Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

TheShortTimer

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 27, 2017
3,314
5,745
London, UK
This is a departure from what I'd ordinarily discuss but quite apt given my admiration for the collaborative work of James Cameron and the late, great Bill Paxton. :D

Does anyone know which font was used for this GIF? I'd like to use it for captioning my own images - I've seen it used in adverts in the past and I know that it's definitely not the ubiquitous Impact Bold Condensed which has become the online standard typeface but I can't place it.

536746e089fb7fb18db97935564f3851.gif


Enlighten me, please! :)
 
This is a departure from what I'd ordinarily discuss but quite apt given my admiration for the collaborative work of James Cameron and the late, great Bill Paxton. :D

Does anyone know which font was used for this GIF? I'd like to use it for captioning my own images - I've seen it used in adverts in the past and I know that it's definitely not the ubiquitous Impact Bold Condensed which has become the online standard typeface but I can't place it.

536746e089fb7fb18db97935564f3851.gif


Enlighten me, please! :)
It looks like the font used on early iBooks and PowerBook G4s.
I don't know what it's called though...
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheShortTimer
I don’t have looked exactly, but out of the box I would say you mean Apple Garamond.

Edit: It is not exactly Garamond, i will take a look, perhaps I can find the right one.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: TheShortTimer
Apple had it's own style of Garamond: Apple Garamond, of course.
https://www.dafont.com/apple-garamond.font

AppleGaramond-Light might be a viable choice. I'll have a play around with it in the GIMP. :)

Later? here it is 3 o'clock in the night ;)

Finished, sorry don't found the right one.

It's 2:35 AM in the UK. :D

Thanks for trying. I appreciate it. :)

There's a number of fonts here that are similar to Garamond or variations on it and I'm going to see if any of them match up with the font used in the GIF. Ultimately I suppose that I could just use the AppleGaramond-Light because it looks close enough to mimic the look somewhat...
 
If you have an image editor (say Photoshop) crop into just a small portion of the text and then save out a jpg of that.

Upload it here: WhatTheFont

In my line of work (graphic design) this site has helped several times. 👍
 
  • Love
Reactions: TheShortTimer
Agreed, it looks closer to Garamond.

99iMac002.jpg


99powermac02.jpg


99PM01.jpg


Thanks to everyone for helping me with this quest! Who knew that a font could be so elusive? :D

I sincerely don’t know this font, but as soon as I saw the gif text, my brain instantly went to go type-check what was used for TV adverts for Jack In The Box, circa 1988–1994. Not a match, obviously, but they share that same mood.

1622771660182.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: eyoungren
If you have an image editor (say Photoshop) crop into just a small portion of the text and then save out a jpg of that.

Upload it here: WhatTheFont

In my line of work (graphic design) this site has helped several times. 👍

Thanks, that's a great resource to have on hand! :D

Unfortunately it didn't appear able to identify the font correctly because the leading match was Devin Semi Bold but the resemblance wasn't that strong with the text in the GIF. I'm convinced that it's a variant on Garamond, especially after downloading and playing around with AppleGaramond-Light in Pages and comparing with the normal Garamond.

n6GZdWs.png


e2I51Tu.png


dCSYfHN.png


Garamond Light isn't quite identical to the font that was used but it's close enough and definitely closer than normal Garamond. So let's get cracking! :)

3zodvHR.jpg
d2ToR3d.jpg


I used a VLC screen-grab from my 1999 NTSC Aliens Special Edition DVD - region locks be damned. ;)

Seeing as I've got the DVD mounted, here's a little reminder of the original context of the quote...

W3JvWrC.png

FUPgERQ.png

This is the precise frame that I want to work with. :)

xJ1WYMj.png


Here's my first attempt - with the help of GIMP 2.10:

4P5MC8M.png


Ok, it benefits from better spacing which means that the lines aren't cramped on top of each other but it's missing a little something to mimic the condensed styling of the original.

QVxihWp.png


That's better! All it took was adding bold to the text. Speaking of which, let's make it a bit larger and slightly change the vertical positioning.

l1RMjQX.png


Now, I'm satisfied. :D It's not an exact replica but it's good enough and best of all is that I was able to accomplish this task with open source software. Perhaps Photoshop could achieve better results but I can't be bothered to shell out for it or go through the hassle of tracking down a shady copy when GIMP has been sufficiently effective and free.
 
Last edited:
Thanks, that's a great resource to have on hand! :D

Unfortunately it didn't appear able to identify the font correctly because the leading match was Devin Semi Bold but the resemblance wasn't that strong with the text in the GIF. I'm convinced that it's a variant on Garamond, especially after downloading and playing around with AppleGaramond-Light in Pages and comparing with the normal Garamond.

n6GZdWs.png


e2I51Tu.png


dCSYfHN.png


Garamond Light isn't quite identical to the font that was used but it's close enough and definitely closer than normal Garamond. So let's get cracking! :)

3zodvHR.jpg
d2ToR3d.jpg


I used a VLC screen-grab from my 1999 NTSC Aliens Special Edition DVD - region locks be damned. ;)

Seeing as I've got the DVD mounted, here's a little reminder of the original context of the quote...

W3JvWrC.png

FUPgERQ.png

This is the precise frame that I want to work with. :)

xJ1WYMj.png


Here's my first attempt - with the help of GIMP 2.10:

4P5MC8M.png


Ok, it benefits from better spacing which means that the lines aren't cramped on top of each other but it's missing a little something to mimic the condensed styling of the original.

QVxihWp.png


That's better! All it took was adding bold to the text. Speaking of which, let's make it a bit larger and slightly change the vertical positioning.

l1RMjQX.png


Now, I'm satisfied. :D It's not an exact replica but it's good enough and best of all is that I was able to accomplish this task with open source software. Perhaps Photoshop could achieve better results but I can't be bothered to shell out for it or go through the hassle of tracking down a shady copy when GIMP has been sufficiently effective and free.
Keep in mind as well - people cheat.

What I mean is this: Let's take a basic font, Arial for example. Someone puts in a gigantic text block of Arial bold that doesn't fit. So, they track and scale in to make it fit. Now you've got a font that looks like Arial Narrow bold, but isn't. You as the person trying to replicate the font use Arial Narrow bold and…it doesn't look right.

I'm not saying any of that is the case here, but it's just something to keep in mind.
 
This is as close as I can get with Amiri and with a bit of kerning adjustments.

Amiri
View attachment 1787263

Nice work! :D

Keep in mind as well - people cheat.

What I mean is this: Let's take a basic font, Arial for example. Someone puts in a gigantic text block of Arial bold that doesn't fit. So, they track and scale in to make it fit. Now you've got a font that looks like Arial Narrow bold, but isn't. You as the person trying to replicate the font use Arial Narrow bold and…it doesn't look right.

I'm not saying any of that is the case here, but it's just something to keep in mind.

Understood - that makes a lot of sense and this is why I'm quite content with achieving a reasonable approximation that I can apply to whichever images I'd like to work on. There's no point in coveting the unattainable. :)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.