By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
Just when we all got used to saying Tahoma (the current Windows default font) Windows Vista is shaking things up again with a seemingly unpronounceable new screen font. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Segoe UI. The font will default to 9 pts. in Vista and then when in Office12 moves down to 8 pts.
We say: Looks nice but how the heck do you pronouce it? Alice Adds: Interesting that the spell checker in Office 2003 has no idea what Segoe is.
Source: the Windows Vista Weblog
Searching for Segoe, this ( http://www.hardcovermedia.com/lab/articles/fruseg.htm ) is the first result. Seems Segoe is not so ‘new’.
I’m pretty sure Trebuchet MS is the default font of XP. Also a pretty tough one to say. Tahoma was in 2K and ME, maybe 98.
I guess it’s just me, but I tend to get really annoyed by fonts where I can’t tell uppercase I from lowercase L, and also from the number 1. Trebuchet and Tahoma are fine, and love good old Times New Roman. This new one just does not do it for me.
[...] So anyway, I alluded to Windows Vista earlier, and if you’ve been fortunate enough to see some screenshots of the new OS, hopefully you noticed the awesome font that they’re going to feature on the interface, Segoe UI. In my opinion, the font looks like a second cousin to the Lucida family, albeit a bit more modern and progressive. There’s actually been a healthy amount of debate about the authenticity of the font (which I don’t necessarily question or care about) because it looks nearly identical to a font called Frutiger Next. According to an article I read, in 2003, the Swiss government commissioned this font for use on ALL road signs in that design-happy country, which I think is completely cool. I, for one, would rather see my tax dollars go into that than into Billy Joe Jerkoff’s coffee breaks alongside the interstate with the rest of his road crew, but I guess that’s neither here nor there. [...]
The new Segoe UI gives the user a much legible text for the GUI on Vista. I think Tahoma might go to the spa for a clean-up. Segoe really does the best, although it must prove its worth to the public…