[XeTeX] Change fonts for different environment/commands

[Paul Isambert]

Selon Philipp Stephani <st_philipp at yahoo.de>:

>
> 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.

Try a 30-cm-wide textblock in Punk Anno with negative leading, I guess it'll
pass all scientific tests :)

Everything is historical accident in typography, perhaps, but that doesn't mean
fruitless accidents haven't been pruned away, whereas fruitful ones have been
grown further (sorry for the bad metaphor in bad English).

And let's not forget that typography makes sense too, and that the form of a
book influences the acquisition of its content, even if it's just a matter of
"mood" or subconscious stimulation or I don't know what. Typography is not just
pretty fonts. I suppose only people with some typographic education are
consciously repelled by ugly books, but I bet that _everybody_ is influenced
anyway.

Finally: to break rules, you have to know them, otherwise you're just following
untold ones.

Best,
Paul