I feel yer pain Z about fonts...I have over 15,000 but can only run 5,000 at any given time and I'll spend one whole night just browsing thru to find a list of 100 or so that I like and then legibility issues will cut that down to only a handful. Choosing the right one is time consuming if yer trying to capture the feel with a font.
Things that I have learned recently (ie. my last map) in dealing with fonts to help legibility....bigger point size, tint/shade (light text on dark background or vice-versa), color (not necessarily complimentary colors just colors that look nice togerther), outer glow (to put some dead space around the text), stroke (give a hard edge to the text), spacing between letters (letters too squished together are hard to read at small size), width of letters (narrow letters are hard to read at small size), height of letters (short letters are hard to read at small size), the simpler the font the easier it is to read (sometimes we have to sacrifice style for substance), fancy and scripty are harder to read than simple and bold, and don't over-fancy it up with styles, shadows, gradients, and 3d effects when doing labeling...save that for the title.
My favorite example of why a simple font can look excellent is Aurellia by Arcana:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2272
He uses the the map itself to create a feel; fonts are simple, clear, and light.
Originally Posted by Ascension
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