Times

In your humble opinion, what's the best cut of Times?

Comments

[Andy]

lower case 'e'. yum.

[Richard]

In all my years I have never, ever used Times.

[karsten]

TimesTenGreek is pretty sexy.

[Richard]

For the sake of discussion may I propose that the best cut of Times is actually Georgia!

[davidthedesigner]

Yeah, that's right Richard - you tell him. After all, there are 52 other fonts he could use, aren't there?

[Richard]

I'm guessing this isn't helpful Ben but I'm reasonably serious: Is Georgia the Times of the digital age? Perhaps the answer's "No", in which case, if I had to I'd buy this:

http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/downloads/linotype/times_std_complete_vp/

...mainly for it's OpenType-usefulness.

[Stephen Coles (Stewf)]

The best cut for what? Print, screen, books, newspapers, signage? As a general purpose package, I'll second Richard. But really, I'd skip Times for one of these:

http://www.fontshop.com/fontcase/alternatives/times_new_roman/

[lauren]

oh, that's easy - TNR, force-bolded, set in Word to 72pt with auto leading, printed onto an A4 sheet of paper and stuck on a window with one piece of tape, so that the 'signage' curls inwards. gets me going every time.

[mahendra singh]

such cynicism! Times was a workhorse for a good reason, one that's a bit unfashionable now: it was very legible at all sizes and most surfaces/printing systems.

The original Lardent/Morison TNR was very good, worth checking out, esp. for the young 'uns … phototype & then digital type versions got more & more anemic,

I think one reason designers now disdain TNR is that it was a newspaper font par excellence. The economic darwininism of newspaper typography was a healthy constraint and its hard for many designers today to appreciate how vastly important it was to set lots of copy, legibly, in a minimum of expensive space.

[Justin]

Metal?

[argh, my fingers]

I'm going to swing on a rope here and admit to a fondness for the old Berthold cut (digitised as Times New Roman BQ)... especially as the extra bold has a wonderfully plum-pudding-cheerful feel.

Is anyone else familiar with the spiky, argumentative serifs of TimesET? We used that extensively for one particular client at my previous job... not that I hold any fondness for it at all, no sir.

[al woods]

Ooooh, the abuse.

I have to say that ALL typefaces can look terrible when used badly. Centred, large, white paper, sticky tape is a great example. Even finely tuned brand guidelines for type use can go out the window if someone 'just knocks up a quick window notice'.

I'm with the old school here, a nicely used piece of Times New Roman, small, is quite a nice thing to see, as long as it's not forced away from its comfort zone.

[graham peake]

has to be Berthold

[adrian]

'It was the best of Times, it was the worst of Times' - surely Dickens' reference to his ongoing frustration at the typesetter employed by his publishers, and how, depending on how many ales he had consumed the night before, he might set his prose with great flair and skill or appalling sloppiness.