Quickly followed by Arial: I am Unique. :-)

I heard that Impact: When you really need to shout is a possible oscar contender.

My very 1st graphics job was putting together a catalogue w/ sheet after sheet of presstype, using a burnisher over a lightboard. The font was helvetica. I'll never forget it. If there's one movie i go out to see this year, it's going to be 'Helvetica'. (why wait for the DVD.)

LOL . . I still have my burnisher! hahaha . . . . .

As an old letter-press guy, you people are just too modern for me -- Helvetica is relatively new (if we count Gutenburg).

O.k. font junkies: Here's one you might not know...

(I like just about anything to do with words, sayings, etymology, etc)...

The saying "Mind your P's and Q's"

This comes from the old letter-press typesetting days. A typesetter had to set the individual letters into a composing stick and the faces of the type were cast and set backwards (right to left) --- lower case "P" and lower case "Q" were often confused, (p and q), thus the saying.

If you enjoyed that one, maybe you'll like: "Lock, Stock and Barrel" --- not a printing term... it comes from the old gun dealers trade, when the price of a rifle was said to include the "(flint)lock, the stock, and the barrel".

And now back to our feature presentation: HELVETICA - THE MOVIE, (personally, I liked "SWISS")

Wasn't Swiss an adobe remaster of Helvetica?

I think Akzidenz Grotesk is the godfather - A font that formed the basis for helvetica, helvetica Neue, swiss, arial...

Didn't know about the P's and Q's - got anymore? :)

From what I've read, Arial was a knock off of Helvetica created by MicroSoft for distribution with Windows, (why pay license fees when you create a cheap knock-off)..

MicroSoft also commissioned the design of the font Verdana (another san serif knock-off of Helvetica to some extent, but tweaked for both on-screen and print use).

"Swiss" is also a knock-off of LinoType's Helvetica... Most likely named "Swiss" for the fact that Max Miedinger, designer of the Helvetica font was from (Zurich) Switzerland.

Which brings us to a font called "Zurich" (another knock-off) that was released by BitStream...

(I don't think the story ends, but I have to get back to work)...

o.k... two more minutes:

Why are they even called "FONTs"?

It is from the french "fonte" (like "fondu" or melted).. there is some deviation from the literal translation but it comes from "melting metal" or "casting" since "fonts" were originally mass produced in lead... Maybe someone with more knowledge or better French can clear this up.

A film eh?

A prefer novels about typefaces. My favourite is Dickens' Hard Times.