FONTS

Fonts can make our life just a little bit easier. After all, we spend most of our time staring at computer screens and a change in font can make all the difference in a long day’s worth of work.

 

While it’s definitely not a very good idea to change fonts in the files that you’re delivering to the client (if you want to keep the client, that is…), it may be easy to change the fonts in the translation environment tools with which you process the files, without this having the slightest effect on the actual deliverable files. (Don’t do it if you are working directly in the file, such as with Trados / Wordfast / Metatexis / Multitrans within MS Word; however, if you have a tool that works through an intermediary format like pretty much the rest of them, it should be no problem.)

 

For me this has the same effect as repainting the walls of a room or putting on new clothes — only that it’s much easier and cheaper. If you first want to get an overview of what kind of fonts are available on your system, you can use the Font Sample Generator [http://www.mousetrax.com/Downloads.html#fontsamples]– a macro that allows you to generate a Word document that lists samples of all the fonts installed on your system. And if none of the fonts strike you as worthwhile, it might be time to install some fresh fonts. There are plenty of sites that list free fonts (and even more with paid ones), but a good place to start is 1001 Fonts [http://www.1001fonts.com/] (though you will quickly discover that working in a super-decorative font does not really help your productivity).

 

There are plenty of ways to install fonts. You can select Start> (Settings>) Control Panel> Fontsand then select File> Install New Fonts, or you can simply open Windows Explorer (WinKey+E) and copy and paste the .ttf font files into the C:\WINDOWS\Fonts directory.

 

If you see a font somewhere and would love to work with it but you have no idea what it is or how to get it, you can have it analyzed at What The Font? [http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/] You may not find a perfect match, but it may find a “fuzzy match” and suggest similar alternatives.

 

And if you feel particularly creative and would like to create you own font without paying an arm and a leg for a professional font design tool, go right ahead. Sites like vLetter [http://vletter.com/] or the much cheaper and easier Fontifier [http://www.fontifier.com/] allow you to create your font based on your handwriting. The open-source tool FontForge [http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/] allows you to alter an existing font to make it suit your particular needs, and the great site FontStruct [http://fontstruct.fontshop.com/] allows you create your own font, download fonts that others have created, and network with other font lovers. What I particularly liked about FontStructwas that it allows you to select from among 22 different writing systems, including Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, and Japanese Katagana (no surprise that Chinese characters are not among the options!).

 

Now, you need to be aware that many of the sites mentioned above are also trying to sell fonts alongside their free fonts. However, if you’re really keen on getting a font, it may be worth paying a license fee. Plus it’s worthwhile to see that some of the truly powerful commercial fonts are the product of not just an afternoon of goofing around with a font design tool but well-constructed and designed pieces of art.

 

And lastly, if you have gotten into a real frenzy over the new fonts and you notice that your computer has slowed down in the process (which it will if you have lots and lots of fonts), you might want to look at the appropriately named free Font Frenzy [http://www.sdsoftware.org/default.asp?id=5936]. This product manages your fonts by allowing you to temporarily deactivate certain fonts and reactivate them at the snap of a finger.