It came to pass on 05/08/96 that LORRI BARMAN wrote 
concerning Font for business letters...
 
LB> I am looking for a nice monospaced font for business reports that
LB> sometimes incorporate columns of numbers.  I prefer one that is san
LB> serif.  Courier and Courier New looks so tacky.
Most of the reason why Courier looks so tacky is because it is 
monospaced. Getting number columns to line up can be a problem though. 
You are using tabs, I presume, not spaces to line up your columns.
Another point is that, whilst looking good, sans serif fonts are harder 
to read in the long run. This is because the serifs give your eyes 
something to follow.
I'd suggest that if you absolutly have to use a monospaced font for 
numbers then only use it for the section with the numbers. I think 
you'll find, however, that some proportional fonts have very close to 
monospaced numbers. Lets face it, apart from 1, all the other numbers 
are the same width.
As an aside, I worked on an MS Access database sales reporting module 
that was full of columns of numbers. We didn't use a monospaced font, 
but the numbers still lined up well. I'm pretty sure we used 'Ariel'. 
Whilst I don't think this is a good font for body text, it is pretty 
crisp for numbers and titles.
Cya Matt
 * RM 1.31  * Eval Day 61 *
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