I'm curious to see what everyone uses. I'm going to keep it simple.
What I use/have used:
EB Garammond (2016-2023; 2024-Present *for now*) Footlight MT Light (2023-2024; *I tried something new but went back after a year) Hastegi (2024- Present *New to me, intend to use for headings/Titles)
In worship aids, I wouldn’t necessarily apply another font for headings and titles. What I have mainly used:
Adobe Garamond Pro for Simple English Propers (2011), Lumen Christi Missal (2012-), Lauds and Vespers booklets (2016-) Elegant, timeless typeface.
New Aster for Ad Completorium (2021), Kyriale parvum (2022) Good proportion between width and height, which adds to readability. All editio typica from 1969 onwards have been set in New Aster
Palatino for Klein Graduale, Antwoordpsalmen (2017)
Gerard, thanks for that link to the Garamond Initials. That's one I do not have and I like it. I've used something similar that's a knockoff, but it's not nearly as refined. I'll be making some pew cards with the ordinary for Advent, so I'll be purchasing this font for that.
For us, I use Iowan Old Style for all lyrics and body text. It is so elegant and yet very legible at small sizes. It is also wonderful for pointing text because there is a "black" (extra bold) option which really makes syllables pop.
Yana is used for our headers and titles, and is the daily driver for drop caps. (As an aside, there are some phenomenal alternate glyphs for capitals, so you can get really creative with drop caps.)
Optima for small annotations and cues, and for the credits, since it is very legible at extremely small sizes.
I'm attaching this week's worship aid which includes all of these fonts for reference.
For most things I design, I use DTL Documenta (the font used in Gotteslob). The clients I regularly engrave for use Times, Minion Pro, Sabon, Garamond Pro, and Caslon.
For situations calling for a sans serif font, my current favorite is Marianne—which is the French national font, and very well designed. I also use Avemir and Optima.
In the past I have mostly used Garamond (the font of every blessing)
Recently, for my own music engraving, I've been using Baskerville. It is similar (but not exactly) to the font used in the Hymnal 1982. I find it it fits well under music. (Time New Roman, being slimmer, fits better - but looks like garbage). Most of the other fonts I like for text (Garamond, Palatino, Georgia) are a bit too fat for hymns.
Garamond…. Excellent font. I use the unconventional italic for lyrics. It compresses the lyrics very nicely under sung parts with a very pleasing amount of space … not too much not too little. You will find some classical publishers used this method in the past.
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