[Photo walk] Around the northern suburbs of Melbourne, part 10

It was a lovely day today so I decided to go for a short photo walk around Merlynston Creek in Melbourne’s north.

The cactus does not fear the barbed wire

Photo looking up at the top of a tall, wooden fence on a residential street. A layer of chain link fence has been erected above the wooden fence using regularly spaced metal supports. And above that there are two stands of barbed wire strung along the very top of the metal support poles. A tall and large opuntia cactus plant (possible prickly pear?) that is growing behind this multi-layer fence is comfortably resting a segment of itself on top of the barbed wire and chain link fence, causing both of those to bend under its weight.

A quiet spot along Merlynston Creek

Photo of a green, metal park bench facing the greenery surrounding a creek that flows next to a residential neighbourhood. The spot is very quiet and peaceful on this sunny day.

Stormwater culvert that helps manage flooding on Merlynston Creek

Photo of a large, round, and currently-dry stormwater drainage culvert that crosses under a walking path. A pile of medium-sized boulders has been arranged in front of the opening so the flow of water is slowed as it exits the culvert. There is graffiti both outside and inside the culvert, including a large arrow pointing upwards that has been painted on the wall at the other side of the tunnel.

It is dark in the stormwater culvert

Desaturated photo of a large, round, and currently-dry stormwater drainage culvert. A pile of medium-sized boulders has been arranged in front of the opening so the flow of water is slowed as it exits the culvert. There is graffiti both outside and inside the culvert, including a large arrow pointing upwards that has been painted on the wall at the other side of the tunnel.

Footscray West Writers Fest 2026

Nadia was invited to speak at the ‘Poetry & Wine’ sessions at this year’s Footscray West Writers Fest, which is now in its second year of running.

Naturally, I brought my camera along and took a few photos while I was there :)

Graphic showing the Footscray West Writers Fest 2026 logo and a circular collage of black-and-white photos of the speakers at the ‘Poetry & Wine’ session.

Introduction

Thuy On kicking off the ‘Poetry & Wine’ session

Photo of poet Thuy On seated in an outdoor courtyard. She is speaking into a microphone that she is holding in her hand. Thuy is wearing a red-and-black dress with a bright-red flower fascinator in her hair.

Jaidyn Attard

Jaidyn Attart is a street poet and I actually posted a photo of one his poems back in 2024 :)

Jaidyn Attard reciting his poetry - 1

Photo of poet Jaidyn Attard standing in a wine-bar courtyard. He is reciting his poetry into a microphone that he is holding in his hand. Jaidyn is wearing a black t-shirt and brown overshirt. Jaidyn is also looking straight at the photographer taking this photo.

Nadia Niaz

Nadia Niaz getting ready to recite her poetry

Photo of poet Nadia Niaz standing at a table in a wine-bar courtyard. Nadia is sorting through some papers on the table as she prepares to read her poetry to the audience.

Nadia Niaz reciting her poetry - 1

Photo of poet Nadia Niaz standing in a wine-bar courtyard. Nadia is reciting her poetry into the microphone that is on a mic-stand in front of her. She is gesturing with her right hand while holding open her book, The Djinn Hunters, in her left hand. Nadia is wearing a black top and black jacket.

Thuy On

Thuy On reciting her poetry - 1

Photo of poet Thuy On standing in a wine-bar courtyard. Thuy is reciting her poetry into the microphone that is on a mic-stand in front of her. She is holding open one of her poetry books with her right hand. Thuy is wearing a red-and-black dress with a bright-red flower fascinator in her hair.

Random photo

Outdoor LED lighting at West Footscray Wines

Photo of an LED light globe affixed to a string of outdoor lights in a wine-bar courtyard. There are cobwebs on the light fixture and, in the background of the photo, you can see an out-of-focus mural painted on the courtyard wall.

Lili Ward

Lili Ward reciting her poetry - 1

Photo of poet Lili Ward seated in a wine-bar courtyard. Lili is reciting her poetry into the microphone that is on a mic-stand in front of her. She is reading from her poetry book, Easily Enlightened. Lili is wearing a black t-shirt that reads, "Readers and writers against the genocide".

Volunteer photographer

Footscray West Writers Fest 2026 volunteer taking a photo - 1

I like taking photos of photographers and videographers, the folks who are usually on the other side of the lens. I even have an album on Flickr with all such photos I’ve taken over the years :)

Photo of a young woman wearing grey jeans and an olive green event-branded t-shirt who is sitting on a walkway that connects at wine-bar courtyard to the main building. This photo is taken between rows of audience members seated at an outdoor poetry reading event. The woman is using a Canon DSLR camera to take a photo of the speaker who is currently reciting their poetry.

Magan Magan

Magan Magan reciting his poetry - 1

Photo of poet Magan Magan standing in a wine-bar courtyard, as seen above the heads of some audience members. Magan is reciting his poetry into the microphone that is on a mic-stand in front of him. Magain is wearing a black t-shirt and brown wool cap, and he is reading from the smartphone he is holding in his hands.

Linkin Park in Melbourne, 2026

After attending the 8 March Linkin Park concert with Nadia, I attended the 10 March concert by myself. A lot of the folks around me had done exactly the same: attended the first show with their partner and were now attending this second show on their own :)

Since I’d already seen most of this show once – there was a six-song difference between day one and day two – I took more photos and videos during this show than I normally would. Here are some of them.

tl;dr

I only recorded small bits of some of the songs that Linkin Park played because I wanted to spend the rest of the time in the moment. I’m much happier listening to these songs being played live in front of me than focusing on what I’m capturing my phone’s comparatively tiny screen. Anyway, I’ve compiled those clips into a single video.

LPU early entry

I’ve been a member of Linkin Park Underground (LPU), the Linkin Park fan club, since 2010, skipping only the 2022-23 year because that was when we bought a house and got a mortgage, and so I cancelled literally all my subscriptions. (Including my other long-term subscription to Feminist Frequency, which I’d had since 2012.)

One of the benefits of an LPU membership is that, if you have a General Admission (GA) ticket, you can apply for early entry to Linkin Park’s concerts. Only the first 100 LPU members with verified GA tickets who apply are selected and, because I was a little late in applying, I was #74 on the list.

Still, that meant I got to queue up with VIP ticket holders and other early-entry LPU members at 5pm on Tuesday. Doors opened for everyone else at 6:15pm, openers Polaris kicked things off at 7:30pm, and Linkin Park’s set started at 8:45pm.

Waiting in the early entry line at Rod Laver Arena

Photo of a pull-up banner outside of an arena that reads, “LPU early entry”.

We were escorted into the empty Rod Laver Arena floor at 5:30pm, a full 45 minutes before gates opened to the general public at 6:15pm – which was super cool.

Empty Rod Laver Area floor, before doors open to the general public

Photo of a large arena prepped for a concert that that is currently completely empty of attendees.

The Linkin Park team makes an effort to recognise its fan club members so, while we went about arranging ourselves along the barricade at the very front of the arena floor, our LPU avatars were being displayed on the big screen at the back of the stage.

Avatars of early-entry LPU members on display

Photo of a large screen at the back of a massive concert stage. Displayed on the screen is a logo, the text, “Welcome LPU”, and twenty stylised avatars of members of the Linkin Park fan club.

In case you’re wondering, mine is the blue one in the bottom-right corner of this photo :)

Early-entry LPU member avatars on display behind the stage

Photo of part of a large screen at the back of a concert stage. Displayed on the screen is a logo, the text, “Welcome LPU”, and ten stylised avatars of members of the Linkin Park fan club. In the bottom-right corner is a blue-skinned character with a beard and eyeglasses who is wearing a khaki-and-orange industrial-looking hoodie.

A new era for Linkin Park

One of the coolest things about the latest evolution of Linkin Park is how their audience has evolved right along with them. When I attended their show the last time they were in Australia, which was in December 2010, I think around 40% of concert attendees were women. In this new era of Linkin Park, easily 50% of attendees were women or non-binary. That was true on the arena floor as well.

There was also a difference between the Sunday and Tuesday shows. When Mike Shinoda asked for a show of hands on Sunday, about one-third of the crowd indicated they’d attended a Linkin Park concert before, while two-thirds were attending their first one that night. He didn’t repeat this question on Tuesday, but it felt like those numbers were reversed and we had a greater proportion of long-term, die-hard fans in attendance. (Tuesday being a school night also meant there was fewer children there.)

The vibe was different enough on Tuesday that there was a good amount of crowd surfing going on. Even Emily Armstrong crowd surfed for a bit :) I hadn’t noticed any crowd surfing on Sunday, thought that might have just been me not paying enough attention.

Concert etiquette, behaviour, and security practices have come a long way since 2010 because, when Linkin Park performed in Melbourne back then (which was also at Rod Laver Arena), there were clear signs telling us that, “Moshing and Crowd Surfing is NOT PERMITTED”!

Photo of an area with seats rising up to the back wall. A sign attached to the barrier at the front of the seating area reads, “Moshing and Crowd Surfing is NOT PERMITTED”.

Fast forward to 2026 and concert security were constantly making sure folks on the arena floor stayed hydrated at all times – regularly passing down water in paper cups, for example – and they were super efficient at helping crowd surfers get down safely once those folks had made it all the way to the front.

Before the event kicked off, tour management also came by and talked to us about what to expect during the show – like the mosh pit that’s formed during Two Faced – and what to do if we weren’t feeling well.

All told, it was an excellent experience on the arena floor. But then – much like the members of the band itself – Linkin Park’s fans are, on average, more considerate and, frankly, nicer people. At least in my experience.

Video show-and-tell

Speaking of how things have changed from 2010 to 2026, I made a video to show some of the differences between the two live performance.

Aside from the permanent line-up changes – with lead vocalist Emily Armstrong replacing the late Chester Bennington and drummer Colin Brittain replacing Rob Bourdon – their songs are now played in a different key to suit Emily’s vocal range and Alex Feder is their touring lead guitarist because Brad Delson prefers not to go on tour.

Just like the band’s concert technology, my filming technology has also received a massive upgrade. Back in 2010, I was recording video in 720p resolution on a 2000s-era Canon IXUS 120 digital camera. In 2026, I’m recording in 1080p using my Google Pixel 6 Pro smartphone.

The 2010 audio from my Canon camera was completely unusable, by the way. Its tiny microphone could not handle the concert volume and absolutely could not handle the bass! Fortunately, back in the day, LPU members who could show evidence they’d attended a particular concert were able to purchase an audio recording of that show. This was audio recorded straight off the mixing console. This approach obviated the need for any bootlegging recordings and also made the band a bit of additional revenue. I’d bought this recording for the show I attended in 2010, and so I was able to used this in my video instead of the crappy in-camera audio :)

One of the best shows I’ve attended

Here, finally, are some of my photos from Linkin Park’s performance.

Mike singing

Photo of musician Mike Shinoda on stage with a guitar slung across his back while he sings into the microphone that he is holding.

The massive video screens directly above us

Photo of two massive rectangular lighting rigs attached to the roof of an arena. Along the side of these lighting rigs are massive video screens that are showing members of the band that is performing on the stage below.

The joy of standing so close to the confetti canon

Photo of an arena showing a wall of pink and purple confetti that has just been blown out of confetti canons arranged in front of a massive stage.

Those canons really do launch that confetti across the whole arena!

Photo of an arena showing a wall of pink and purple confetti that has been blown out of confetti canons arranged in front of a massive stage. The confetti is floating above the thousands of people standing on the arena floor.

