Everyone can agree that Comic Sans absolutely SUCKS—even the creator of the font thinks of it as a joke. Yet there are two alternatives that offer different benefits: Arial and Times New Roman. The ultimate difference between these two fonts are the inclusion of serifs, a slight projection on the finishes of each stroke. Arial is a Sans Serif font, meaning the letters do not include serifs. Conversely, Times New Roman is a Serif font, where each stroke includes serifs. Considering the importance of digital writing in the modern world, an important question comes to mind: between Arial and Times New Roman, which is the better font to use?
Arial: A Sans Serif Font!
1. Familiarity, Comfort, and Satisfaction
Sans serif fonts are typically used in emails and text messages. Therefore, when you read text in Arial—a sans serif font—you are more likely to automatically associate it with friendships, family, and love. Even Google Docs, a platform for billions of users, favors Arial—perhaps for this very reason.
Your happiness from using Arial doesn’t stop there. The moment you change your essay to the Arial font, you feel the satisfaction of the page number increasing by one, thanks to the rather large size of the font, finally meeting your length requirement for that English assignment.
2. Clear Reading Due to the Lack of Unnecessary Flourishes
Imagine you head to the eye doctor to get your vision checked. You would let out a sigh of relief seeing the doctor’s eye chart in Arial font, omitted of the extraneous heads and tails on each letter. If you want any chance of avoiding wearing glasses, Arial is the necessary font to help you avoid the clunky accessory.
Times New Roman: A Serif Font!
1. A More Official Air
Serif fonts convey a professional atmosphere. Not too blocky or too smooth, Times New Roman provides a clearly readable font that is evidence of your scholarship and forces the reader to take you more seriously. Additionally, Arial is the most common font used by unenlightened children who have not yet drunk the sweet milk of learning. What better way to stand out from that riff-raff than ascend to the wonderful world of Times New Roman?
2. The Universal Educational Standard
Every teacher will let you type your essays in Times New Roman. On the other hand, only a handful will let you ruin your essay with Arial. Times New Roman, being a serif font, is far more readable in smaller font sizes than something like Arial, especially on printed documents. Would you want your teacher to be in a bad mood while grading your essay because it’s hard to read?
→ There are several other reasons why one may believe one font is superior to the other. What are your thoughts about “Arial or Ye Olden Times”? Go to <https://bit.ly/CTNov2023> or scan the QR code and tell us where you stand! Votes are collected until November 18, 2023, and results will be released in the December 2023 issue of The Tattler.
September 2023 Voting Results: Controversial Takes: Decoding the Division of Dog Anatomy
In the September issue, we discussed if the upper and lower anatomy of a canine should be split vertically or horizontally. Readers were then asked to vote on the side for which they prefer. Here is what they think!