Lost and Font
If you walked out of your home without knowing you’d accidentally time traveled into the past,
how long would it take you to realize what had happened? What if they had sent you back
ten years, or thirty, or a hundred? Discuss with your team: how far into the past would you
need to be to realize instantly that you were in a different era?
Here's a breakdown of how long it might take to realize I time traveled, depending on
the time period:
Recent Past (10 years):
● Subtle cues: Fashion trends, technology use, and pop culture references
might be the first giveaways. For example, if everyone's wearing skinny jeans
and listening to music on iPods, it would be a clue it's not the present day.
Further Back (30 years):
● More obvious differences: The lack of widespread internet access, absence
of smartphones, and prevalence of landline phones would be clear indicators.
Distant Past (100 years):
● Immediate realization: The absence of cars, modern buildings, and
widespread electricity would make it obvious I'd traveled far back.
Transportation, communication, and even clothing styles would be
dramatically different.
Challenges:
● Limited knowledge of history: Without a strong understanding of historical
details, some indicators might be missed.
● Focus on the present: Our minds are conditioned to the present
environment. It might take time to consciously register inconsistencies.
Additional factors:
● Location: Time travel could land me in a place unfamiliar to me in any era,
making it harder to pinpoint the exact time period.
● Language barriers: Traveling far back could mean encountering languages I
don't understand, delaying the realization.
Overall, the realization of time travel would likely be a gradual process, with the
speed depending on the extent of the differences between the past and present. The
more significant the shift, the quicker the awareness.
Here are some additional points to consider:
● Access to information: If I had access to a historical newspaper or
overheard a conversation about a well-known past event, realization would be
immediate.
● Societal norms: Differences in social etiquette, gender roles, or racial
attitudes could be clues, especially for larger time jumps.
One clue to your whenabouts might be the text around you: not just the headlines on
newspapers and store signs, but the fonts they’re printed in. Consider some of the history of
typography, then discuss with your team: how different would the world look today if Microsoft
had chosen Comic Sans instead of Calibri as its default typeface in the early 2000s—or as its
successor 20 years later. The London Underground also decided to update its font in 2016
for a more modern look—did it succeed? Be sure to learn the difference between serif and
sans serif fonts, and then see which ones are used more widely. Does the same distinction
apply in non-Western alphabets?
Text, especially fonts, can be a great indicator of the time period. Here's a
breakdown of how typography can help pinpoint when you are:
● Serif vs. Sans-serif: Serif fonts have small decorative strokes at the ends of
letters, while sans-serif fonts are simpler and lack these.
○ Early printing: Early printed materials often used serif fonts like Times
New Roman, which mimicked handwritten lettering.
○ Modern era: Sans-serif fonts like Helvetica and Arial have become
increasingly popular for their clean and modern look.
● Specific fonts: Certain fonts were trendy during specific eras. For example,
the font Futura was popular in the Art Deco period (1920s-1930s), while
Comic Sans gained popularity in the 1990s.
Comic Sans: A World of Playful Documents?
Microsoft choosing Comic Sans as the default font could have led to a more informal
and playful visual landscape. Here's a breakdown of the possibilities:
● Informal communication: Comic Sans might have become the go-to font for
emails, presentations, and even some business documents, creating a less
serious tone.
● Branding and marketing: Brands might have incorporated Comic Sans more
frequently, aiming for a more approachable and lighthearted image.
● Educational materials: Comic Sans might have become the standard font for
educational materials aimed at children, potentially making them seem less
intimidating.
However, Comic Sans might also have faced challenges:
● Legibility concerns: Comic Sans can be difficult to read in large blocks of
text, potentially hindering communication.
● Lack of professionalism: In some contexts, Comic Sans might be perceived
as unprofessional or childish.
London Underground Font Update: Modernization Mission
The London Underground's font update in 2016 aimed for a cleaner and more
modern look. Here's how it might have affected riders:
● Improved readability: A clearer font could make station names and
directions easier to read, especially for those with visual impairments.
● Modern aesthetic: A modern font could contribute to a more contemporary
and streamlined image for the Underground.
However, the update might not have been universally embraced:
● Loss of character: Some riders might have felt the new font lacked the
personality and charm of the original.
● Difficulty adjusting: People accustomed to the old font might have found it
difficult to adjust to the new one.
Serif vs. Sans-serif Universally?
