The Flavor of Font

[MoiraofWords]

How many people think that font is a good way to explore a character? That you can literally see a person's tone throughout their word style. A concise and narrow font may make one think of a more analytical character, whereas a relaxed and open font may make give way to a calmer character that goes with the flow.

Although the font options on this site are a bit limited, what are the feelings on this?

I've done it before in the past to give feeling to a character or a message. Records of a prior event as in a "backwards" tale gave rise to me using a more mechanical font, whereas with a more flowery font was used with a character that was hippie-like in nature.

Have you ever done this, or do you think it is a pointless gesture? Is there any real meaning given by the font, or is it used as a wall for what is a toneless piece of work?

I'd like to know what you guys think.

[Guest]

I've never really like using a variety of fonts, or colors. I prefer systematic and uniform writing...but that is probably all of the high school/college schooling in me. The only thing I like are italics, which I think help highlight a particular situation. But if prefer making my character known through the words themselves, rather than the style of the words. I can see how you would like it, it just doesn't suit me. I would probably make a typical vile and hated English teacher.

[Sunwolf007]

Personally I might get annoyed at reading the changing fonts. I think that it would bother other readers as well but you do make an interesting point that it would help distinctly characterize the characters. I have used bold and italics and all caps words to emphasize certain parts of my writing but never really thought about using different fonts of text. Personally I think it would be hard for the readers to get used to reading the different fonts because no other work that I know of uses this type of writing.

It is a really unique idea though and I would like to see it in action before making any firm decisions.

[MoiraofWords]

Different fonts also establishes different people, and helps take away from what is commonly called "walls of text".

Paragraphs and dividing posts normally do the grunt work, but with many people providing giant contributions, a change in font is also a easier sight to see, or that's how I've felt anyway.

[6billionghosts]

Personally I think it would be hard for the readers to get used to reading the different fonts because no other work that I know of uses this type of writing.

It is a really unique idea though and I would like to see it in action before making any firm decisions.

A lot of Hypertext art / literature from the 1990's when text manipulation was a new thing has it going on. I'll see if I can find some.

[MetalEgo]

Many times in Sherlock Holmes stories, the font will change when someone's reading from a letter or a telegram, or writing in code (like in The Case of the Dancing Men). That's really the only font changing I personally condone. In more recent works, switching fonts in dialogue or POV changes just makes the writing look amateur.

With IMRPs, everyone has fonts that, usually, suit their personalities and the mood of their work (and helps me keep who's who straight when I'm playing with people I don't really know =P), but I believe those, ah, really funky fresh fonts should stay entirely exclusive to IMRPs. No forum use, and especially no wannabe-published work use (except in the telegraphing and letter writing and stuff), and for goodness sake, don't use different colors! Don't like them differ'nt colors! D=

[Bird of Hermes]

I never cared for changing the font style, color or size. I believe everything that needs to be done in a role-play can be done with bold, italics or Plain Text.

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