, captions, menus, etc.

Screenshot from the Semafor website of an article titled, “Semafor Tech’s predictions for 2026”.

Hodinkee

Sticking with websites that use modernised classic typography, let’s look at Hodinkee.

Hodinkee uses mostly the Portrait typeface family (Commercial Type): Portrait Text for body text, Portrait Regular for headings, and Portrait Inline Sans for the article category (ie the “Essays” that’s in all-caps in the screenshot below). Portrait is a minimalist, screen-friendly interpretation of French Renaissance typefaces like Garamond.

The site also uses Brown (Shinntype) for bylines and metadata and Proxima Nova (Mark Simonson) for the headings and metadata in the comments section.

Screenshot from the Hodinkee website of an article titled, “An Exciting 2026 And A Push For More In 2026”.

Harvard Business Review

Let’s end on a website that uses two of my favourite typefaces, the website in question being the venerable Harvard Business Review (HBR).

HBR’s website uses Tiempos Text (Klim Type Foundry) for body text and GT America (Grilli Type) for headings and everything else (metadata, menus, captions, etc).

Screenshot from the Harvard Business Review website of an article titled, “Don’t Underestimate the Value of Professional Friendships”.

Tiempos Text is a modernisation of typefaces like Plantin and Times (the Linotype interpretation of Times New Roman that’s available on macOS). Times New Roman itself is based on Plantin.

According to its designers, GT America is “the missing bridge between 19th century American Gothics and 20th century European Neo-Grotesk typefaces” – meaning it takes the best design features from American typefaces like Franklin Gothic and European typefaces like Helvetica and Univers.

Both Tiempos Text and GT America are really cool. And also really expensive. <sigh>

What’s next?

After focusing on large publications in this instalment, I think I’ll focus on personal blogs in my next cool type-pairing post.

Avenir alternatives

Two of my all-time favourite sans serif typefaces are Frutiger and Avenir, both of which were created by Adrian Frutiger.

I’ve already written an extensive post about my recommended Frutiger alternatives, but here’s a quick run-down of my favourite Avenir alternatives.

Why an alternative?

Two reasons.

Avenir is expensive!

A single-user, desktop-only licence to Avenir Next costs AU$1,520.

So if you don’t already have access to Avenir through some other means, then you’ll want a free or more affordable alternative.

Of course if you’re a macOS user, then this reason won’t apply to you since you already have all of Avenir and Avenir Next pre-installed in your operating system.

Regular weight may be too light for text

If you only have access to Avenir through a Microsoft 365 subscription, though, this second reason might apply to you.

That’s because the Avenir fonts included with the Microsoft Office suite are:

  • Avenir Next Light + Italic

  • Avenir Next Regular + Italic

  • Avenir Next Demi Bold + Italic

  • Avenir Next Bold + Italic

The problem with this is that the Regular weight of Avenir is quite light, so if you’re using it as a text font – especially at smaller sizes – it’s not the easiest to read on screens.

Compare the text below set in Avenir Next Regular (on the left) and Helvetica Neue Regular (on the right). The text on the left does look a little more elegant, yes – since lighter typefaces tend to look more elegant anyway – but the text on the right is easier to read.

macOS users don’t have this problem because they can just use the Medium weight of Avenir Next instead – like in the graphic below where both columns are easily readable.

Paid alternatives

My favourite paid alternatives to Avenir are Hint from Paratype and Sailec from Type Dynamic.

Noah from Fontfabric is also good but, like Avenir, its Regular weight is a little light.

None of these are copies of the Avenir, of course, so you won’t get all its design quirks – like the horizontal tail of the uppercase ‘Q’ – but they all have a vibe that’s similar to Avenir’s.

Hint

Hint doesn’t have the 1920s luxury feel of Avenir (with its tall and narrow letterforms) but it does have a more “quiet luxury” feel about it.

Sailec

Sailec is billed as a “totally neutral” typeface, but it has much more style than Helvetica, for example, and is a good, albeit somewhat muted, alternative to Avenir.

Free alternatives

My favourite free alternatives to Avenir are Figtree from Eric Kennedy and Montserrat from Julieta Ulanovsky and others.

A more neutral, but still somewhat elegant, alternative is Poppins from Indian Type Foundry.

Of these, Montserrat has the most interesting uppercase ‘Q’ but I think Figtree is a better overall alternative for use on screens.

