Font Detectives Ferret Out Fakery
September 15, 2017 2:43 PM   Subscribe

We know about Calibri and the Pakistani government, but there's a lot more. There are font detectives and there are repository of fonts and their histories. Fascinating stuff.
posted by MovableBookLady (12 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
Kerlumbo? "Just one more Wingding."
posted by Servo5678 at 3:57 PM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm always amused by the lengths some people go to commit fraud, but how little effort they actually put in it.

How easy would have been to get an older computer with stock fonts and a printer that would be on the market at the time? Or since committing a crime is already on the table, install a VM, download windows something from a torrent.
posted by lmfsilva at 4:22 PM on September 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


lmfsilva: "I'm always amused by the lengths some people go to commit fraud, but how little effort they actually put in it."

I also imagine that typography is something that lots of people (even those who should know better) barely even register beyond "eh, looks ok." It might not even occur to some people that typefaces are actually invented rather than, say, springing wholly formed from the primordial ooze or whatever and sometimes shockingly recently. As an example, the production designers for Mad Men were notorious for their attention to detail to ensure that everything was period-correct but had a bit of a blind spot for certain typeface stuff, including using fonts that weren't even invented until decades later.
posted by mhum at 5:19 PM on September 15, 2017 [12 favorites]


I'm really considering business cards with Font Detective.
posted by theora55 at 7:48 PM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


The presence of Arial in any finished product of any sort, ever, makes it clear that lots of people are only dimly aware that there’s more than one way for letters to look. It’s no surprise that people miss typographical details for fraud.
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:32 PM on September 15, 2017 [3 favorites]


I also imagine that typography is something that lots of people (even those who should know better) barely even register beyond "eh, looks ok."

This is why everyone should be taught to identify bad keming.
posted by sebastienbailard at 11:20 PM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


If you need to know how offensive bad kerning can be, just ask Clint Flick, Therapist.
posted by rokusan at 1:14 AM on September 16, 2017 [4 favorites]


The number of otherwise sophisticated, cultured people who I've heard refer to all serif fonts as 'Times', as in "why don't you just use a Times font?' shows how type goes over most people's heads.
posted by signal at 4:47 AM on September 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


Paging user glonous keming.
posted by quinndexter at 9:32 AM on September 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


The number of otherwise sophisticated, cultured people who I've heard refer to all serif fonts as 'Times', as in "why don't you just use a Times font?' shows how type goes over most people's heads.

Conversely, all sans serif fonts as “Helvetica” or “Arial”.
posted by acb at 12:25 PM on September 16, 2017


Paging user glonous keming.

Goodness - I read both of those words incorrectly.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 12:39 PM on September 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


without getting into the details of the killian memos, an ibm selectric composer was capable of proportional fonts

i had an extra part time job in the early 80s typesetting on that thing at my brother's print shop - and it was an old machine - i doubt very much it was used in the early 70s for those memos, but it wasn't a rank impossibility, just unlikely
posted by pyramid termite at 9:35 AM on September 17, 2017


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