Sans Serif Can Be Evil

Headline: 'Senator Byrd is Ill' in a sans-serif typeface

This was the top posting on FiveThirtyEight this morning. I stared at it for a good ten seconds before going to the text and realizing that the posting was talking about Byrd’s sickness, not the fact that he was a Third. Sans-Serifs can be such a pain.

This is something I go into with new recruits around work. We do a lot of numbers and letters in our reports; capital “I”s and the numeral “1” and lowercase “L”s can get themselves discombobulated. I always insist that people use serif typefaces for body text of reports I’m working. Likewise, I also insist that when we’re labeling things alphabetically, we never use the letters “I” or “O”, just to avoid confusion. Yes, my appendices go from H to J without passing go.

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