Figtree

According to its designer, Figtree’s vibe walks the line between “simplicity and friendliness” so it doesn’t quite have the elegant vibe you get from Avenir. But because many of its its letterforms are so similar to Avenir’s, it does work as a decent alternative.

It’s probably more accurate to say that Figtree is a good alternative to Frutiger, by the way – and perhaps a version of Frutiger that leans more towards the elegance of Avenir.

Montserrat

Montserrat has a stylish/elegant vibe, but its letterforms are both larger and wider than Avenir’s – which makes sense, given Montserrat’s inspiration came from old posters and signs in the Montserrat neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. Still, it’s a pretty decent alternative to Avenir.

Final thoughts

I love Avenir and use it whenever I can (eg in presentations and in printed letters), but if I want an elegant typeface for body text font use on screens, then Hint is what I end up using most of the time.

Arial and Helvetica alternatives

I created a video [YouTube, 14:35min] about the typefaces I recommend when people tell me they’re bored of (usually) Arial and they want me to suggest a more interesting font that still looks professional.

However, I hate it when content is video-locked (ie available only in video format) so here are the key bits from that video in text form.

Why use something different?

There are two reasons you could be looking for an alternative to Arial and Helvetica:

  1. Same-same: You want a typeface that’s very similar to Arial and Helvetica. Maybe because you prefer a typeface with an open licence or one with a less expensive and less restrictive licence. Or maybe you just don’t have access to Arial and Helvetica and you want to use a drop-in replacement.

  2. Different: You want something slightly different from Arial and Helvetica, though you still want this typeface to have an overall neutral-ish vibe.

I have recommendations for you either way.

Similar to Arial and Helvetica

There are a lot of typefaces that are very similar to Arial and Helvetica, but these are the ones I usually recommend.

My free favourites

These are my two free recommendations:

I actually prefer Arimo over Arial for everyday use because I think Arimo looks better on screens: it has a slightly taller x-height, more open apertures, and a little more character overall. Check out the The Register website to see how good Arimo can look on a text-heavy website.

I also prefer Nimbus Sans over Helvetica because a commercial licence to Helvetica (ie not just the personal licence you get with macOS) is quite expensive.

Before you ask, I’m not a huge fan of Liberation Sans (from Red Hat) so that’s not a typeface I’d recommend.

My paid favourites

These are my four paid recommendations [1]:

Slightly different from Arial and Helvetica

For those of you who skipped my video on this topic [YouTube, 14:35min] these are the not-so-neutral, sans serif typefaces I recommend:

My free favourites

These are my four free recommendations:

Officer Sans was designed to be metrically compatible with Arial and Helvetica and I use this my default spreadsheet font.

When I need to write text in a neutral-ish, sans serif typeface, though – like a formal letter – its usually a toss-up between Public Sans and Officer Sans. [2]

My paid favourites

These are my four paid recommendations [1]:

If you want to know why I recommend these typefaces out of all the other ones that out there, you should watch my video.

Honourable mentions

I also have two honourable mentions:

Roboto is used everywhere on the web but I don’t see it being used very often in documents and presentations, so this might be an interesting alternative to consider.

I love Unica as a typeface, but I much prefer Lineto’s Unica77 over Linotype’s Neue Haas Unica (which, as it happens, I do have a licence to). Unfortunately, Unica77 is very expensive. That’s why I only have it under a trial licence and why it’s an honourable mention and not a full-on recommendation. <sigh>

Any others?

Do you have a go-to neutral sans serif typeface that you’d recommend to others? Let me know.

FYI, the text used in the comparison-graphics above is from the opening sentences of The Rook by Daniel O’Malley.

[1] Whenever possible, I recommend typefaces from only indepenedent, interesting, or otherwise notable type foundries.

[2] As its designer, Dan Williams, mentioned in an interview, Public Sans pairs really well with Georgia (or with Gelasio, which is the Google Fonts alternative to Georgia).

[Photo walk] Around the northern suburbs of Melbourne, part 9

Nadia and I have been enjoying our time off during the year-end break, going on walks around various parts of the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

Nadia at a community football pitch

Close-up photo of the back and side of a woman’s head and shoulders. The woman is wearing a black hoodie and a cyan 2020 ICC Cricket World Cup cap. Out of focus, in the background of the photo, is a neighbourhood football pitch.

