Few questions about fonts for correspondence

gezegen29 October 2011 · 13:53

Hello,

Recently I have bought CorelDraw 8 Academic box in a local secondhand bookshop for a few Swiss Franks. It comes with tons of Bitstream fonts. I like especially several and want to use them for correspondence - briefs/writings (up to 5 pages) to local authorities, organizations, etc.

The fonts I want to use:

(Caslon Old Face)
(Charter BT)
Classical Garamond (Sabon)
Elegant Garamond (Granjon)
Galliard BT
Iowan Old Style
Original Garamond (Stempel Garamond)

Gothic720 (MT Grotesque?)
Humanist 531 (Syntax)
(Humanist777 (Frutiger) )
Zurich (Univers)

Considering the Swiss use almost only sans serif fonts (Arial/Helvetica) for briefs, would it be a good practice

- to use a serif font as the main font?
- to use a sans-serif and a serif font in combination?

If yes, would you please be so kind to recommend a few combinations with the above fonts?

Thank you in advance!

Bert Vanderveen2 November 2011 · 08:50

All these are not really suited for correspondence, imo. The least objectionable is Frutiger, followed by Syntax, if you really want a sans. Amongst the serifs Charter might work (a lot of the others are too meagre or light or just plain ugly).

BTW I answered your question because nobody else did for three days, which may signify a certain disinterest amongst the Typophiles regarding the subject.

On another note: If you were to design a personal identity, even using some of these typefaces, you could broaden that to include correspondence etc. and it might work because of being part of a larger thing. In the way the smart car uses courier for everything.