"All computer geeks tend to fall in love with typography at some point in their careers"

We tend to be font nerds around the Fortress. Heidi as a Graphic Designer, of course, is paid to be a font nerd. I just come by mine for no good reason.

There's some real truth in the quote in the title - there's something about typography that really appeals to Computer Programmers where they live. Personally, I think it's in part because typography is arguably a mess of really complex algorithms - the kind that programmers think are really fun to untangle. That, and the fact that programmers also tend to be book nerds as well, and it doesn't take much of a book problem before you start to really notice how books are put together.

In any case, the star exhibit of this particular post is an article from CodingHorror from a year and a half ago (which would have gone on the blog then - if it had existed then,) - Typography: Where Engineers and Designers Meet. The article is inspired by the 40th anniversary of Helvetica, and is a pretty fascinating breakdown of Helvetica and computer fonts. However, as usual for Codign Horror entries, the real meat are the links. If you only follow one, be sure to read Mark Simonson's "The Scourge of Arial", a fantastic primer on the shady past of Arial, everyone's favorite least favorite font. Also a must read is linked to on that same page, "How to Spot Arial," which blew my mind the first time I read it.