Nadia looking out over a community football pitch

Photo of the back and side of a woman’s head and shoulders. The woman is wearing a black hoodie and a cyan 2020 ICC Cricket World Cup cap. Out of focus, in the background of the photo, is a neighbourhood football pitch.

Plane spotter waiting patiently in the Essendon Fields Airport flight path

Photo of the valley of a suburban river with a rail bridge crossing over it. A plane spotter is leaning against a wire fence that runs down the decline of the valley. A camera mounted on a tripod in set up in front of him.

Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge

Photo of a railway viaduct built across a creek’s valley and flood plain. The viaduct comprises steel girders supported by steel-framed towers. Behind the viaduct is the residential suburb of Gowanbrae.

Top of a Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge tower

Photo of the top of a steel-frame tower that is supporting a rain bridge, also built out of steel girders.

Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge on a bright day

Photo of a railway viaduct built across a creek’s valley and flood plain. The viaduct comprises steel girders supported by steel-framed towers. Behind the viaduct is the residential suburb of Gowanbrae.

Looking up at the Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge

Photo of a railway viaduct built across a creek’s valley and flood plain. The viaduct comprises steel girders supported by steel-framed towers.

Looking up along a tower of the Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge

Photo looking up along the length of a steel-frame tower that is supporting a rain bridge, also built out of steel girders.

Police helicopter over Strathmore Heights

Photo looking up at a blue-and-white Victoria Police helicopter hovering in the air above a residential suburb. Several tree branches and leaves can be seen in the foreground of the photo.

Walking her dog along Moonee Ponds Creek Trail

Photo of a woman walking a black dog along a trail that runs alongside a suburban river.

The Glenroy side of the Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge

Photo looking up, along an incline, at a railway viaduct built across a creek’s valley and flood plain. The viaduct comprises steel girders supported by steel-framed towers.

Riding a toy sled down a walking path

Photo of a young boy riding a wheeled children’s sled down a cemented walking/cycling path that descends into a suburban valley.

About to fall off a toy sled because he was going too fast

Photo of a young boy riding a wheeled children’s sled down a cemented walking/cycling path that descends into a suburban valley. The boy is leaning hard to one side so that he can follow the sharp curve of the path.

Walking path up Kingsford Smith Ulm Reserve

Photo of a walking/cycling path that goes up a suburban valley. The path is surrounded by trees on both sides. In the background of the photo a railway bridge can be seen crossing the valley.

Walking path at Kingsford Smith Ulm Reserve

Photo of a walking/cycling path that goes up a suburban valley. The path is surrounded by grass and trees. By the side of the path is a hairpin-turn sign for cyclists. In the background of the photo a railway bridge can be seen crossing the valley.

Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge from Kingsford Smith Ulm Reserve

Photo of a railway viaduct built across a creek’s valley and flood plain, which is the Kingsford Smith Ulm Reserve. The viaduct comprises steel girders supported by steel-framed towers. Behind the viaduct is the residential suburb of Gowanbrae.

Nadia keeping an eye on her surroundings as she takes a photo

Photo of the back of a woman holding up her smartphone to take a photo. The woman is looking to her left to make sure she isn’t in the path of a cyclist. Her long, black hair is in a ponytail and she is wearing a brown sweatshirt and a cyan 2020 ICC Cricket World Cup cap. In front of her are the trees and bushes growing along the side of a suburban valley.

Straight stretch of walking path at Kingsford Smith Ulm Reserve

Low-angle photo of a walking/cycling path that goes up a suburban valley. At the end of this long stretch of path is a hairpin-turn sign for cyclists.

Turtles in a large pond

Photo of several brown turtles swimming along the banks of a large pond.

Turtle poking its head out of a pond

Photo of a brown turtle swimming in a pond, with its head poking out of the water.

Two turtles in a pond

Photo of two brown turtles swimming in a pond, one with its head poking out of the water and the other swimming completely underwater.

My favourite typefaces (December 2025)

[NOTE: The most up-to-date version of this list is always on the ‘Typography’ page.]

The end of the year is a good time for me to update my list of favourite typefaces.

Since my last update in December 2024, I have:

As a reminder, the typefaces below are grouped by their level of formality (‘How I think about typefaces’) and are sorted in decreasing order of versatility (ie how easy they are to use in different types of projects).

