Steve Jobs made the earliest digital fonts

After Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College to save his parents’ finances, he took classes in calligraphy. These calligraphy classes inspired him to offer different typefaces for his personal computer line, the Macintosh. Jobs named the fonts after his beloved cities, namely: Chicago, Geneva, London, Los Angeles, Toronto, San Francisco and Venice.

Helvetica is named after a place

Helvetica and Univers are two of the most universal fonts of all time. Both fonts were created in Switzerland in 1957. One of the little known fact about font Helvetica is that it is Latin word for ‘Switzerland.’

Fonts can affect people’s trust

Different fonts communicate different messages to people. For example, a study showed that people are more likely to believe information written in Baskerville than Comic Sans. The type’s British sense of formality contributes to its credibility.

Why Comic Sans font is hated?

Comic Sans font was created by Vincent Connare in 1994; surprisingly the creator himself used it once. It turns out that the font was originally designed to be used in the talk bubbles of a programme called Microsoft Bob. The font wasn’t completed in time to actually make it into the programme, but it lived on to eventually ship with Windows 95. Once the font was in the hands of Windows 95 users, there was no stopping on how it would be used. It was almost found in every document, flyers, invitations, and even business cards. So, the story of Comic Sans is not that of a really terrible font, but rather of a mediocre font, used incorrectly on a massive scale.

Futura was the first font in space

When Paul Renner created Futura in 1927, he probably didn’t know how literal its namesake would be. The font didn’t really catch on until the 1950s, but its use culminated when NASA used Futura to engrave the aluminium plaque left on the moon as a memento of the Apollo 11 mission.

African grey parrot learns to paint

An African grey parrot named Echo, is out to prove that birds can be painters too!

The Embassy care team at the Maryland Zoo is training Echo how to paint and posted a video of the parrot creating abstract art on Twitter. Echo paints by grabbing a sponge dipped in paint with her beak, then takes the sponge to a sheet of paper and moves it in all directions.

Echo also receives treats for taking part in the activity.

“Painting is a great enrichment activity that keeps Echo mentally stimulated and allows her to use her natural adaptations. She sure is creating quite a masterpiece!” the post continued.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 26th, 2022