Emily and Mike encouraging fans to sing along

Photo of musicians Emily Armstrong and Mike Shinoda standing on platforms built on top of a stage at an arena concert. Emily is singing into the microphone she is holding while Mike is pointing his microphone at the crowd in front of him, encouraging them to sign along.

Joe taking photos of the crowd

Photo of musician Joe Hahn taking photos of the crowd while his fellow band members perform on stage at a arena concert.

Me in the background of Joe’s photo

I only took a couple of selfies at the show but neither turned out very well. Happily, you can see me (wearing the black face mask) in the top-left corner of this photo that Joe Hahn took and then posted on his Instagram account.

Photo of a woman screaming in delight while wearing a Linkin Park hat. The woman is standing at the barricade at the very front of an arena floor. Directly behind this woman is a bald man wearing glasses and a black face mask who is looking up at musician Mike Shinoda as he raps into his microphone.

The main focus of Joe’s photo is Irene, the LPU member who was gifted a Linkin Park hat signed by the entire band. I was right behind her when this happened and took a video of it, which I later sent to her and she posted on her Instagram :)

Mike rapping while standing on the barricade directly in front of us

Mike is the one who presents this gift to a fan every night, and here’s the photo I took of him rapping to start the next song. Yes, he is standing on top of the barricade that’s directly in front of us.

Photo of musician Mike Shinoda rapping while standing on top of the barricade at the front of an arena floor.

The whole band in one photo

Photo of musicians Mike Shinda, Emily Armstrong, Dave Farrell, Joe Hahn, Alex Feder, and Colin Brittain performing on stage at an arena.

Fantastic laser light show

Photo of a three-dimensional laser and large-screen light show around the stage at an arena concert.

Dave doing his thing

Photo of musician Dave Farrell playing his bass guitar on stage at an arena.

Emily doing her thing

Photo of musician Emily Armstrong singing as she looks down into members of the audience from an arena concert stage.

Bass, rhythm, lead guitar

Photo of musicians Dave Farrell, Mike Shinoda, and Alex Feder – bass, rhythm, and lead guitarists, respectively – performing at the front of an arena stage.

Emily connecting with at a fan

Photo of musician Emily Armstrong pointing at a fan as she walks towards her during an arena concert.

Lights turned all the way up after the end of the show

Photo of a massive arena stage with all its white lights turned on. The concert has ended and all the musicians have left the stage.

The crowd behind me, right after the show ended

Photo of thousands of people standing on an arena floor at the end of a concert, with several thousand more seated in chairs all around the arena. Rod Laver Arena can hold over fifteen thousand attendees during concerts.

Confetti’s gonna confetti

Photo looking down at an arena floor that has no people on it, but is full of pink and purple coloured confetti. The photographers shoes, legs, and shorts are visible in the bottom of the photo frame.

So that’s that.

I’ve been in GA crowds several time over the years, but this was probably the most fun that I’ve had in one. It helped that all of us early-entry people were avid, even nerdy, Linkin Park fans and we quickly made friends with the folks around us. When you’re jumping up and down, squeezed between your neighbours, with the bass pounding and confetti flying, it’s good to know the names of the folks around you and that you’ll all look out for each other over the course of the night :)

Summer 2026 events round-up

Like I’ve mentioned before, I don’t take many photos and videos at events like concerts, talks, and comedy shows because I prefer being present in the moment.

That said, I do like to take at least a couple of photos for posterity. So here are some of the event photos and videos I’ve taken over the last few months.

I’m going to skip over one event I attended because this was a rare exception to my take-very-few-photos rule. I’ll cover that in the next post.

Garbage

12 Dec 2025. Garbage is one of my all-time favourite bands. I had to travel for work when these folks toured Australia in 2016, but this time I made sure I was there. Nadia and I attended the concert (and went out for dinner before that) with a whole bunch of friends and we had a fantastic time.