Serif typefaces

Sans serif typefaces

Slab serif typefaces

Monospace typefaces

Typeface wish list (realistic)

What are your favourite or go-to typefaces? I’d love to know.

[Photo walk] Walking around the city and suburbs, part 2

Here are some photos I took in the southern, eastern, and northern suburbs of Melbourne over the last couple of weeks.

Someone had a good night last night in St Kilda, Melbourne

Photo of an almost completely empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey lying on a stone wall around a public park in a suburb of Melbourne.

Arrow “head” mailbox and newspaper slot

Photo of a triangular, bare metal mailbox outside a house. The mailbox looks like a creature’s head, complete with holes for eyes and the mail slot as its mouth.

Grumpy arrow “head” mailbox and newspaper slot

Photo of a triangular, bare metal mailbox outside a house. The mailbox looks like a creature’s head, complete with holes for eyes and the mail slot as its mouth.

Train waiting at the elevated Murrumbeena railway station

Photo looking up, through the leaf-filled branches of a tree, to an elevated train track and train station platform. A blue, silver, and yellow coloured train has stopped at this platform.

Underneath the elevated Murrumbeena railway station

Photo looking down the length of a pair of elevated train tracks being held up by massive concrete pillars. This area under the tracks is a parking lot, which is almost full of parked cars.

Facilities for humans and their dogs at Murrumbeena railway station

Photo of a stone bench around next to some bushes underneath an elevated train station. Next to the bench is a metal drinking-water fountain. On the floor, next to the fountain, is a bright blue water bowl for dogs.

Part of the Frogtopia mural by Anthony Breslin next to Murrumbeena railway station

Photo of a vibrantly coloured mural showing fantastical characters that resemble frogs, flies, and other insects. These characters are taken from Anthony Breslin’s children's book Brezania.

Part of the Frogtopia mural by Anthony Breslin next to Murrumbeena railway station

Photo of a vibrantly coloured mural showing fantastical characters that resemble frogs, flies, and other insects. These characters are taken from Anthony Breslin’s children's book Brezania.

Traffic light on Murrumbeena Road, directly underneath Murrumbeena railway station

Photo looking straight up along the pole of a traffic light that’s located underneath an elevated railway station.

Bench outside Murrumbeena railway station

Photo taken from the seat level of an outdoor bench at the intersection of two suburban streets.

Bank of Australia Post post office boxes

Black-and-white photo of over a dozen post office boxes, each with an embossed Australia Post logo, a keyhole, and a PO box number.

Had a collision, but didn't need to call the cops?

Photo of a sticker on the back of a sign that's on a bicycle path. This bicycle path is about to cross a suburban road. The sticker contains and QR code and text that reads, “Had a collision, but didn’t need to call the cops? Report it to Merri-bek Council! It takes 1 minute and helps identify hot spots. Scan me.”

Share the love of gardening

Photo of a two large plastic bottles filled with a dark liquid and a few small plants in plastic pots placed on top of a residential wall. A hand painted sign on what looks like a wooden chopping board reads, “Share the love of Gardening. Please take”, followed by a smiley face.

[Video] Bored of Arial and Helvetica? Try these fonts instead

Are you, like me, are bored of using the default, neutral, sans serif typefaces that came preinstalled with your word processor?

I made a video about the four free and four paid alternative typefaces I recommend you use instead.

FYI, I use Public Sans all the time and Officer Sans is my default spreadsheet font.

Not quite on a roll

This is now my third typography explainer video. The long gap between the first two videos and this one is because first I got struck down by post-viral fatigue and then life and work both got super busy. Oh well.

Video transcript

Links and references, in order of appearance

Font downloads and purchases

Icons and photos

Funny and sad comments on my content

Two recent comments on my online content made me laugh out loud and then feel a little sad about the state of the world. After that I shrugged and moved on my with my life, though I did want to document these comments here so I could have a little chuckle about them in the future as well.

Undo the woke-ness!

A little over a year ago I published a video on YouTube in which I urged people to stop using the Times New Roman typeface and, instead, use a serif typeface that was designed to work well on modern, high-resolution screens.

Screenshot of a YouTube video titled, ‘Stop using Times New Roman’.

This video performed well, receiving over 4,000 views on YouTube, and it got lots of good comments too.

