For over 90 years, all legal documents have used the Times New Roman font, which is very similar to that which this post is written with - in fact I think it is the same.
This font was created by The Times newspaper in the days when they had people who could do such things and vast linotype machines to print it.
In the latest act of down-dumbing by those in the position of committing them, someone has decreed that from now on the font which shall be used for the printing of all legal documents will be the sans serif one created by Microsoft called 'Calibri'. The 'reasoning' for this is that it will make the documents easier to understand to those with a less than extensive education. Really? Are the masses who cannot afford Apple devices so stupid that they have difficulty reading anything which is not printed with the same font that their cheap laptops use? Are they confused by the little extra bits of letter on the ends of straight lines?
I quite understand the push for Plain English in the fight against all the legalese which had judges asking questions like, 'What is a launderette?' as points of order, and I think it is a good thing that the judicial process is no longer carried out in Latin, but does anyone think that typing writs in a children's font makes them clearer to anyone who does not have a problem with their sight?
Ok, I know I am getting old and judges are getting younger, and I know that the older you get the less you like change; and I know that as age advances, gravitas retreats in the eyes of the next generation, but I hate this relentless striving to get everyone on a level playing field regardless of their individual capability. Attempting to set everything to the lowest common denominator is a patronising insult, not levelling-up.
Appalling! One does not wish one's servants to be able to understand one's affairs.
ReplyDeleteThat was the reason they spoke Latin. A sentence in text: U shll b tkn frm dis plc 2 a plc of xectn and hngd by the nck till u r ded. K?
DeleteI forgot. I used capitals. That was a capital offence.
DeleteWell said .
ReplyDeleteMade me think of "modern English " Shakespeare and hymnal.
New year can still be good if we don't lose our fire and sensibilities .
I like the St James Bible and I don't like happy-clappy Christian services either. Guitars and drum kits should be banned in churches.
DeleteI like the medieval manuscripts with the illuminated letters at the start of the page.
ReplyDeleteChanging the subject, does your reading list look the same today? Mine has gone into a different format of listing only individual bloggers offerings in a long list.
I see what you mean. Mine has done the same. There are always issues around Christmas, when nobody is in the office.
DeleteIt seems to have re-set itself as if you have never read them before. You have to click an 'ok' button like you do when you haven't read someone for a long time. That is going to make further commenting a bit of an impossibility, especially if you have to trawl through everybody else to get to the relevant post.
DeleteOh yes, same here. I hope it is only a temporary change while something else is going on.
DeleteIt seems to be sorting itself out now; as people write a new post it is updating, as if it is resetting.
DeleteWe have a choice on our blogs, I use Verdana but occasionally try Nanum Gothic for its thinness of line. Eric Gill was the expert on letters, first time I came across him altered my whole vision of how we read words.
ReplyDeleteWas he a letter-cutter? I think so. Letter-cutters have to be calligraphers.
DeleteI'm afraid Tom that although I agree with what you say in principal I am now to the age when I will take whatever happens to come up on th screen and stay there. (and I think I have used the wrong spelling of principle but on bad days I'm araid it has come to this!)
ReplyDeleteWell I used to be a layout artist Weave, so I can't really ignore it.
DeleteI like comic sans
ReplyDeleteI know
Shallow
Is it very rounded and uneven?
DeleteSeraphed fonts are easier to read. The issues with readability are more likely to be the dreadful fecking language that legal people use, like they get bonus pay for using words like heretofor and notwithstanding. i love those words made of gluing lots of little words together myself, but they are just as likely to be incorrectly used in my experience, as the writers are wee young things themselves Showing Off. A few times I've had to prepare a legal document for translation and have found that these words have been used incorrectly and could have caused the company a massive law suit. So yeah, language, and spacing, which Calibri does better imho.
ReplyDeleteBut what I HATE about this is how yet again the commercial decisions of a greedy corporate are creating our future. Whether it is a good thing or a bad, it's happening all over. And it makes me feel dirty.
Did you mean sans serif fonts are easier to read?
DeleteNope, the seraphs apparently help our eye to flow along the line. I don't know if this is true to be honest, but they've never bothered me, and I wonder how much is nature vs nurture. I like Garamond and Bookman Old Style. But then, I am an arse.
DeleteThe Times published a treatise on fonts recently: Lawyers say ditching old type face is a breach of human writes.
ReplyDeleteClever, what!
I have just read that article and assumed they (the lawyers) meant human types.
DeleteFonts and readability are key elements in textbook/manual writing. Flesch-Kincaid readability testing is commonly used to guide writing.
ReplyDeleteYes, I suppose so, but I think dyslexics have a problem with any lettering.
DeleteI agree with what you are saying. I am now wondering about who came up with the initial idea for the change and what is behind it. The reason given can't really be it. Has anyone actually ever said: "I find this difficult to read because of the font."? Oh, my.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be more sub conscious.
DeleteWe are going American (as usual). I have noticed that many books, printed in the US use a version of Calibri. Doubt much of silicon valley use it to. I know my Outlook emails always appear in it.
ReplyDeleteA bit like kitchens - everyone under the age of 50 wants a shiny new kitchen with ultra clean work surfaces. I like old, messy kitchens.
DeleteTHANK YOU. Does it have running water, a floor, places to put stuff and places to cook stuff? It's a kitchen! The old kitchen being trashed because of Fashion is just more landfill. All I did with ours is changed the handles and tiles, instant transformation from tragic late 90s developer to old world charm!
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