[XeTeX] Change fonts for different environment/commands

[Philipp Stephani]

Am 08.09.2010 um 08:46 schrieb Wilfred van Rooijen:

> Hi all,
> 
>> But why ?  What exactly do you dislike about the use
>> of
>> sans serif for headings ?  To my mind, and in a
>> scientific
>> as opposed to artistic context, sans serif headings with
>> serif prose seem absolutely normal and fine.
> 
> The age-old discussion as to whether or not sans-serif is evil or not. It is commonly stated that serif letters are more readable because the little serifs give a better visual baseline, with a more clear distinction between words and spaces. I have always had difficulty with accepting this wisdom. I think that there is also a cultural component and a component of "getting used to". Unless somebody can show me scientifically and statistically sound research which shows that serif if better than sans-serif, I am not willing to accept the common wisdom that serif is better than sans-serif and my opinion will remain that it is a matter of taste (*).

There has actually been lots of research on this, with the result that there is no significant difference in legibility. Here is a nice discussion:

http://www.alexpoole.info/academic/literaturereview.html

I think almost everything in typography is due to historic happenstances (my anecdotal knowledge tells me that serifs were introduced by the Romans because they were easier to carve in stone) and is thus purely a matter of taste. Typographic "rules" are mere conventions or opinions of "experts" like Bringhurst, Tufte, Tschichold etc., and almost none of them would pass a scientific test. That doesn't mean that they are completely irrelevant: following traditions rather than breaking them is helps the visual representation stand back behind the contents.