Every Famous Font Explained in 12 Minutes
1540 次观看 · 2026-11-13
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Every famous font, explained: Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Calibri, Aptos, Courier, Comic Sans, Impact, Cooper Black, Futura, Papyrus, Segoe UI, Wingdings, a quick round of the rest, and Marlett, the font you never picked that drew the buttons on your screen.
One was drawn for a single London newspaper. One exists because a cartoon dog was talking in the wrong font. One started life as Bierstadt. We read the makers' own records: Microsoft's typography pages and support notes, Monotype's history of Helvetica, the State Department's cables, and the designers in their own words.
Every word on screen in a font's name is set in that font itself, or shown from a licensed specimen. The buttons, screens and objects are our own drawings: no logos, film or album art.
Every one, in order
0:00 Times New Roman. Comic Sans. Wingdings.
0:27 Times New Roman
1:15 Arial
2:04 Helvetica
2:50 Calibri
3:46 Aptos
4:17 Courier
5:05 Comic Sans
5:58 Impact
6:31 Cooper Black
7:08 Futura
7:49 Papyrus
8:35 Segoe UI
9:08 Wingdings
10:00 The rest, fast
10:27 Marlett
11:36 The font menu
Sources
- Microsoft Typography: font list (Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, Aptos, Courier New, Impact, Segoe UI, Wingdings, Webdings, Marlett, Garamond): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/font-list/
- Microsoft Design: Beyond Calibri (2021) and A change of typeface (2023): https://microsoft.design/articles/a-change-of-typeface-microsoft-s-new-default-font-has-arrived/
- Monotype: Helvetica, the prequel: https://www.myfonts.com/pages/fontscom-2011-06-06-helvetica-the-prequel
- Eye magazine: Robin Nicholas interview (2012): https://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/robin-nicholas
- Mark Simonson: The Scourge of Arial (2001): https://www.marksimonson.com/notebook/view/the-scourge-of-arial
- LucasFonts: Calibri: https://lucasfonts.com/fonts/calibri/info
- US State Department cable, Return to Tradition (December 2025), full text via Daring Fireball: https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/12/state-department-return-to-tradition.text
- The Guardian: How we made the font Comic Sans (2017): https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/mar/28/how-we-made-font-comic-sans-typography
- CBS News: the man who made Papyrus (2017): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/papyrus-font-avatar-saturday-night-live-chris-costello-ryan-gosling-viral-video/
- The Newberry: Cooper Black turns 100: https://www.newberry.org/blog/cooper-black-turns-100
- NASA: the Apollo 11 plaque: https://science.nasa.gov/resource/apollo-11-plaque/
- Microsoft KB Q134861: Marlett (archived): https://jeffpar.github.io/kbarchive/kb/134/Q134861/
- Raymond Chen, The Old New Thing: why Marlett (2012) and its name (2013): https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20120116-00/?p=8543
- Wine: user32 uitools.c (the caption buttons' Marlett letters): https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wine-mirror/wine/master/dlls/user32/uitools.c
- Snopes: Wingdings and NYC: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wingdings/
Images and credits
- Photos via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): Kidfly182, Flygvapenmuseum
- Photos via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/): mpclemens, James Puckett, Standard Medium letters: James Puckett
- Photos: Wikimedia Commons (Monotype Recorder, 1968), Public domain (William Rothenstein); Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (International Business Machines, General Products Division, U.S. Department of State, NASA, Rochester Institute of Technology, Christophe Plantin and his employees, c. 1585); Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (Thomson200, Romainbehar)
- Charts are ours, from the figures in the documents named on each.
- Words in each font's name: set by us in that font (Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Courier New, Comic Sans MS, Impact, Futura, Papyrus, Wingdings, Webdings, Georgia, Verdana, Trebuchet MS)
- Calibri specimen: Wikimedia Commons, Calibri example.svg (public domain)
- Aptos and Bierstadt specimen: Wikimedia Commons, Aptos.svg by 1-Byte (CC0)
- Segoe UI letters: Wikimedia Commons, Inkscape Fonts - Segoe UI.png (public domain)
- Consolas letters: Wikimedia Commons, Inkscape Fonts - Consolas.png (public domain)
- Comic Neue: Craig Rozynski's typeface (SIL Open Font License), set by us
- Cooper Black: Barnhart Brothers & Spindler's advertisement, The Inland Printer, March 1922, p. 763 (public domain; Internet Archive)
- Buttons, screens, signs and objects: our own drawings (no logo, film or album art)
- Quotes typeset from their sources, each listed above
- Thumbnail photo: a red tabby, Roc0ast3r (CC0, Wikimedia Commons)
#Fonts #Typography #Explained
One was drawn for a single London newspaper. One exists because a cartoon dog was talking in the wrong font. One started life as Bierstadt. We read the makers' own records: Microsoft's typography pages and support notes, Monotype's history of Helvetica, the State Department's cables, and the designers in their own words.
