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Long shot

2025-04-09 22:55:02.447069+02 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

Long shot: Anyone got a favorite Mac font that looks decent when drawn in outline? The default system font has all sorts of internal curlicues and crap that make it look awful.

[ related topics: Macintosh Typography Graphic Design ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: Long shot made: 2025-04-10 13:16:40.475943+02 by: DaveP

Chicago? In outline, that would be a definite retro-80s look, but it worked pretty well back in the day.

#Comment Re: Long shot made: 2025-04-10 13:16:40.475943+02 by: Dan Lyke

Thanks, I'll take a look. I think the font has to be carefully constructed to look good in outline mode.

#Comment Re: Long shot made: 2025-04-11 13:32:00.638906+02 by: DaveP

Yeah, I was trying to think back. There was also the pre-outlined font. San Francisco, maybe?

#Comment Re: Long shot made: 2025-04-11 20:43:38.938952+02 by: Mars Saxman

The classic "San Francisco" font did have outlined letters, but only some of them; it was kind of a "ransom note" look:

https://raw.githubusercontent....ecimens/San%20Francisco%2018.png

This example was more difficult to locate than I had expected because Apple apparently made up a whole new font called "San Francisco", completely unrelated to the original, thirty years later.

I don't remember there being any dedicated outline fonts in the classic Mac suite, but the "Chicago" system font was often displayed in outline or shadow style.

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