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Meet the Font Detectives Who Ferret Out Fakery (wired.com)
New submitter rgh02 writes: Earlier this year, the former prime minister of Pakistan and his family came under scrutiny thanks to revelations in the Panama Papers. The smoking gun in the case of a forged document was none other than a font -- Calibri, which, as it turned out, wasn't even available until after the document had allegedly been signed and dated. This is not the first or the last time typography helped crack a case, and often with help from experts appropriately referred to as the 'font detectives.' At Backchannel, Glenn Fleishman dives into the adventures of the experts ferreting out fakery with their knowledge of fonts and the high-profile cases they've found themselves involved in.
Credulously accepting Times New Roman in MS Word as a typewriter font is what got Dan Rather into trouble.
This sounds like the least interesting crime show I have ever heard of, and I will not watch the dramatization even if Tom Hanks plays the lead.
When did Comic Sans appear?
Font detectives. Really?
You'd think when checking forged documents that this would be common procedure. Check the details about the font used.
Also would it be possible to add some kind of watermark of some sorts in all fonts? That way it would make it easier. Instead of identifying the font based on its look, you could identify it based on some type of small watermark in the letters. Just spitballing here. Go easy on me.
If instead you would have typed that exact question into a search engine instead of your comment, I'm sure you would receive a more informative answer than this cheeky wisecrack comment.
The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask the right question but to post the wrong answer.
I'm not trying to defend anyone here, but this sentence bugs me:
"Calibri, which, as it turned out, wasn't even available until after the document had allegedly been signed and dated."
Should it rather be:
"Calibri, which, as it turned out, wasn't even available legally until after the document had allegedly been signed and dated."
Would it be possible he used a pirated copy that was released earlier, making the document legit?
#DeleteFacebook
I try to use fixedsys fonts such as system in all of my writing they are widely accepted and have a tested user base. On top of that the system font avoid most modern time based conflicts as it dates back to the 1980's. It takes low resources and low resolution to create on a display device. I would encourage everyone to use system font and avoid all the painful issues of compatibility, performance, and legal ramifications that other much newer fonts can have.
There is or can be built a machine that can simulate any physical object. -Church-Turing principle
rgh02 is a spammer who also upvotes other articles from his employer.
If this story sounds familiar its because it was done, twice.
Fonts of knowledge researching fonts for knowledge.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Bush Jr's b.s. "service" was real. It was painfully obvious he landed a cushy position with the Airforce he had no business or qualifications for and that his father's connections got him that (and kept him out of war zones). What's more, his opponent Kerry actually went to 'Nam and somehow managed to get branded a coward.
The whole thing stinks. Like it was cooked up to shut down talk about why it was Bush Jr ended up with such a desirable position in the first place. During the latest election there were several incidents of phony docs critical of Trump floating around too. Tax documents, stuff that "proved" the Russian connection, etc, etc. IIRC Sam Bee got one (she mighta just reported on one).
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Man, it's getting so hard to cheat these days.
Then how do you explain the newspaper notice after he was born?