The serif vs. sans-serif distinction is relevant in many alphabets, but there can be
variations:
● Western alphabets: Sans-serif fonts have become increasingly popular in
the Western world for their clean look.
● Eastern alphabets: Serif fonts might still be more prevalent in some Eastern
alphabets, especially for traditional or formal writing. For example, many
Chinese and Japanese characters have inherent serifs as part of their
structure.
Here are some additional points to consider:
● Cultural preferences: Cultural preferences can influence font choices. For
example, a culture that values tradition might favor serif fonts, while a culture
that emphasizes modernity might prefer sans-serif.
● Technological limitations: Early computer systems might have had limited
font options, influencing typeface choices in the digital age.
Recently, the United States Department of State changed its own default font from Times
New Roman to Calibri—20 years after first switching from Courier to Times New Roman.
Each move sparked at least 36 points of controversy. Discuss with your team: should
governments even have standardized fonts? If so, how should they pick them, and when
should they change them?
Standardizing Fonts in Government: A Heated Discussion
The U.S. Department of State's font change from Times New Roman to Calibri
highlights the surprisingly passionate debate around standardized fonts in
government. Let's explore the arguments for and against, along with considerations
for choosing and updating fonts:
Arguments for Standardization:
● Consistency and Branding: A standardized font creates a consistent visual
identity for government communications, fostering professionalism and
recognition.
● Readability and Accessibility: Choosing fonts with good legibility, especially
for people with visual impairments, improves communication effectiveness.
● Efficiency: Standardization simplifies document creation and reduces time
spent selecting fonts, potentially saving resources.
Arguments Against Standardization:
● Stifling Creativity: A single font might limit creative expression and make
government documents appear sterile or impersonal.
● Outdated Perceptions: Clinging to traditional fonts might make the
government appear out of touch with modern design trends.
● Unnecessary Controversy: Font changes, as evidenced by the State
Department case, can be surprisingly divisive, raising questions about
priorities.
Choosing the Right Font:
● Readability: The primary font should be clear and easy to read for all
audiences, especially on screen and in print.
● Versatility: The font should work well for different types of documents, from
formal reports to infographics.
● Professionalism: The font should convey a sense of authority and trust,
avoiding overly playful or informal styles.
● Cultural Sensitivity: Consideration might be needed if documents are
translated into languages with different typographic conventions.
When to Change:
● Accessibility Concerns: If the current font poses readability challenges,
especially for people with visual impairments, an update might be necessary.
● Technological Advancements: New fonts might offer improved legibility on
digital screens compared to older options.
● Perceived Image: If the current font is seen as outdated and hinders the
government's desire to project a modern image, a change could be
considered.
Finding the Balance:
There's no one-size-fits-all answer. Governments should weigh the benefits of
consistency and accessibility against the potential drawbacks of stifling creativity or
sparking controversy. Here are some additional ideas for a balanced approach:
● Limited Font Palettes: Instead of a single font, a government could establish
a small set of approved fonts for different uses (e.g., headings, body text).
● Public Input: For major font changes, seeking public input through surveys or
design contests could foster a sense of ownership.
● Phased Implementation: A gradual transition from one font to another could
minimize disruption and allow people to adjust.
If all these fonts confuse you—or you just want to check whether a document (such as an
alternative World Scholar’s Cup outline) is a forgery—you could always hire a forensic font
expert. Read about the kind of work such experts do, then discuss with your team: should
some fonts be reserved for exclusive use by AIs and others for humans?
The Font Detective
SPRING 2021|BY NANCY DAVIS KHO| ILLUSTRATION BY DEREK BRAHNEY
Thomas Phinney, MBA 03, uncovers forgeries and solves modern-day crimes
Thomas Phinney was working as the product manager in Adobe Systems’ fonts group
when his team received a request from an attorney about a suspected will forgery. The
lawyer wondered whether the fonts in which the disputed document was typed might
provide a clue. “I was the only one in the group to say, ‘Hey, that sounds cool!’” says
Phinney.
Using a digital microscope and counting individual pixels, Phinney noticed speckles of
stray ink around each letter and “wicking,” or bleeding, of ink along the paper fibers. He
deduced that the document had been printed on an early inkjet printer at 300 dots per
inch (dpi). “There was one small problem,” says Phinney. “That type of printer didn’t exist
in 1983,” the year the document was purportedly written. The Case of the Wicked Will, as
Phinney calls it—he affectionately names all of his investigations—was cracked.