Every word on screen in a font's name is set in that font itself, or shown from a licensed specimen. The buttons, screens and objects are our own drawings: no logos, film or album art.
Every one, in order
0:00 Times New Roman. Comic Sans. Wingdings.
0:27 Times New Roman
1:15 Arial
2:04 Helvetica
2:50 Calibri
3:46 Aptos
4:17 Courier
5:05 Comic Sans
5:58 Impact
6:31 Cooper Black
7:08 Futura
7:49 Papyrus
8:35 Segoe UI
9:08 Wingdings
10:00 The rest, fast
10:27 Marlett
11:36 The font menu
Sources
- Microsoft Typography: font list (Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, Aptos, Courier New, Impact, Segoe UI, Wingdings, Webdings, Marlett, Garamond): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/font-list/
- Microsoft Design: Beyond Calibri (2021) and A change of typeface (2023): https://microsoft.design/articles/a-change-of-typeface-microsoft-s-new-default-font-has-arrived/
- Monotype: Helvetica, the prequel: https://www.myfonts.com/pages/fontscom-2011-06-06-helvetica-the-prequel
- Eye magazine: Robin Nicholas interview (2012): https://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/robin-nicholas
- Mark Simonson: The Scourge of Arial (2001): https://www.marksimonson.com/notebook/view/the-scourge-of-arial
- LucasFonts: Calibri: https://lucasfonts.com/fonts/calibri/info
- US State Department cable, Return to Tradition (December 2025), full text via Daring Fireball: https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/12/state-department-return-to-tradition.text
- The Guardian: How we made the font Comic Sans (2017): https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/mar/28/how-we-made-font-comic-sans-typography
- CBS News: the man who made Papyrus (2017): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/papyrus-font-avatar-saturday-night-live-chris-costello-ryan-gosling-viral-video/
- The Newberry: Cooper Black turns 100: https://www.newberry.org/blog/cooper-black-turns-100
- NASA: the Apollo 11 plaque: https://science.nasa.gov/resource/apollo-11-plaque/
- Microsoft KB Q134861: Marlett (archived): https://jeffpar.github.io/kbarchive/kb/134/Q134861/
- Raymond Chen, The Old New Thing: why Marlett (2012) and its name (2013): https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20120116-00/?p=8543
- Wine: user32 uitools.c (the caption buttons' Marlett letters): https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wine-mirror/wine/master/dlls/user32/uitools.c
- Snopes: Wingdings and NYC: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wingdings/
Images and credits
- Photos via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): Kidfly182, Flygvapenmuseum
- Photos via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/): mpclemens, James Puckett, Standard Medium letters: James Puckett
- Photos: Wikimedia Commons (Monotype Recorder, 1968), Public domain (William Rothenstein); Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (International Business Machines, General Products Division, U.S. Department of State, NASA, Rochester Institute of Technology, Christophe Plantin and his employees, c. 1585); Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (Thomson200, Romainbehar)
- Charts are ours, from the figures in the documents named on each.
- Words in each font's name: set by us in that font (Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Courier New, Comic Sans MS, Impact, Futura, Papyrus, Wingdings, Webdings, Georgia, Verdana, Trebuchet MS)
- Calibri specimen: Wikimedia Commons, Calibri example.svg (public domain)
- Aptos and Bierstadt specimen: Wikimedia Commons, Aptos.svg by 1-Byte (CC0)
- Segoe UI letters: Wikimedia Commons, Inkscape Fonts - Segoe UI.png (public domain)
- Consolas letters: Wikimedia Commons, Inkscape Fonts - Consolas.png (public domain)
- Comic Neue: Craig Rozynski's typeface (SIL Open Font License), set by us
- Cooper Black: Barnhart Brothers & Spindler's advertisement, The Inland Printer, March 1922, p. 763 (public domain; Internet Archive)
- Buttons, screens, signs and objects: our own drawings (no logo, film or album art)
- Quotes typeset from their sources, each listed above
- Thumbnail photo: a red tabby, Roc0ast3r (CC0, Wikimedia Commons)
#Fonts #Typography #Explained