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Alyssa Bereznak: Arial, 14 pt
Staff writer at The Ringer
My preference for fonts has changed with the phases in my life. In high school my Xanga was littered with moody, embarrassing stuff: Impact, Comic Sans, Wingding, the works. In college I took myself very seriously, and exclusively wrote in Times New Roman. I then graduated to the beloved sans serif of the masses: Arial. Specifically, Arial, single-spaced in 12 point. I prefer as weightless a font as possible because my neuroses do quite enough on their own to complicate my writing process, thank you very much.
Recently, however, an alarming thing started happening. Due to a lifetime of staring at a laptop screen, I could no longer read my work in 12 point Arial. So I began reluctantly enlarging the font to 18 point to do my writing. When it came time to turn a draft into my editor, I would then sneakily shrink the the draft back to 12. This might sound insane, but I felt as though my identity, my youth, was tied to my ability to read and write in 12 point Arial.
Then one day, when I forget to shrink my draft, my sham of an existence was revealed. My editor immediately suggested I go to an eye doctor. Now I have glasses. My vision is better. But I still can’t read 12 point Arial without squinting. In case you were wondering, this story was written in 14 point. I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that’s just the type of writer I am now.