But a couple of days ago a user named @DoodiePunk posted this comment under that video:

Replacing Times New Roman with Calibri was the biggest fail and I’m glad the U.S. government reverted its decision.

Screenshot of a comment under a YouTube video from a user named DoodiePunk that reads, “Replacing Times New Roman with Calibri was the biggest fail and I’m glad the U.S. government reverted its decision.”

This confused me because, at no point in my video had I talked about Calibri as an alternative to Times New Roman and I certainly hadn’t mentioned the United States Government.

It was only later, when I caught up on the day’s news, that I understood what this comment was referencing:

Screenshot from the ABC News Australia website with the headline, “Marco Rubio orders US State Department to revert to Times New Roman font, calling Calibri adoption ‘wasteful’”.

The ABC summarised this news article as follows:

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says his predecessor’s switch to Calibri for official documents had been “another wasteful DEIA program” and the font was too informal.

In 2023, the State Department said Calibri was a more accessible font for people with disabilities.

The Trump administration has been eradicating federal programs promoting diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.

I’m not sure how @DoodiePunk got to my video about Times New Roman. Most likely they:

  • saw some other YouTube video about this news item and then got recommended my video at the end of it,

  • saw that my video was titled ‘Stop using Times New Roman’,

  • didn’t watch my video, but assumed I was supportive of the current US administration’s anti-DEI initiatives, and

  • felt the need to share their thoughts with me.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Which came first?

About a month ago I published a post about an aggressive business development person from Monotype who tried to get my employer to purchase font licences we didn’t actually need to buy.

This post was featured on the front page of Hacker News and, as a result, has received over 10,000 views so far.

One of the comments on Hacker News from a user named @liquidise really cracked me up:

I’m not typically sensitive to AI-sounding text but those image captions leave me understanding others’ issues with it.

Screenshot of a comment from user liquidise that reads, “I’m not typically sensitive to AI-sounding text but those image captions leave me understanding others’ issues with it.” A reply to this comment from user hibbelig reads, “It sounded like something a screen reader would say to help visually impaired visitors. But I don’t actually have a clue what screen readers do say.”

I found this comment really funny because @liquidise has it completely the other way around: large language models learned how to write from people who describe things well!

After I stopped chuckling, I found that I was quite chuffed about what @liquidise had said. Without realising it, they’d basically said I wrote good, neutral, descriptive captions for all the images I’d included in my blog post. Yay!

Sad about the state of the world

While I was briefly saddened by the polarisation and lack of knowledge inadvertently expressed by @DoodiePunk and @liquidise, I’m happier to just focus on the humour of the situation and move on my with my life. Which is what I’ll do now.

But if you want more…

Two quick things before I go, though.

How to write good image descriptions

Here’s an excellent infographic on how to write good alt text for all your digital images. This was created by the UK digital agency Puzzle for its 2022 #AccessAlt campaign.

An infographic titled “How To Write Alt Text” featuring a photo of a capybara in a pool of water with a yellow-coloured yuzu balanced on top of its head. Parts of alt text are divided by color: identify who, expression, description, colour, and interesting features. The finished image description reads, “A capybara looking relaxed in a hot spa. Yellow yuzu fruits are floating in the water, and one is balanced on the top of the capybara’s head.”

This infographic has made its way around Mastodon several times, but it was originally referenced and archived by Veronica Lewis on her website.

Not understanding formal writing or how large language models work

Author and photographer Marcus Olang’ wrote an excellent edition of his newsletter titled, ‘I’m Kenyan. I Don’t Write Like ChatGPT. ChatGPT Writes Like Me.’

It was reading Marcus’s piece that prompted me to write this post today.

If you are not clear about why generative artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT (that are trained using large language models) generate text the way they do, you should read this article.

Cool type pairings on the web, part 2

This is the second post in my cool type-pairing series in which I’ll be sharing, well, the cool typeface pairings I see on the web.

NewsBlur

The site on which I read the most amount of text is NewsBlur, the news reader/feed aggregator that I switched to when Google Reader was unceremoniously killed off in 2013.

It was here that I first came across Whitney (Hoefler&Co), which to this day remains one of my all-time favourite typefaces. That’s the typeface I use on NewsBlur to read all my news feeds.

Screenshot from the NewsBlur website of an article titled, “How China cleaned up its air pollution - and what that meant for the climate”.