An image from the disputed will in Phinney’s first case, Exhibit A shows “wicking” (bleeding) of
ink along paper fibers, as well as bigger streaking from the printing process, both visible at top of
the “o.” Also visible is a stairstep pattern on the inside of the “o,” an effect of the 300
dots-per-inch resolution of the inkjet printer. By contrast, Exhibit B shows offset lithography, like
book printing.
Phinney’s fascination with all things fonts and typography have led him to become the
world’s foremost forensic font expert, capable of dating and identifying fonts and the
technology used to print them. He’s been an expert witness for numerous court cases
and evaluated questioned documents for the U.S. Treasury, The Washington Post, the
BBC, the PBS television show History Detectives, and more. He also consults for the likes
of Microsoft and Google. Whether uncovering forgeries, verifying font sizes against
mandated legal requirements, or a host of related typography conundrums, Font
Detective Phinney relishes his work at the intersection of art, commerce, history, and
technology.
WHY TYPOGRAPHY MATTERS
For a field with roots in Gutenberg’s printing press, fonts remain at the bleeding edge of
our digital world. Digital typography underpins virtually every page with which we interact
online. And yet, Phinney often finds himself defending why it all matters. Branding, for
one thing, he says. “The selection of typefaces and the arrangement of them can be as
important as the use of color, images, or abstract graphics in creating a brand,” Phinney
wrote in Communication Arts magazine.
Psychological research has also shown that even subtle differences in typography, such
as using small caps and old-style figures, can affect a reader’s mood (as indicated by
use of the corrugator muscle in the forehead to frown) as well as one’s performance on
creative cognitive tasks after reading.
Type design, a craft that blends art and science, is like fashion or furniture, says Phinney,
himself a type designer. “While true innovation is rare, people consistently come up with
variations on existing themes or combine existing elements in new ways.”
He points to the ScienceGothic.com site, which displays an open-source, dynamic
typeface he’s been working on with funding from Google. Users can quickly change the
weight, width, contrast, and slant of the font to achieve different-looking results, all while
still staying within the Science Gothic family—something that would require 200+ fonts
to achieve using traditional methods. “It’s proof that there’s still so much new you can do
with fonts,” says Phinney.
TURNING UP THE ‘INTELLECTUAL SIMMER’
Phinney earned undergraduate degrees in psychology and political science at the
University of Alberta in Canada, where he grew up, then a master’s in graphic arts
publishing with a specialization in design and typography at the Rochester Institute of
Technology. He then began an 11-year career with Adobe Systems in Silicon Valley.
It was during his Adobe stint that he decided to pursue his Berkeley MBA via the evening
and weekend program. Phinney was attracted to the school’s reputation and quality.
“The level of intellectual simmer at Haas was really lovely,” he says. “People’s brains
were always working to come up with new ideas and to challenge each other, and I liked
being in an academic environment operating on that level.”
Earning an MBA might not have been the most obvious career path, Phinney says, but he
used his Haas training to move up the product management chain at Adobe and later at
font management software company Extensis in Portland, Oregon, where he currently
lives. In 2014, Phinney joined FontLab, a creator of apps for type design and font
creation, as VP, later becoming CEO.
While crediting a Haas course in negotiation as being particularly helpful in progressing
through the management ranks, it was a class in managing technology-related
businesses taught by Professor Emeritus Hal Varian that Phinney recalls as a game
changer for his career.
The selection of typefaces and the arrangement of them can be as important as the use of color,
images, or abstract graphics in creating a brand.
“That one class gave me fundamental tools and new ways of thinking about
interconnected ideas that all played into my day job, like substitutability of goods and
zero marginal cost for digital goods—including fonts,” says Phinney. “They’re essentially
a weird form of mass-produced software.”
DRIVING DEMAND FOR DETECTIVE WORK
But even as his day jobs kept him busy, Phinney continued getting called to the work that
had long fascinated him: unlocking the mysteries held by fonts and typography.
Throughout his corporate work years, “Cases just kept popping up,” he says, with word of
mouth driving font forensic questions to his personal inbox.
