From advertising, to books, to, what we have all been talking about, comics. They all use different types of fonts and picking the right font for what you are trying to portray can be very tricky. You can just pick any old font you need to pick the one that is right for what is being written. Webdesigner Depot actually posted 10 fonts that you should never use. These fonts all have been over used and are not used in the correct why.
What I really want to talk about is how different fonts affect a comic particularly the comic we recently read Unwritten. Through out the comic the text font is constantly changing from Unwritten’s book world, it’s real world, it’s movie world, and even its words to describe the action.
The question is did the changing fonts hurt or help this comic?
I think it helped the comic because it allowed a smooth transitions between the “worlds”. It also helped because it gave the comic more depth and provided a good dynamic.
Images:
http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1252&bih=543&tbm=isch&tbnid=KsLfPadyVQoGhM:&imgrefurl=http://www.page45.com/store/The_Unwritten_vol_1__Tommy_Taylor_And_The_Bogus_Identity.html&docid=9G7EkDo5mdCSFM&imgurl=http://www.page45.com/store/9781401225650one.jpg&w=900&h=1366&ei=0N5UUZnJDrej4AOC0IHYAw&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:71,s:0,i:304&iact=rc&dur=2848&page=4&tbnh=166&tbnw=114&start=65&ndsp=24&tx=87&ty=132
http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&noj=1&tbm=isch&tbnid=GotC2ACoh8neMM:&imgrefurl=http://back-blogged.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-unwritten-vol-1-tommy-taylor-and.html&docid=JqDUGwoH4P0ZQM&imgurl=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ao22gEee178/UBNJWG611PI/AAAAAAAAAF0/l69xOFvCyEU/s1600/unwritten_botm_1.jpg&w=561&h=252&ei=lOBUUdWgMdTB4APTooCIAw&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:51,s:0,i:248&iact=rc&dur=382&page=3&tbnh=114&tbnw=229&start=39&ndsp=26&tx=145&ty=25&biw=1252&bih=543
I definitely agree with you in the sense that the varying of fonts can offer a sense of depth and it certainly helped smooth the transition between “worlds” in the graphic novel. Typography is particularly important in comics because it can give a character a sense of depth, or rather make the character seem more unique. That being said though, I think the power of lettering goes mostly unnoticed by the casual reader (or at least this was the case for me). I myself have somewhat of a hard time distinguishing all the nuanced idiosyncrasies between the various Hero fonts on a page like http://www.blambot.com. More comics, if they vary fonts, ought to try and choose ones that are noticeably different so that the contrast would be easier to spot and thus hopefully provoke thought.
I definitely agree that the different font choices in Unwritten enhance the reading. Things like different sounds and emphasis that you would get from everyday conversation are often lost n text and unique typography is a great way to recover that. I also like the above comment…I too had a hard time finding any differences between the many hero fonts. To me they all look the same. But the larger changes in the text are the important ones…the ones that simple readers such as myself see. These are the ones that can really elevate a work to a much higher standard.