Microsoft Introduces More Readable Font Faces

Beginning this year, Microsoft is shipping with its operating system and other software products six brand new typefaces created especially for extended on-screen reading. According to Poynter-online, the Microsoft collection includes two serif, three sans serif, and a monospaced face for use in programming environments. Named Calibri, Cambria, Candara, Consolas, Constantia, and Corbel [what ... no Cookie!] they are intended to be text typefaces as opposed to display faces that are used in larger sizes for headlines. Several of the new fonts are suitable for print as well as on-screen applications.

Not sure how excited any one person should get about font-faces, but ya gotta love a designer with the name Jeremy Tankard - who describes the Corbel font as "less cuddly, more assertive" than the "robust, all-purpose workhorse text face" that is Cambria [and that Candara is such a nasty one -- who can stand it!].

Seriously -- fonts are an important consideration when creating everything from websites to PowerPoint presentations. Speaking of which, for the AHEAD conference this year the organization has pre-positioned preferred powerpoint templates using APHont from the American Printing House for the Blind.