Whitney was originally created in the late 1990s for the Whitney Museum in New York, USA. Designed for both wayfinding and editorial uses (ie for physical signs and for using as body text), it draws from the functionality of Frutiger (another one of my all-time favourite typefaces) and the structure of various American gothics, such as News Gothic.

Rands in Repose

Speaking of typography from Hoefler&Co, Rands in Repose uses one of my favourite typographic pairings: Ideal Sans (Hoefler&Co) for body text and Sentinel (Hoefler&Co) for headings.

Screenshot from the Rands in Repose blog of a post titled, “The Loop”.

Ideal Sans is a fun typeface with almost no straight lines and very few symmetries across its design. Sentinel is a modern take on a classical slab serif typeface. The two work brilliantly together.

The Conversation

Moving away from expensive typefaces, let’s look at The Conversation since this website uses typefaces that are available for free under the SIL Open Font License.

This website uses Libre Baskerville (Impallari Type) for body text and Montserrat (Julieta Ulanovsky, Sol Matas, Juan Pablo del Peral, Jacques Le Bailly ) for headings. For everything else (byline, metadata, navigation, footer, etc) it uses your browser’s default sans serif font.

Screenshot from The Conversation website of an article titled, “How China cleaned up its air pollution - and what that meant for the climate”.

Libre Baskerville is an open-source, screen-optimised adaptation of the original 1775 Baskerville typeface. It looks authoritative, yet approachable. Montserrat is a geometric typeface by Julieta Ulanovsky that’s based on posters, signs, and windows from the historic Montserrat neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. Both typefaces are a little large and a little wide, and they work really well together.

ABC News

Finally let’s look at the ABC News (Australia) website which uses the bespoke typefaces ABC Sans Nova for its body text and ABC Serif for its headings – both designed by Australian Type Foundry.

Screenshot from the ABC News website of an article titled, “First Hike Project helps refugees experience hiking in Australia’s bushland for the first time”.

You can download these fonts from the ABC News GitHub instance. Since all of ABC News’ other GitHub work is available under the MIT licence, I suspect these fonts have been made available under that licence as well – though that isn’t spelled out on the download page itself.

The ABC superfamily of typefaces is friendly and easy to read on screens, and helps maintain the reputation of the most trusted news source in Australia.

Any suggestions?

Let me know if you have any favourite website typeface pairings. I’d love to check them out.

[Photo walk] Jim Stynes Bridge

Back on my go-to 40mm lens, I took these photos as I walked along the Jim Stynes Bridge on the Yarra River.

It was a hot, sunny day as I walked to my car after my team’s year-end lunch at the newly-opened 1 Hotel Melbourne.

Outdoor seating still-life

Photo of some metal-and-wood outdoor furniture that almost looks like a still-life painting. The photo shows a tall, narrow, black table with two tall, dark-green chairs arranged on either side of it.

Artistically arranged outdoor seating at 1 Hotel Melbourne

Photo of some metal-and-wood outdoor furniture that almost looks like a still-life painting. The furniture has been placed in the ‘Seafarers Event Space’ outside 1 Hotel Melbourne. This space consists of an outdoor wooden deck constructed around a historic, bare-concrete building. The furniture is a tall, narrow, black table with two tall, dark-green chairs arranged on either side of it.

Ladder and mooring bollard on the Yarra River

Black-and-white photo of a wide, urban river with a bridge running across it. Immediately in front of the photographer, along the near bank of the river, is a sturdy mooring bollard, next to which is a metal ladder leading down to the river level.

Jim Stynes Bridge running underneath the Charles Grimes Bridge on the Yarra River

Photo of a curved, wood-and-metal, pedestrian and cyclist bridge that runs along the length of an urban river. The walkway and cycle path along the river have been interrupted by a road bridge that spans the river. This pedestrian and cyclist bridge connects these interrupted paths via a curved section that goes below the road bridge.

On the Jim Stynes Bridge that runs under the Charles Grimes Bridge on the Yarra River

Photo of a cityscape taken from a pedestrian and cyclist bridge that runs below a road bridge that spans an urban river.

Foul ground below

Photo of a warning sign underneath a road bridge that spans a river. The sign under the bridge reads, “Danger, foul ground below” and shows two arrows pointing down into the water.

Walking and cycling along the Jim Stynes Bridge on the Yarra River

Black-and-white photo of a cyclist and pedestrian walking on a bridge underneath another bridge that spans an urban river.