Garbage performing at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne

Photo of alternative rock band Garbage performing on stage.

Elderbrook

14 Jan 2026. Elderbrook is one of my favourite electronic musicians/DJ. He toured Australia as part of the summer music festival circuit and we got to watch him at the Australian Open concert series. (Yes, the AusOpen tennis tournament is about a lot more than just world class tennis.)

Elderbrook playing the drums during his set

Photo of electronic musician and DJ Elderbrook performing at a medium-sized outdoor festival-like stage. Elderbrook is drumming on some electronic drum pads set up on the stage next to his DJ rig. The super wide, wrap-around video screens behind him are displaying a fiery orange pattern.

Here’s a super short video from this concert too.

Gianmarco Soresi

24 Jan 2026. Gianmarco Soresi’s stand-up material ranges from very personal to very political. Your face won’t hurt at the end of his show because you laughed too much – his shows aren’t like that – but your brain will be full of zingy thoughts and unhinged imagery that you were absolutely not expecting.

The Capitol is such a gorgeous theatre

Photo of the a large theatre with a layered, three-dimensional, rectangular roof with hidden white, blue, and purple lighting.

Wet Leg

10 Feb 2026. I’m not hugely into post-punk revival, but I do love Wet Leg. We didn’t have the best spot from which to watch this show, but it was a fun concert nonetheless.

Wet Leg at Northcote Town Hall

Photo of indie rock band Wet Leg performing on stage.

Nerd Nite #67

11 Feb 2026. Since this is probably the first time you’re hearing about this: Nerd Nite is “evidence-based entertainment” – a series of informal talks given at a pub by nerds, for nerds. Started in Boston, USA in 2003, the concept spread all over the world, though I believe Melbourne Nerd Nite is the last chapter still running in Australia.

I’ve watched a lot of these talks online, but this was the first time I attended in person. It is so energising being around that many nerds! Nadia and I will try to attend all these talks going forward.

Nerd Nite at the Howler in Brunswick

Photo of a stage with a cinema-sized projector screen at the back. The screen shows a graphic of a stylised Melbourne tram with ‘Nerd Nite 2026’ written in graffiti on it.

Linkin Park

8, 10 Mar 2026. Linkin Park is one of my all-time favourite bands and the group were performing two shows in Melbourne. Nadia and I attended the first of those concerts together.

Selfie from Linkin Park’s From Zero world tour

Selfie of a man and woman wearing glasses and black face masks sitting in the crowd at a concert.

I’m a Linkin Park Underground (ie fan club) member, so I get access to ticket sales really early. That meant we got excellent seats: right in the centre and just four rows back from the mixing desk :)

Seated right behind the mixing desk at Rod Laver Arena for Linkin Park

Wide-angle photo of a large sports arena with a currently empty stage. Thousands of attendees, especially the ones on the floor of the arena, have their smartphones out and are filming what is about to happen on the stage. In the foreground of the photo are production techs standing in front of dozens of screens and control boards that make up a modern concert sound and lighting control set-up.

I attended Linkin Park’s second show by myself (this time in General Admission) and I’ll show you the photos and videos I took there in my next post.

Laura Ramoso

13 Mar 2026. Unlike Gianmarco Soresi, you do come out of Laura Ramoso’s stand-up shows with your face hurting from laughing so much. Laura did a fantastic job at transposing and translating her online skits and characters to the stage.

Waiting for Laura Ramoso at The Palais Theatre in St Kilda

Photo of an empty stage with text projected on the curtain at the back of the stage. This text reads, “Laura Ramoso” and “Calm Down Tour”.

This has been a really fun summer, and though we have fewer events planned for the rest of the calendar year, I’m looking forward to all of those as well.

