So today I was reading CSS Web Design For Dummies, and it was driving me crazy. Not because the author is hilariously uncultured (Yes, he says, anytime you interact with a computer, you're programming, so CSS and HTML really is programming, but scripting, man, that stuff, that's the real deal – scripting is hardcore programming), but because I couldn't name the type.
It had a most distinctive
.I racked my brain. I Googled. (I mean, I searched Google. Sorry about the trademark dilution there.) But Google did not know what typeface it was. I had seen that g before somewhere! I just did not know where.
Eventually it dawned on me that it was the New York Times's new headline font. Well, actually, to be precise, it was a poor cousin: ITC Cheltenham suffers the same exaggerated x-height as, say, ITC Garamond. Detailed acerbic commentary on this travesty may be found in Bringhurst p 231.
Anyway. Now Google knows, and if you reached this post by searching for "for dummies" typeface, please post a comment so I know my obsession is shared by at least one other person.
