Linotype Search No:3

HYPERION; Simmons, Dan. 1989.
First Published: Great Britain,2004 by Gollancz: imprint of Orion Publishing Group.
Typeset by The Spartan Press Ltd, Lymington, Hants.
Font: PHOTINA (TM) Font Family

You know a font is good because it makes the act of reading just-so much more enjoyable. No one can contest that if content is shit, no font can save it. But if content is good, the right font can bring it this much closer to home. And if it's great, the right font is like a dollop of marmalade on banoffi pie.

Photina, like all good continuous text fonts, will not draw attention away from the content. But it subtly emphasizes that you are reading something cool. It could be a surprising serif, just slightly sharp, abrupt on the cleft of an upper case C, or the top bar of the uppercase T. Maybe it's also the way the Q is suprisingly pretty: the tail doesn't touch the circle but is a gentle wave just below it. (A classy touch.)

It is similar enough to Weiss, and both fonts seem particularly good for fantasy and scifi.

When people choose a font to lay out 'modern' text, I think they usually pick sans serif fonts like Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma...these are the fonts of email-gmail. These are the fonts that imply "computer." But strangely enough, if someone had used these fonts for a sci fi or fantasy text, I don't think it would have grabbed me as much as Photina or Weiss. Sans serifs are good safe choices. And they are always cool because they're easy to read and simple. But they can be a little antiseptic. The right touches on a font add juice to the reading experience.

Scifi/fantasy texts are still once-upon-a-time-type tales. Not real, but maybe. Once upon a time is set in gothic and calligraphy to echo the past. But since scifi is future fiction, you can't go all fairy tale girly. The edgy serifs provide an interesting balance between plain, modern text and fanciful musing and enhance the drama of the content.

Having said this, I'm going back to the tub, to ignore the Photina, to enjoy my book. : )