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Convincing Her That Ten Times Is Too Many I was involved in a cross-platform DTP project this month, and we needed a couple of fonts different from the ones we had. Not really worth buying fonts at $30-90 each, because it was a small project anyway, and we only needed a few words in each of the fonts. In addition (and I hope she doesn't see this), I had a PC colleague whose font judgment, in my opinion, was sorely lacking. I needed something authoritative-sounding that would convince her that we didn't need to change fonts ten times on every page. Well, I went to two sites. Font Site bills itself as a downloadable magazine for the Type and Graphic Professional. It lives up to its billing: there are books for sale, but also articles about fonts, writing, and style. In addition, there's a good selection of fonts for download. Lots of fonts, some good, some terrible, are available for download from all the usual places on the web. One of the problems, though, is that you can download quite a number of fonts before you find one that's just right for your purposes. Mac Font Vault addresses this problem in an excellent way. There are five big pages of fonts, set up in a way that you can see a selection of the font in GIF form to help you tell what it's like before you download it. Each page (serif, sans, script, arty, and dingbats takes a while to appear, but it's worth it in download time saved. There's also a list of books that are of likely interest to people in the DTP area.
News from All Over In the last couple of months, I listed some of the best sites for English Language radio stations that concentrate on news and current affairs. All very well for folks who like to sit at their computer and listen, or who (like me) have a hookup between the computer and the stereo system, so as to be able to listen to these radio stations all over the house and yard. But now when I'm in the Caribbean, the internet has to be paid for by the minute, and I find myself doing a lot less semi-casual listening, except to the BBC World Service and Radio Netherlands, which we can get for free on short wave for most of the day. Unfortunately, the only American stations that come in at all reliably are the ghastly right-wing religious ones, but that's another story which actually, I only mention to see if we have any readers of that ilk who will write to me to protest and assure me that I'll be in hell real soon now. [Is this considered a cry for help? - Ed.] But I digress. And really, it's just an introduction to the sections about online versions of the world's best newspapers that I want to write about next. To forestall another barrage of criticism [Too late - Ed.], I'll begin with offerings from North America. First, I have to say that I don't like the typical U.S. Small Town or Medium City offerings. I don't have any criticism of their focus on local and regional news, because actually that's one of their strengths. What gets to me is that very seldom is there an international news story that doesn't concentrate front and center on the U.S. point of view. You'd never know that people in other parts of the world have concerns that Uncle Sam has nothing at all to do with. The only people to come close to this level of insularity are the Fr... [We got into a lot of trouble when you ranted on like this before. I'm cutting the rest of this stuff out. And don't do it again. - Ed.] On the other hand, I'm either pleased or sorry to say, depending on your prejudices, that the Big Five American papers are fully the equal of any of the competition throughout the world in the range and the quality of their offerings. The New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com The Washington Post - http://washingtonpost.com The Boston Globe - http://www.boston.com/globe/ The Chicago Tribune - http://www.chicago.tribune.com The Los Angeles Times - http://www.latimes.com
News From the Great White North Lesser known are the two Canadian "Qualities." Like American newspapers, and all others in the world, they do have a focus on domestic issues. But that's one of the reasons for reading them. Many of the domestic issues are the same everywhere. Let me list them: concern over quality and funding of health care and its ever-escalating costs, provision for the demographic bulge which soon will expect to quit working and retire, frustration with the inability of education systems to turn sows' ears into silk purses, and hatred of teachers unions. I do think though, that it's instructive to see the same issues being played out on different stages, because it makes you realize that different approaches to big questions are possible. That's one why all of us should take advantage of the chance the internet gives us to look into other peoples' backyards. Anyway, to return to the topic [Oh, there was a topic? - Ed.], the two most respected of Canadian papers, and the only ones with any pretension towards being National Papers, are the oldest and the newest. Both are published in Toronto, which immediately makes them somewhat suspect in other regions of the country. However, both do their best to step back from the hothouse big-city scene: The Globe and Mail The doyen of Canadian newspapers, the Globe has improved a lot from its previous rather stolid incarnation since the advent of the competition. Columnists Jeffrey Simpson, Margaret Wente, and Rick Salutin are especially worth reading. The National Post This paper is an embodiment of the character of its original creator, Conrad Black. It shows his preoccupation with all things on the right of the political spectrum, and also his insistence on depth and quality of writing. For more insights into the regional scene, there's a website. that's worth checking out that has stories from other Conrad Black newspapers all around the country. And yes, there is concern over concentration of ownership in the media - except in the media. Well, that's enough for now. Please send all comments [And Criticisms - Ed.] to dennis@macosjournal.com or use the super easy feedback form.
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