One such case involved a rabbi who had faked his credentials to land a job. A family in
his congregation turned to Phinney to validate details of the man’s graduation certificate,
or smichah. The rabbi had taken steps to make it harder to detect, degrading the quality
of the document by providing only a faxed copy, not the original. But the deception
couldn’t elude the font detective. “The document was dated 1968, but the font in which
his name was printed didn’t exist until 1992,” Phinney says. And so ended The Case of
the Reprehensible Rabbi.
By 2018, Phinney decided to make his side gig official. “I was having so much fun with
this work,” he says. “I also realized that it wasn’t a trivial amount of money I could earn
through these cases, especially if I took the time to publicize it in a formal way.” Just two
years after hanging out his virtual shingle as The Font Detective, Phinney earns as much
as half his revenue from font forensics; the remainder comes from designing fonts for
clients like Google.
As a type designer, Phinney has created numerous typefaces, including commissions for
open-source typefaces from Google, private designs, and a handful that have seen commercial use
in supplements to the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. Shown here are those that are publicly
available.
THE BAD, THE INADVERTENT, AND THE ILLEGIBLY
SMALL
Phinney says that most forensic cases fall into one of two categories. The “nefarious”
cases are those like the man who sought to prevent his wife from getting her fair share
of assets in their divorce by forging debt documents, to bamboozle her into accepting a
lower valuation of their communal property. Unfortunately for the soon-to-be ex-husband
in Phinney’s Case of the Dastardly Divorce, those faked documents were not only printed
on a 600 dpi printer that didn’t exist at the time they were dated but were created in a
font that wouldn’t have been available either. “That case was slam-dunk easy,” says
Phinney.
The other type of case Phinney commonly handles involves determining if documents
meet typographical legal requirements, like whether what Phinney terms “the stupidly
tiny” 5-point typography on Justin Timberlake’s CD liner notes were sufficient to stand as
public notification of others’ copyrights on the album. (Phinney suggested not. The case
was settled out of court.)
Even for organizations trying to be good font citizens, it can be challenging. “I feel for
corporations, because legal typography requirements can differ in every state,” Phinney
says. California, for instance, requires information on prescription labels to be printed in
at least a 12-point font, while that may not be the case in other jurisdictions. In New York,
legal requirements for both font point size and height work a bit differently than those of
any other state. “Which is just another reason a lawyer might need to consult an expert,”
notes Phinney.
THE PERFECT CASE
Phinney’s dream case is “one that has major implications of some sort and exposes
malfeasance that affects a lot of people.” He had a close brush back in 2004, when he
was asked by journalists to examine memos related to President George W. Bush’s
service in the Texas Air National Guard that seemed to prove that Bush had disobeyed
orders and received outside help in cleaning up his military record. “Based on my
research I could not support a conclusion that they were authentic—quite the contrary,”
says Phinney, speaking of the high-profile case that ended with a public repudiation of
the journalists who ran with the story without authenticating the forged documents first.
So the hunt for the perfect case continues.
Reflecting on his career, Phinney has a message for anyone thinking of making a
mid-career switch to a vocation that has been tugging at them.
“I could have been embarrassed or ashamed to switch paths out of my corporate
management career to something that, on the surface, wouldn’t draw so broadly on my
MBA training,” he says. “But I’m really glad I didn’t let those feelings deter me from doing
what I wanted to do. Because I’m still making money but having way more fun!”
Time travelers often struggle to pay for things; their currency has a cancelled Marvel actor’s
face on it, or they don’t know what money is, or they can’t make the self-checkout machines
work. (Then again, can anyone?) If you found yourself at a supermarket in 1963, you
wouldn’t have been able to pay for anything at all until the clerk typed in the price of every
item you wanted to buy, one at a time. Doing so quickly was a coveted skill: there was even a
competition with prizes like free trips to Hawaii. The adoption of the barcode in the 1960s
was a buzzkill for such price-inputting savants. Discuss with your team: what other
technologies do we take for granted when we’re at stores or shopping online? And do you
support efforts to reimagine in-person shopping without any form of checkout at all?
● Just as barcodes transformed checkout, QR codes have changed many other
everyday experiences, from debate tree distribution (sometimes) to accessing
restaurant menus. But a change that seemed inevitable during the pandemic has run
into resistance since. Discuss with your team: is this pushback a classic example of
society resisting technological progress, only to eventually succumb? Are there any
technologies that were supposed to change the world which were rejected and stayed
rejected?