sometimes words dont look right

[gabagoo]

Do you ever get a little confused with the spelling on the simplist of words, or question the spelling would be more appropriate. Sometimes I am typesetting and then when I am looking over the proof I stop on a word and it's like I have never seen it before and I question it's spelling. The word "for" a few years ago did it to me and I was convinced it looked wrong and how could I have mispelled it. I hadn't but it just did not look right. Last night I was working on a new logo for myself and I was typesetting the word "Signs" and although it looks OK today as I type it, I was staring at the screen as I was testing different fonts and I was thinking... Hmmmm... this is just not looking right and I kept staring at it and was almost convinced I couldn't spell the word lol
Maybe I better lay off the booze!! (hey is that the right spelling?) for a day or two eh? :Oops:

 

[weaselboogie]

I don't get that, but when I'm running the word through the font navigator or corel and looking at the same word in hundreds of different typefaces, it starts looking misspelled

 

[Gino]

I don't think something like this happening sporadically has any serious issues, but I do think there are quite a few people on here that really suffer from your observation.... and just don't give two cents about it anyway.... LOL ))))))))))))) )))))))))R))))))))))!)))))))

 

[ddarlak]

that happens to me alot. usually short 3-5 letter common words, suddenly they look spelled wrong.....

 

[mark in tx]

I won the 5th grade spelling bee, so I am the proofreader by default.
But I get that same thing happening, fortunately google has become the ultimate spellchecker.

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

I remember an incident from years back where an electric sign company asked me to subcontract a job for them hand cutting a large sign face. This was back when faces were spray painted to letter them. I pounced their pattern onto the mask and began cutting away with an Exacto. After I finished cutting the 3 foot high word "Pharmacy" I noticed the "r" was missing. I went and got the shop owner and pointed out it would have to be redone. He said no way, it had to be up the next morning, that I had used the same pattern as was used on the other side of the sign, nobody else had apparently ever noticed, and that I was to keep my mouth shut. I couldn't believe it, but had to drive my wife by the sign after it was installed. Hafta admit at first glance it read as pharmacy - lending credence to the theory we read words as shapes.

 

[Marlene]

what happens to me is I realize that I have seen a word a million times, but have never written it myself so it looks odd. it only happens when I hand write things.

 

[bob]

I remember an incident from years back where an electric sign company asked me to subcontract a job for them hand cutting a large sign face. This was back when faces were spray painted to letter them. I pounced their pattern onto the mask and began cutting away with an Exacto. After I finished cutting the 3 foot high word "Pharmacy" I noticed the "r" was missing. I went and got the shop owner and pointed out it would have to be redone. He said no way, it had to be up the next morning, that I had used the same pattern as was used on the other side of the sign, nobody else had apparently ever noticed, and that I was to keep my mouth shut. I couldn't believe it, but had to drive my wife by the sign after it was installed. Hafta admit at first glance it read as pharmacy - lending credence to the theory we read words as shapes.

True. Most people never actually read words, they look at the shapes and supply the actual words themselves. This is why, back in the days of actual typesetting, a typesetter would set an entire book and never know what the book was about. Typesetting was done by transcribing words and letters not by reading the material. When you read you interpret what you see into language via, by all accounts, pattern recognition. That interpretation may or may not be the same as what is actually written.

Paris
in the
the spring.

 

[Jillbeans]

This always happens to me after scrolling fonts.
It can be quite a disconcerting feeling.
I won the 5th grade spelling bee too!
Love....Jill

 

[signmeup]

Paris in the the spring?

 

[dlndesign]

Happens to me a few times a year at least, just last year, I remember that I was trying to spell "goose" and just couldn't get over the way it looked and I even had a nice long argument over it, nuf said, i was wrong. But I think its kinda normal when you think about how much we really look at words being in our profession, everyone gets burnt out, even a little.

 

[FrankenSigns.biz]

These are common anomalies that happen all the time. I call them brain farts.

This can happen in the extreme. If you get a chance I recommend a fabulous book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" by Oliver Sacks.

Also there's a fantastic episode of "the Twilight Zone" from the 1980's. The show starts out with the main character (Elliott Gould) noticed it very odd that someone said "dinosaur" instead of "lunch". By the end of the episode, every word in the English language had been transposed. Even though he understood each individual word, he could not understand anything anyone was saying. Methinks this could actually happen to some poor soul.

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

These are common anomalies that happen all the time. I call them brain farts.

This can happen in the extreme. If you get a chance I recommend a fabulous book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" by Oliver Sacks.

Also there's a fantastic episode of "the Twilight Zone" from the 1980's. The show starts out with the main character (Elliott Gould) noticed it very odd that someone said "dinosaur" instead of "lunch". By the end of the episode, every word in the English language had been transposed. Even though he understood each individual word, he could not understand anything anyone was saying. Methinks this could actually happen to some poor soul.

Inch Don Wednesday. My favorite line from that episode.

 

[FrankenSigns.biz]

What was going on then? When his daughter fell ill his wife was screaming "Moon tight! Moon tight!" Creepy.

 

[fisheye48]

This always happens to me after scrolling fonts.
It can be quite a disconcerting feeling.

+1

 

[Jake - Advantage Signs]

I just encapsulated a poster for a customer that dealt with this same kind of thing. I tried to find the text of the poster online, but this is the best I could come up with (apparently it is from an chain e-mail -- the place I grabbed it from was questioning whether it was an actual Cambridge study, but that is kind of inconsequential here...)

"From Cambridge University .

O lny srmat poelpe can raed tihs.
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, t he olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rgh it pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on !!"

 

[JR's]

This happens to me all the time, but then again I am dyslexics. cant spell to save my life. Sometimes I cant even make the words out, but when I am designing a sign its different.

JR

 

[emo]

And all this time I thought it was just me.

I need to find the photos I took of a street sign a few years ago. Supposed to say "Stadium Dr." but it was misspelled in two different ways! I think it was Stadum and Staduim. The sign is gone now though. Just gave up I reckon.

 

[JR's]

OMG II Jake that is cool.

JR

 

[FHG123]

So glad someone posted this today; Some words definitely don't look right with different fonts and I have checked and Rechecked; Came across my first problem of accidently mispelling a word; luckily it's not overly obvious and the customer let me know today.....Can't stand making mistakes:Oops: