Fran: I am getting really interested in reading about typefaces and fonts while studying professor Burnhurst's book. I found this on Wikipedia and I would like to share it with you, I hope you will enjoy it; the paragraph on Serifs, that I added last week, had been found on Wikipedia too.

Bodoni is a serif typeface designed by Giambattista Bodoni characterized by a high contrast between heavy and thin lines. It is a classic example of a __modern serif typeface__.

The serifs of Bodoni, in addition to being very thin, are also nearly perpendicular to the main stem, as opposed to the gently sloping serifs of the so-called "oldstyle" typefaces. In addition, the emphasis of stress is very nearly vertical. The result is an overall clean, yet somewhat cold, appearance, both loved and hated by typographers.

Bodoni's original designs are periodically revived by new font designers. Indeed, during the age of metal type, every serious foundry had its own adaptation of Bodoni. Thus, today there is not a single typeface design called "Bodoni", but a range of adaptations, each with its own distinctive flavour.

Some adaptions, such as Bauer Bodoni, emphasize the extreme contrast between hairline and main stroke, which can be made considerably more pronounced using modern techniques of typography and printing than even the most skilled work of the 18th century. In text sizes, such hairlines almost disappear visually, resulting in reduced legibility.

Other designs, such as the ATF Bodoni designed by Morris Fuller Benton, capture the flavor of Bodoni's printing, emphasizing legibility rather than trying to push against the limits of printing technology.

Bodoni typefaces can sometimes suffer from a particular kind of legibility degradation known as "dazzle" caused by the thick vertical lines.

Most current digital font systems generate different sizes of type from a single design using mathematically precise scaling, while printers working with metal type invariably adjusted the designs subtly for different sizes, for example opening up counters and expanding the width in small sizes. Typefaces of the Bodoni family tend to stress this difference. Many digital revivals are based on designs adjusted for large sizes, making the already thin hairlines even thinner. Some digital typographers are rediscovering the older lore of "optical scaling", and we can look forward to new revivals designed more to please the eye than to satisfy mathematical principles.

Futura is a typeface, the prototype of the family of geometric sans-serif typefaces. It was designed in 1927 by Paul Renner. As opposed to earlier sans-serif designs, the strokes appear to be even weight and geometric. This seems most visible in the almost perfectly round stroke of the O but Futura is actually slightly imperfect. It is often said that Futura was directly related to the Bauhaus. Renner himself was not associated with the Bauhaus although many of the modern principles taught at the Bauhaus are incorporated into the letterform design of Futura.

Futura was developed during a competitive period in the 1920s when various foundries were developing modern san serif type faces for various lead type setting technology.

Futura was one of the most popular fonts in use in the 20th century, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, and is in use in the corporate design of Volkswagen to this day. Union Pacific first used it on their company logo in 1950, to this day. Also the former Swiss Airline Swissair used it.

Futura remains an important typeface family and is used world wide on a daily basis for print and digital purposes as both a headline and text font.

Futura was director Stanley Kubrick's favorite font, specifically in its Extra Bold form, and used it for the promotional campaign of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut, as well as the Kubrick Collection DVD boxset. Director Wes Anderson incorporated Futura as a motif in his film The Royal Tenenbaums, and used an outlined form for the title logo of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and is used in some form or another in his other films.