Many, many years ago when home computers were still a novelty and AOL was the only Internet provider, I spent an afternoon with my best friend creating voices for all the wonderful font names we found on my computer's word-processing program. For example, I employed my best scratchy voice and threw in the word “sonny” when I was speaking as “Old Man Font.” Thank goodness we were limited to fewer than 30 fonts, or we might still be there.


Neither of us had a degree in graphic design, but we knew these fonts had personalities. This is even more evident today. In Linda Woods and Karen Dinino’s Journal Revolution, they devote an entire chapter to the use and effects of fonts. Here the authors are signing copies of their latest book, Visual Chronicles at CHA.

You can find plenty of fonts on your computer’s word-processing program, but venture onto the Internet for plenty of sites where you can download free fonts, such as www.dafont.com. Scrapbooking and papercraft sites are also a great resource for fonts. Share some of your favorite sites for fonts in our forum.

Take some time—and your best friend if she has time—and check out some of the amazing fonts available today. And I’d love to see some creative ways to interpret Univers font. I just don’t have a special voice for that one.

Robin