Comments on: Helvetica, Comic Sans, and science presentations… http://www.artofspeakingscience.com/2007/12/09/65/ Communication tips for sciences and technology professionals. Improve your conference talks, poster presentations, interview skills, conflict management, networking skills, and public speaking. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:22:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Eleanor http://www.artofspeakingscience.com/2007/12/09/65/#comment-17576 Eleanor Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:14:56 +0000 http://www.artofspeakingscience.com/2007/12/09/65/#comment-17576 I heard teh same program on Studio 360, and, as a molecular biologist and an ex-Comic Sans Serif user, I've thought a lot about this question. My best guess is that CSS is reminiscent of hand-written overhead projector sheets. Most scientists of a certain age (over 30) had hand-written overheads in most of their classes in college and graduate school and even did some informal, hand-written presentations themselves, before LCD projectors became ubiquitous enough for even informal seminars to be given in PowerPoint. At a certain point I realized how silly it looked, and went hunting for a good, legible, sans serif replacement. I used Trebuchet for a while, but now routinely use Helvetica or Arial. These fonts used to bug me, but they have the advantage that most journals accept figures labeled with these fonts, so you don't have to keep changing fonts back and forth between presentations and publications. I heard teh same program on Studio 360, and, as a molecular biologist and an ex-Comic Sans Serif user, I’ve thought a lot about this question. My best guess is that CSS is reminiscent of hand-written overhead projector sheets. Most scientists of a certain age (over 30) had hand-written overheads in most of their classes in college and graduate school and even did some informal, hand-written presentations themselves, before LCD projectors became ubiquitous enough for even informal seminars to be given in PowerPoint.
At a certain point I realized how silly it looked, and went hunting for a good, legible, sans serif replacement. I used Trebuchet for a while, but now routinely use Helvetica or Arial. These fonts used to bug me, but they have the advantage that most journals accept figures labeled with these fonts, so you don’t have to keep changing fonts back and forth between presentations and publications.

]]> By: Lisa B. Marshall http://www.artofspeakingscience.com/2007/12/09/65/#comment-2319 Lisa B. Marshall Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:32:26 +0000 http://www.artofspeakingscience.com/2007/12/09/65/#comment-2319 While reading the blog from cell biologist, Jennifer Rohn at University College London... "I’ve seen the conversion from slides to PowerPoint, and the PowerPoint fads come and go: yellow text on a fading gradient of dark blue; cheesy animation transitions; that entire grim year when Comic Sans was the only font you ever saw at American conferences." This is exactly the perception that I am referring to...enough said. Here's the full link in case you want to read in context... http://network.nature.com/blogs/user/UE19877E8/2008/04/06/in-which-i-get-into-a-little-muddle-about-archiving While reading the blog from cell biologist, Jennifer Rohn at University College London…
“I’ve seen the conversion from slides to PowerPoint, and the PowerPoint fads come and go: yellow text on a fading gradient of dark blue; cheesy animation transitions; that entire grim year when Comic Sans was the only font you ever saw at American conferences.”

This is exactly the perception that I am referring to…enough said.

Here’s the full link in case you want to read in context…
http://network.nature.com/blogs/user/UE19877E8/2008/04/06/in-which-i-get-into-a-little-muddle-about-archiving

]]> By: Long http://www.artofspeakingscience.com/2007/12/09/65/#comment-2296 Long Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:14:41 +0000 http://www.artofspeakingscience.com/2007/12/09/65/#comment-2296 I have to agree with James and disagree with Lisa. Most the comic sans sinners (myself included) do not have the typography baggage. Sure, you don't want to use comic sans to label your figures, legends etc. But I don't see why it cannot be used for titles for each individual slide. After all, these titles are always personal interpretations of the data and often not exact or complete. In a world of slides dominated by Arial/Helvetica, a less "serious" font can be both eye-catching and less stuffy. I have to agree with James and disagree with Lisa. Most the comic sans sinners (myself included) do not have the typography baggage. Sure, you don’t want to use comic sans to label your figures, legends etc. But I don’t see why it cannot be used for titles for each individual slide. After all, these titles are always personal interpretations of the data and often not exact or complete. In a world of slides dominated by Arial/Helvetica, a less “serious” font can be both eye-catching and less stuffy.

]]> By: James http://www.artofspeakingscience.com/2007/12/09/65/#comment-2283 James Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:03:17 +0000 http://www.artofspeakingscience.com/2007/12/09/65/#comment-2283 Look up any talk in physics theses days (high-energy physics in particular, because that's what I'm most familiar with) and, like you said, you'll see comic sans all over the place. So why did scientists adopt it? Well they're not typographers, so we could care less if the kerning is off, or whatever the pragmatically pointless things font nerds talk about--they adopted it because it looks nice. I mean, only comic sans took off, not Mom's TypeWriter, not Bookman Old Style, not even Helvetica. (And we have to remember this is not the default font, people have to go and choose this.) Someone used it because it conveyed an at-ease mood--the kind of mood scientists want to convey when they're presenting their results--and someone else said, "That's a decent font, I'm going to use that in my next talk." And so now it's everywhere. And as for the professionalism: If everyone in the field could care less about the font, (even subconsciously, because, after all, everyone is using it), then why is it any less professional? It has become the standard. Maybe not the gold standard, but there's not this platonic typographic standard that we have to somehow aspire to. So at least when you're talking to your own field, there's nothing wrong with using it. Either way, I'm off to make my presentation--with comic sans :P. Look up any talk in physics theses days (high-energy physics in particular, because that’s what I’m most familiar with) and, like you said, you’ll see comic sans all over the place. So why did scientists adopt it? Well they’re not typographers, so we could care less if the kerning is off, or whatever the pragmatically pointless things font nerds talk about–they adopted it because it looks nice. I mean, only comic sans took off, not Mom’s TypeWriter, not Bookman Old Style, not even Helvetica. (And we have to remember this is not the default font, people have to go and choose this.) Someone used it because it conveyed an at-ease mood–the kind of mood scientists want to convey when they’re presenting their results–and someone else said, “That’s a decent font, I’m going to use that in my next talk.” And so now it’s everywhere.

And as for the professionalism: If everyone in the field could care less about the font, (even subconsciously, because, after all, everyone is using it), then why is it any less professional? It has become the standard. Maybe not the gold standard, but there’s not this platonic typographic standard that we have to somehow aspire to. So at least when you’re talking to your own field, there’s nothing wrong with using it.

Either way, I’m off to make my presentation–with comic sans :P.

]]> By: Jordan Miller http://www.artofspeakingscience.com/2007/12/09/65/#comment-1811 Jordan Miller Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:26:13 +0000 http://www.artofspeakingscience.com/2007/12/09/65/#comment-1811 Good call on fonts Lisa! I really like the font "Optima" for scientific presentations. It's a standard/free font that comes with Mac OS X. Good call on fonts Lisa! I really like the font “Optima” for scientific presentations. It’s a standard/free font that comes with Mac OS X.

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