Question: The Faces of Science Fiction

[beamjockey]

I could figure out answers to the following questions, given enough time-- but among my correspondents, I suspect, are people who are capable of answering them in the blink of an eye.

What typeface might this be? And more to the point, what is the closest typeface, let's say in my Microsoft Office collection, I could use to approximate its appearance?


Image courtesy Science Fiction Collection, Rare Books and Special Collections, Northern Illinois University

What Office typefaces would be good choices to fake some of the typefaces visible here?

Comments

Question: The Faces of Science Fiction

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User lsanderson referenced to your post from Question: The Faces of Science Fiction (http://lsanderson.livejournal.com/2820263.html) saying: [...] Originally posted by at Question: The Faces of Science Fiction [...]

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

The body copy in the very top illustration is Century Oldstyle. I think the "Table of Contents" page is as well. If you have a "Century" font, that's the one to use. The sans-serif at the bottom of the ToC (and in the bottom, "Illustrated by Miller") I'm pretty sure is Futura.

[(Anonymous)]

My friend the typography geek agrees about Futura.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

"THE EVOLUTION OF A SCIENCE" is, I think, also Futura.

The DIANETICS title and similar things are a narrow-width version of some "grotesque" sans, like Aksidenz Grotesk /AG Old Style or similar (but probably not exactly that). It needs to be a version designed for narrow width, not a normal-width one that has been optically or digitally squashed (a modern barbarism).

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Office has "Tw Cen MT" which looks about right, especially when bolded.

For the all-caps headlines, I'm looking at Impact, but maybe something closer can be found. (Would be odd to imagine L. R*n H*bb*rd speaking LOLcat-ese in 1950.)

I stole this

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

And reposted it. Beth Friedman or Geri Sullivan would be good people to ask.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Indeed they would. Thanks!

[carbonel]

If you're looking to fake it, I think you already have your answers. If you want the actual typefaces, I can help you with some of them, at least.

I have Century Oldstyle as a Type 1 font -- and I confirm that that's the correct one.

I thought the "OF HUMAN MEMORY" might by Futura Condensed, but the "M" on that is wrong. However, I agree that ToC bottom-of-page text is probably Futura -- the open "a," round "O," and short x-height are good indicators.

"THE EVOLUTION OF A SCIENCE" is not Gill Sans, though it is close. I tentatively agree with Johnston Bold as an identification.

Assuming "DIANETICS" and "OF HUMAN MEMORY" are the same font, the best identifier is going to be the "C" in "DIANETICS" -- that's quite distinctive.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

If you're looking to fake it, I think you already have your answers.

I am. See comment lower down with a sample of fake fonts. The Century I have differs from Century Oldstyle. Maybe I can find a version to download.

the best identifier is going to be the "C" in "DIANETICS" -- that's quite distinctive.

The "C" in League Gothic looks identical to me.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

League Gothic is probably close enough to fake the style.

[erik]

Everything with a serif you could do Times.
Most of the sans serif stuff except the masthead seems to be variations on Helvetica except "THE EVOLUTION OF A SCIENCE" which looks more like Gill to me. Gill is not one of The Fonts. Helvetica again would look pretty close, but not nearly perfect.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Helvetica has curved legs on the capital R's, while the sans-serif fonts here have straight legs. I agree that "THE EVOLUTION OF A SCIENCE" is a different font from the rest, but Gill Sans doesn't look quite right to me.

[erik]

Identifont thinks it's one of that family (Johnston, Gill, or Underground), or Humanist. I have no real idea what fonts come with Windows these days. Bill, do you have anything like a Humanist?

And yes, I think Impact is a better fit for the rest of the sans if you have it.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

I tried Identifont on the "OF HUMAN MEMORY" font and it didn't seem to have anything in its database that was even similar.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

I thought it looked like Helvetica.

Mind you, there's a passel of typefaces that look kinda like Helvetica.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

--Okay, just checked, and it turns out I have no accurate recollection whatsoever what Helvetica looks like.

Now I wonder what typeface I am thinking of?

[margaret organ-kean (from livejournal.com)]

OF HUMAN MEMORY is likely to be URW Gothic No. 1.
for against a world - try Bookman

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Aha! OF HUMAN MEMORY is Alternate Gothic.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

To be precise, Alternate Gothic #1.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions. Okay, let's try to approximate Century Oldstyle, Alternate Gothic #1, and Futura.

[seawasp]

I don't know fonts, but I recognized ICEWORLD from the fragment you posted at the top...

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

I always wished Clement had written another book in that universe.

I'm struck by the darkening color of the paper. From this I deduce Bill's home, or at least his library, must smell wonderful. Ah, the vanilla scent of old bookshops.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

The smell belongs to the people who posted images of these pages to Ebay and the Web, and to the fine folks working on the Science Fiction Collection at Rare Books and Special Collections, Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

(Until such time as NIU acquires a scent-scanner, and can waft the essence of old Astoundings into my home.)

In some of these images, however, I stretched the contrast, which may have darkened some pages artificially...

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Ruin my career as Sherlock Holmes why don't you!

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

No, I'm improving your career as Sherlock Holmes. With enough visits to NIU's library, you can train yourself to distinguish Astounding from Amazing by scent alone, and perhaps identify the date of an old magazine. Surely this will be a useful skill for a consulting detective.

[whl.livejournal.com]

I have a trunk full of old Astoundings. For some reason, rather than having the lovely old bookstore smell, these have gone "skunk".

Not sure what to do about it...

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Huh. I wonder if sulfite process paper smells different when it ages.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

(The NIU archivists encourage the use of their collections to support a broad range of scholarship, but I am not sure what the reaction would be if you turned up at NIU and asked to smell their Astoundings. Must say I am curious to know how that goes.)

[seawasp]

Yes. If ANY book had a setup just screaming for a sequel, it was ICEWORLD.

That smell is aversive for me, however; it's associated with watering eyes and asthma attacks. Reading old books is a hazard I have to endure sometimes, but ideally the room they're in would have powerful filters keeping the allergens from accumulating.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Not that you are not an astute connoisseur of SF's grand history, and not that the text fragment does not give enough information to identify the novel-- but you already knew I was working on Iceworld, as you are one of the few people I told about it.

[seawasp]

I'd forgotten that fact when I saw the question on fonts -- different context.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

My suggestion was going to be WhatTheFont rather than Identifont, but I'm a little late to the party.
I can point out that there are web sites with preposterous quantities of downloadable fonts, like dafont and Font Squirrel.