Tech Thursday: Fonts
Ode to typeface.
I recently asked some friends which font they used for their everyday work - not what their official, public-facing materials might require, but what they use for writing emails, drafting materials, taking notes during a meeting. What font do you want to stare at for 75-90% of your work, I wondered. I was surprised - flabbergasted - that not a single one had a special font. Most of them just used the default font for whatever program they were working in, and - in even more shocking news - admitted that they did not even know what the font was.
This news has made me question, not for the first time, whether perhaps the odd one out is me. I do have special fonts, and these fonts change with some regularity. It’s been years since I ditched Calibri (a sans serif font that is MS Word’s default) for first Arial, then Arial Nova, Roboto, and right now I’m using Karla (download for Word here). I typically write in a sans (without) serif font; I can’t write in serif fonts for very long documents - the tails are too much, I think. Once I’m no longer drafting, however, I do switch to a serif font with a clean and distinctive italic form, most recently choosing Roboto Slab over Times New Roman. (Although I am tempted by Brygada, Cambria, Karma, or Lora…)
If you are reading this on the web, you are probably viewing it in Roboto Slab (unless you have changed your browser font settings. If you’re reading it in your email, well, you’ll have to tell me how your email program renders these Tips!
For more reading…
If you can’t find a font you like from GoogleFonts, check out TypeWolf
I’m curious to know - do you have a preferred font?
Past Tech Thursdays
Student engagement: Free Chat / Climer cards / Digital exit tickets / Interactive quizzing / Online question management for classes & presentations / Wheel of Names (random name generator) / Providing audio feedback
Accessibility: Accessibility Infographics / Two programs to reduce eyestrain
Zoom: Name Breakout Rooms / Screen share in Zoom / How to Zoom in in Zoom
Research: Managing references / Find free versions of articles / Text Capture Apps
Using images: Extract text from images / Remove distracting backgrounds from photos / Using screenshots
Google: “Publish” from Google Drive / Google Classroom updates / “Make a copy” function in Google Drive / Working in shared Google docs / Collaborating in Google Slides / Turn Google Forms into a formatted document
Canvas: Canvas chat / Custom dashboard labels / Canvas “What-if” grades / Deliver assignment instructions as a Quiz
Productivity: Set times for tasks / Finding OERs / Study Skills Videos / Keeping Notes on Students / Keyboard shortcuts / Text Expanders / Mailbird email program / Voice-to-text options / Custom URLs & QR codes / DropBox Paper for collaboration
© 2021 Tips for Teaching Professors
I use serif fonts for printed reading but for anything web-based, particularly if it is going to also be presented through any form of projection, I choose sans serif. This is primarily an accessibility issue as serif fonts tend to blur a bit under most computer and projection resolutions. I have visual challenges and reading serif fonts on the screen is much more difficult than sans serif.
As an add on, fonts can help inclusivity! Specific type faces can help those with Neurodivergences of a couple different types. There are specific fonts designed for some, including Dyslexie (https://www.dyslexiefont.com/en/products/) which is designed for individuals diagnosed with dyslexia.
I have a note in my syllabus that I can and will make any course documents available to students in Dyslexie, any other generally available font, or with any specific formatting guidelines that students request. Rarely do people take me up on it but its an easy win, and I was able to help a student that used screen reading software immensely by simply redoing course documents without italics/bold/underlines that slowed their screen reader down quite a lot.