My Font Journey

Today’s post is the first in my

The affluent official fished the fjords in cutoffs.

Fira Sans

I launched this weblog at the beginning of 2023 by porting over content from my previous hosting provider. But it wasn’t until April that I really started to customize the layout and typography. I started out with serif headings and sans-serif body text using Fira Sans. I like this typeface[1] because it is reminiscent of ITC Officina Sans, a longtime favorite.

Fira Sans, my first custom font
Fira Sans, my first custom font

June 2023

I experimented with FF Meta as an alternative to Fira Sans, which I felt at the time had some kerning issues and was a bit heavy. I also liked that it has lining figures, a feature that is important to me for aesthetic reasons.

FF Meta, a short-lived experiment
FF Meta, a short-lived experiment

July 2023

I lived with Meta for a month or so, trying a few different weights along the way. I never was really satisfied with it. So I thought I’d try something new. I added Oso Sans, a variable font. I thought it’d be cool to adopt a new(ish) technology. It looked like shit was not well supported on iOS and iPadOS, so I went back to using Fira Sans.

Oso Sans, my first and last flirtation with variable fonts
Oso Sans, my first and last flirtation with variable fonts

November 2023

As the one-year anniversary of my OMG.lol membership approached, I decided (I don’t know why) that my site really needed to have serif type for the body text. I chose FF Tisa in part because I really love FontFont’s stuff, but mostly because it’s sort of a slab-serif version of Meta. I really loved (and still love) this typeface!

FF Tisa, one of FontFont’s many wonderful typefaces
FF Tisa, one of FontFont’s many wonderful typefaces

April 2024

I lived with Tisa for several months and was quite happy with it. But over time, I had the growing sense that it was too... What? Cartoony? I don’t really know, just something about it seemed unserious and it started to bother me and I started to hunt again for that special typeface. I landed on Proxima Sera in part because it has a sans-serif sibling that I could use for headings.

Proxima Sera, a nice typeface
Proxima Sera, a nice typeface

May 2023

I enjoyed Proxima Sera for a month or so. It is nice, but I didn’t like how its somewhat wide stance looked on the pages of my blog. I looked again and landed on a classic, Adobe Caslon. What a genuinely beautiful typeface! I updated my weblog and luxuriated in it.

Adobe Caslon, a truly beautiful typeface
Adobe Caslon, a truly beautiful typeface

My wife says I’m a complainer who is never satisfied. I prefer the term perfectionist, although I admit it is not any more flattering a characterization. In any case, I was unsatisfied with Caslon’s x-height so I started the search anew. Which brings us to today. I’m using Expo Serif. It has a taller x-height, lining figures, and satisfying ligatures. It just looks nice on the screen. Very happy with it so far.

Expo Serif, my favorite so far
Expo Serif, my favorite so far

Do you think about typefaces? What are your favorites? Drop me a line and tell me your stories.

  1. I frequently commit the mortal sin of using the terms font and typeface interchangeably. I know the difference, but I’m lazy and this is my weblog. So there. ↩︎