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Screen Font Suggestions for small sizes
Posted by paulstonier in
30 Sep 2011 — 12:41pm
30 Sep 2011 — 12:41pm
Hi guys,
I'm looking for a san serif that with good hinting to load sharply and legibly at 8pt to 20pt on screen and has at least a regular, italic, bold and bold italic.
I was thinking something like FR Hopper, but open to suggestions. I'm not sure how the hinting is on Hopper, but would be interested to know what you think.
Thanks,
Paul
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30 Sep 2011 — 1:26pm
Freeware or freely available:
Hunky Sans
Liberation Sans
PT Sans
Ubuntu
Even if you don't like them, you can still afford a beer.
30 Sep 2011 — 2:12pm
Though question. You have to figure out if the default rendering in Win XP is important or not first, and there’s no general consent on that yet.
30 Sep 2011 — 2:44pm
Calibri is never a bad choice if you're designing something for a PC screen.
2 Oct 2011 — 3:14pm
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not too worried about price, because the company I work for will purchase it to embed it into their software. The application is a windows only program, so it will likely load on Windows XP, but will more likely be in Windows 7 and sometimes Vista.
2 Oct 2011 — 8:52pm
Font Bureau's Reading Edge ("RE") series of webfonts were designed specifically for use at small sizes on screen. Personally, I'm partial to Benton Sans RE, but any real suggestion for a specific family would depend a bit on the context in which it will be used.
(Full disclosure: I am a Font Bureau employee, but have made use of the RE fonts in personal web projects, so can confidently comment on them from that point of view.)
2 Oct 2011 — 9:40pm
+1 on Nicks recommendation. Apart from Font Bureau I'd also recommend talking to Monotype (Brian Kraimer or Steve Kuhlman), FSI, Peter Bilak and Dalton Maag.
Si
2 Oct 2011 — 10:30pm
Thanks, Nick and Sil. The RE series sounds perfect.
The software is a data mining application where Antenna may be a good fit. I'll have to see how it loads on Windows machines.
3 Oct 2011 — 6:24am
Note that if you're embedding the font in software, then you’ll want to be talking to your font provider(s) about OEM licensing when you’re ready to make final decisions.
4 Nov 2011 — 1:28pm
Yep. I'm well aware that we'll need OEM licensing.
Nick, I'm leaning towards Antenna or Amplitude. Who at FontBureau would I get in touch with about the OEM licensing?
4 Nov 2011 — 6:59pm
Harry Parker hparker@...
5 Nov 2011 — 7:06am
Paul — Cool. More general info here: http://www.fontbureau.com/help/licensing/
But, as Si indicated (rather elliptically ;-), you can contact Harry directly to discuss OEM specifically. Add the fontbureau.com domain to the email prefix Si gave above. With proper agreements & assurances, you can probably also work out a testing arrangement to help you make final decisions.
7 Nov 2011 — 6:28am
Great. Thanks guys.