Speaking of interface, when I tried Ubuntu I found it easy to customize it with skin. I got my OS X style, sitting in my closet (;)). But I think the fonts - in menus, dialogs and wherever - never became totally uniform. In that matter Windows is more beautiful to me. Also, I think I remember that OpenOffice.org missed some essential fonts. And speaking of fonts again, a couple of days ago I was surprised NOT to find “Garamond” in my Windows XP Pro. But that’s an other story.
Hmm, I prefer sans serif styles myself. I typically use Arial, as a more modern derivation from my Helvetica background. It’s not a lack of appreciation for Claude Garamond’s work though, I assure you…
Sans serif is nice, and Arial too. For longer reports, I think fonts like Times New Roman and Garamond are preferred because of their readability. In the document I’m working with now (you now, we’ve discussed it in at least on thread - the DOC/ODT one :)), I’ve found Garamond to be very elegant and correct. Now, it doesn’t have to be “correct” because the work is done on a university of architecture… maybe I could use Wingdings. I copied the Garamond files from another computer and put on my own.
Anyway, does Linux have a sufficient line of fonts in your opinion? Does it work similar to Windows, that the fonts are a part of the OS and applications (like OOo) use them from there?
A company I worked for many years ago, for many years, had a mandate that all correspondence had to be done in Helvetica; a certain size, too (which I don’t remember). I just mentioned it, as it’s seemingly the predecessor (1950s) to the very recent Arial (1990).
I stay away as much as possible from serif fonts as I personally don’t find them readable. I mean, I can read them just fine, but I think all the “feet” (the serifs) get in the way on a professional document. The sans serif fonts are (to me) much cleaner and easier on the eye.
Nice segue back to Linux… To be honest, I’m not sure if the fonts are embedded in Linux, but I think they are; I know they show up in the various aspects of the OS controls found with the OS, or KDE, etc, as well as in applications like OO.
Company rules and templates, very important. That’s what defines professionalism!
Interesting, you prefer to go without serifs, but I’ve seen it’s recommended to use them for longer texts. But obviously that’s individual. Personally I don’t mind much if a text is written with or without serifs.
Thanks, but I’m afraid I’m not able to do it in this post. Soya has to forgive me. ;D
Hey, wait, I’d also like to say that the lack of fonts (if there actually is any lack) in Linux shouldn’t be much of a problem. How many of all those fonts are actually used… well, quite individual I suppose.
Independent of how fonts work in Linux, I was happy to recently hear that font info is included with the PDF format. So you can chose your favorite font for documents, it will always be correctly rendered - either in Windows or Linux. Below is a sample of my new favorite for heading, called AvantGarde.
I’m pretty sure GhostScript comes with each Linux distro, along with its various libraries. Thus, the truetype rendering engine should be able to do its “thang.”
AvantGarde, a nice clean sans serif font (a little more condensed than Arial, looks like). Given that the Adobe-released version is a remake, it’s not really avant-garde any more, is it? Sorry, I just couldn’t resist that…
I’m not even aware of what Adobe has made. I got my AvantGarde bundled with a visual style in a RAR file (or ZIP, who knows, who cares!). It’s called SlanXP 2.0, quite nice.
Me, either. Just since Adobe’s the company credited with the truetype development (or as I like to think of it, wysiwyg for fonts), they re-packaged everything. I read somewhere that they had recreated the AvantGarde originally developed in the 50’s or 60’s as the default font for a magazine of the same name; if I recall right, they did so in the 90’s.
I copied the Garamond files from another computer and put on my own.
To be honest, I’m not sure if the fonts are embedded in Linux, but I 