[Photo walk] Along the Yarra River #6

I finally got the chance to use make the most of my new wide-angle lens when I walked along the Yarra River after work one afternoon.

Seating area outside Collins Square, Docklands

Photo of cafe/bar seating area outside a central business district/downtown building complex. There are several tall tables arranged in an outdoor courtyard, each with several stools and a large umbrella (currently tied down).

Spiral staircase at Melbourne Quarter, Docklands

Photo looking up through a spiral staircase leading to an upstairs pavilion constructed between a group of tall office buildings.

Looking through the spiral staircase at Melbourne Quarter, Docklands

Photo looking directly up through a spiral staircase leading to an upstairs pavilion that's been constructed between several tall office buildings. The side of one such building, with a large AMP logo on it, is visible through the spiral of the staircase.

Melbourne City Helipad on the Yarra River

Photo of a large, two-aircraft helipad floating on an urban river in the middle of a metropolitan city. The helipad is anchored to one bank of the river using thick, black, metal poles. A walkway connects the helipad to the bank of the river on which the photographer is standing.

Melbourne SEA LIFE Aquarium on a bright day

Black-and-white photo looking up at a large neon sign in the shape of two stylised fish. The sign is held above the top of a building via two tall poles. A logo on this aquarium building reads, “SEA LIFE”.

The birds of Enterprize Park are unbothered by the trains

Wide photo of a blue, yellow, and silver coloured train running along set of elevated train tracks. In the bottom half of the photo you can see a few dozen birds spread out across the grass of a public park.

Sticker on a pillar underneath Queen Street Bridge

Photo of a thick concrete pillar with a red-brick and yellow-plaster facade that's holding up a bridge. A round, black-and-white sticker pasted on this pillar reads, “In 1788 Queen St Bridge was a waterfall”.

In 1788 Queen St Bridge was a waterfall

Close-up photo of a thick concrete pillar with a red-brick and yellow-plaster facade that's holding up a bridge. A round, black-and-white sticker pasted on this pillar reads, “In 1788 Queen St Bridge was a waterfall”.

Queen Street Bridge on the Yarra River

Photo taken through some trees of a vehicle, tram, and pedestrian bridge that spans an urban river.

Underneath Sandridge Bridge on the Yarra River

Wide-angle photo taken under a wide pedestrian bridge that spans an urban river.

Cool type pairings on the web, part 1

As a typography nerd, I notice and then investigate almost all the typefaces I see on the websites I visit. And its not just the typefaces themselves that I pay attention to, I also note the typeface pairings that have been used: meaning the combination of fonts used for body text and headings. I also check to see if there’s any interesting use of typography in the other text elements (pull quotes, bylines, footers, etc).

This post is the first in an ongoing series in which I’ll share the cool font pairings I find online. I’m doing this because I want to (a) share cool stuff with others who might find this interesting and (b) build a type-pairing catalogue for my own future inspiration.

Though let me begin, rather self indulgently, with my own website :)

Insanity Works

This website’s current type pairing is Chaparral (Carol Twombly; Adobe) for body text and Myriad Condensed (Carol Twombly, Robert Slimbach; Adobe) for headings. I wrote in 2023 about how happy I was when the Adobe Fonts catalogue was added to Squarespace (the platform on which this website is hosted) because these two fonts became available for use.

Before then, I used the closest Google Fonts alternatives to those typefaces: Merriweather (Eben Sorkin; Sorkin Type, Google Fonts) for body text and Oswald (Vernon Adams, Kalapi Gajjar; Cyreal) for headings.

Two graphics showing text set in (1) Chaparral and Myriad Condensed and (2) Merriweather and Oswald. The text has the title, “Chapter 1: SOUL-EATER” and is from Naomi Novik’s book, ‘A Deadly Education’.

Chaparral is a hybrid serif/slab-serif typeface. I love how beautiful and graceful it is, even while it retains the friendliness and authoritativeness of its slab serif foundation. Myriad, which is reworking of Franklin/News Gothic, is an excellent combination of elegant, friendly, and authoritative. I think the two typefaces complement each other really well.