2026 NBN update: the final upgrade

tl;dr

We upgraded our NBN connection from FTTC to FTTP, and because the switch to FTTP allowed us to upgrade to the Home Ultrafast speed tier, now our download speeds are ten times faster and our upload speeds are four times faster that before.

Screenshot of an internet speed test from OpenSpeedTest that shows a download speed of 958.61Mbps, jitter of 0.00ms, ping of 3.0ms, and upload speed of 73.41Mbps.

The start of our NBN story

We got connected to Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) in December 2015.

Then, because we were renting, we moved house a few times. That meant both our connection speed and connection type changed every few years (which I documented along the way using the ‘NBN’ tag on this blog, in case you’re interested).

Screenshot from the NBN website showing the various types of fixed line connections available on the NBN: Fibre to the Premises; Fibre to the Building; Fibre to the Curb; Fibre to the Node; and Hybrid Fibre Coaxial. (Source)

All that stopped in 2022 when we bought a house in the northern suburbs of Melbourne that had a Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) NBN connection. That’s the connection type in which the fibre optic cable carrying the internet signal terminates at a distribution box on your street (ie the “curb”) and a standard copper cable goes from there to your house.

The speeds on this connection type were decent, but not great: 95Mbps down and 19Mbps up.

The upload speed, in particular, was irritating because it was half of what we’d had with a Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) connection in our previous places. Now it took me a lot longer to back-up my media to the cloud, for example, and I had to make sure I wasn’t doing any uploading when Nadia or I were on a video conference call for work (especially if Nadia was teaching a class). First world problems, I know, but irritating ones nonetheless.

A new hope

You can upgrade! No, you can’t.

Happily, in January 2025, NBN Co announced its ‘full fibre upgrade’ program. This would let 622,000 properties across Australia upgrade their existing, slower connection types to the fastest-possible Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) connection.

I immediately tried to sign up to this upgrade but found that we weren’t eligible yet. We live in a property with only three units and, at the time, NBN Co was prioritising upgrades for properties with four or more units.

*sigh*

You can upgrade now! Wait, no, you still can’t.

Not too long after, in October 2025, all types of properties became eligible for the upgrade so I immediately signed us up.

Screenshot of an email with the heading, “We’ve received your request” and the text, “Hi Ameel Zia Khan, We appreciate your interest in the nbn Full Fibre Upgrade for Complex Multi-Dwelling Properties at” followed by an address that has been blacked out. An italicised sentence just below this paragraph reads, “Please note that this application applies to all units/premises within the building or complex, not individual units or lots.”

I didn’t hear anything till November 2025, when someone from the Fibre Upgrades team at NBN Co reached out to say our application was still under review.

Then, in January 2026, they reached out to say we could now formally proceed with the upgrade. We just needed to fill out a form and each unit on the property needed to pay $275 to cover the remainder of the government-subsidised installation cost.

Unfortunately, in the intervening months, things had changed at our end: one of the units on our property had been sold and, when I reached out to the new owners to say, “hey, we’re now all set to do the NBN upgrade” these folks said they didn’t want to do the upgrade.

Animated GIF showing a woman standing up and shouting, “Noooo!”

So that was that. End of story. No upgrade for me.

(Obviously that’s not how the story ended.)

The twist ending

Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, at the end of February 2026, I got one final email from NBN Co that read:

Hi Ameel,

We’re writing to share an important update regarding the nbn® fibre upgrade at [YOUR ADDRESS].

Your premises/complex was previously progressing through the nbn Full Fibre Upgrade for Complex Multi‑Dwelling Properties program. Following a recent assessment, it has now been reclassified and is eligible to individually order an nbn® Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) service via a High-Speed Tier plan.

What this means

Instead of continuing through the Complex MDU upgrade pathway, individual premises within the complex/block can now request an order directly with their preferred retail service provider (RSP), provided they select an eligible high‑speed plan.

This meant our upgrade to FTTP was no longer an all-or-nothing deal for the whole property. Individual owners of each unit could now apply separately through their internet service providers (ISPs) to upgrade just their own NBN connections!

