Type

A useful way to look at typography is to start with a piece of work in use, not with a catalogue of typefaces. The questions are ordinary: can you read it at the intended size, and does the typography match the job?

A specimen sheet shows letters in a controlled setting. A shop sign, a timetable, or a paragraph in a book has to survive a particular size, a particular paper or screen, and a particular distance. If a text face looks even on a specimen and uneven at 9 point on uncoated paper, the specimen was not a promise.

When you compare two typefaces, compare them in the same size, on the same background, with the same line length. A difference that disappears when the sizes are matched was never a difference in the letters. Note the designer and the year if a reliable source gives them, and do not invent a story about a typeface you have not read about.

This journal does not publish a ranking of typefaces and it does not recommend a default family for every job. The right face is the one that can be licensed for the use you have, that holds up at the size you need, and that you can still read after a morning of work.