poq does not presume to doubt the learned and wise ways of this blog’s many readers, but circumstances have revealed a widespread ignorance which calls by its very existence for a vigorous crusade to dispell it ‘lest society itself fall in flames and ashes. Therefore, poq is taking up the burden itself of answering this serious, nay, critical question: just what are serifs?!
Many readers may have heard the word from MS Word, which offers many fonts ’sans serif’. Readers, do not assume this language to be the mere linguistic up-marketing of a font; it is not like a restaurant offering uncooked pasta as ‘al dente’ or a realtor selling you a 5-foot room as ‘cozy’. No, it has a specific meaning in the rarified world of the font: serifs are the little bendy bits and curlicues at the edges of the letters, which are there to ‘enhance readability’, as if painted on by helpful little angels (or children in Vietnam).
You have Steve Jobs himself to thank for this impressively obscure optional feature of Office programs, since he did typography at Stanford whilst bumming around people’s floors in his ‘only a poor student’ days.
Now wasn’t it good to learn that? Now go make one yourself.