Merriweather and Oswald also complement each other nicely, though their vibe is more modern. Merriweather is a traditional typeface (with Garamond as its inspiration) that was adapted for use on screens. It is classic and elegant, but also an everyday workhorse. Oswald is based on Alternate Gothic (a lighter, narrower version of Franklin Gothic) and this slightly-condensed reworking was also designed to be used on screens.

Going back in time

If we go further back in this history of this website – between 2007 and 2012, which was before I switched to the Squarespace – I used Georgia (Matthew Carter; Microsoft) for both body text and headings.

And if we go all the way back to when I first created this site – so from 2004 to 2007, when default, web-safe fonts ruled the day – I had everything set in Verdana (Matthew Carter, Thomas Rickner; Microsoft).

Two graphics showing text set in Georgia and Verdana, respectively. The text has the title, “Chapter 1: SOUL-EATER” and is from Naomi Novik’s book, ‘A Deadly Education’.

Georgia and Verdana were designed to be screen-first typefaces, specifically typefaces that looked good on the lower-resolution computer screens that were prevalent at the time (ie the mid-1990s). They were designed as serif/sans-serif companions to each other and both are solid, authoritative, and highly-readable typefaces.

Al Jazeera

Speaking of Georgia, a website that uses this typeface effectively is Al Jazeera.

The use of Georgia (Microsoft) for body text and Roboto (Google Fonts) for headings gives the Al Jazeera website a clean, no-nonsense, trustworthy vibe.

[Note: screenshots from websites have been heavily edited to focus on only the fonts used.]

Screenshot from the Al Jazeera website of an article titled, “Frida Kahlo painting sells for $54.7m, breaking record for female artists”.

Roboto started out a “frankenfont”, meaning an unwieldy combination Helvetica, Myriad, Frutiger, Univers, FF DIN, and Ronnia. Fortunately, its design team kept working on it and, by around 2014, it had become a much more unified and harmonised typeface. These days it is the most used font on Google Fonts and, despite its overuse, I still like using it and seeing it being used.

The Guardian

Diametrically opposed to Al Jazeera’s “let’s use default/standard typefaces” approach is The Guardian that uses a family of bespoke typefaces.

This website uses Guardian Egyptian Text for body text and Guardian Egyptian Headline for headings. It also uses Guardian Sans for various other bits of text. These are all part of a superfamily of typefaces commissioned by the Guardian for its rebrand in 2005 and designed by Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz (with Panagiotis Haratzopoulos and Ilya Ruderman) from Commercial Type.

Screenshot from The Guardian website of an article titled, “Frida Kahlo self-portrait sells for $54.7m to set new auction record for a female artist”.

The Guardian’s highly sophisticated use of typography comes from its print newspaper origins, and I love that its designers have carried over that sophistication into its digital versions. Also, I think Guardian Egyptian is my all-time favourite newspaper typeface.

In typography, ‘Egyptian’ is the older, art-based name for what we now call slab serif typefaces. Guardian Egyptian is a warm and organic-looking slab serif that still retains its solid authoritativeness.

Wired

Let me conclude this post by talking about Wired, a magazine that I’ve been reading since it launched on the web as HotWired in 1994 – back when it used “Arial,Helvetica,Verdana” as its HTML font stack!

These days Wired uses Breve Text (Dino dos Santos; DSType, Monotype) for body text; Wired Display (Abbreviated Foundry) for headings; Apercu (Colophon Foundry) for intro and lead-in text; and Wired Mono (Formula Type) for bylines and article metadata.

Screenshot from the Wired website of an article titled, “British Churches Are Putting Their Faith in Heat Pumps”.

Like the Guardian, Wired got its start in print and this is reflected in its sophisticated use of typography, digital design/typesetting, and the use of publishing elements like lead-in text that aren’t commonly used on the web. (In a magazine, ‘lead-in’ refers to the words set in all-capital letters at the start of an article’s main text.)

Both Breve Text and Wired Display are modern typefaces with a lot of personality, which suits a publication like Wired that reports on the cutting edge of technology. Apercu, meanwhile, is an amalgamation of ITC Johnston, Gill Sans, Neuzeit, and Franklin Gothic, which makes it a little quirky and gives it a lot of character. This contrasting of very modern typefaces with a quirky-classic one makes for a hugely compelling website design.

More to come

I have many more websites to talk about in this series, but I think that’ll do it for now.

If you have a website type pairing that you particularly like, please tell me about it. I’d love to take a look and then add it to my catalogue. Thanks!