Woohoo!

Happily every after

From then on, things proceeded at pace.

Our ISP is iiNet – who we’ve been with since 2009! – so shortly after I received this email, I went to their ‘Fibre upgrade’ page and signed up for a free upgrade.

The very next day I got a message to say our upgrade-installation was booked for exactly one week later.

One week later, which was yesterday, the installer turned up and, within two hours, had:

  • laid the new fibre optic cable from the street to our unit,

  • installed two new connection boxes (outside box shown below), and

  • activated our new NBN FTTP connection.

Photo showing an large while box stamped NBN Co installed on a brick wall.

All I needed to do was log into our modem and uncheck the VLAN tagging checkbox that was needed for the old FTTC connection but was stopping our new FTTP connection from working.

And just like that, we were done.

Serious speed upgrade

So what speeds are we getting now?

Well, not only did we upgrade our connection type to FTTP, we also upgraded to the ‘Home Ultrafast’ speed tier that gives you download speeds of up to 1,000Mbps (ie one gigabit per second) and upload speeds of up to 100Mbps :)

And because we’d upgraded to the latest Synology router in 2024 – the WRX560, with its 2.5Gbps WAN port – I knew all our hardware (and the Ethernet cables in our walls) could handle the speed upgrade just fine.

Here, then, are our current download and upload speeds.

Graphic with two bar charts showing, respectively, download and upload speeds in megabits per second from 2009 to 2026. The bars are divided into groups by connection type. 2009 ADSL speeds are 6.9Mbps down, 0.9Mbps up. 2015 FTTB speeds are 46.7 down, 22.6 up. 2016 and 2018 FTTP speeds are 75.7 and 105.2 down, 36.5 and 37.2 up. 2020 and 2022 FTTC speeds are 91.9 and 94.7 down, 18.2 and 18.9 up. Finally, a differently coloured bar for 2026 Ultrafast FTTP shows speeds of 937.3 down, 89.0 up.

We’re currently getting speeds of 937Mbps up and 89Mbps down – which is a whopping ten times faster for downloads and four times faster for uploads!

What now?

So that’s it. The end of the road. Our final NBN upgrade is complete.

Yes, NBN Co has announced an Ultrafast II speed tier that gives you 2GBps download speeds, but that is absolutely not something we need at home so our upgrading days are very much over.

Now we just get to enjoy blazingly fast download and upload speeds, and the next time I need to upload a few terabytes of data to the cloud, I won’t have to leave my desktop switched on continuously for a few days in a row!

As someone whose work and personal life is inextricably intertwined with the internet, I am a very happy person right now :)

Pros and cons of upgrading to Windows 11 at work

Cons

How do you make corporate life more painful when upgrading everyone to Windows 11?

  1. You lock down the Microsoft Edge browser so employees can’t install any extensions on it, making this browser completely useless for my purposes. (I prefer Edge to Chrome at work because the former uses ~20% less RAM, as shown in the screenshot below. Both browsers have a single tab open and our intranet home page is loaded on that tab.)

  2. You lock down the Google Chrome browser so you can’t turn off the “offer to save passwords” feature, making it super irritating to use. <sigh>

Screenshot showing the Windows 11 Task Manager. Five apps are running, with Google Chrome taking up 605.7MB of memory and Microsoft Edge taking up 498.1MB of memory.

Oh well, at least they still let us install and use the Mozilla Firefox browser without any restrictions!

Sadly, while I love Firefox – and I use it as my default browser at home – I still end up using Chrome for most of what I do at work. Many of our corporate systems work best in Chrome so I have to grin and bear it as I click, “no, I never want to save this password for this site” over and over again.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Pros

Conversely, here’s how corporate life is is less painful now that we’re upgrading to Windows 11:

  1. The Cascadia font family comes preinstalled, so I’m no longer forced to use Consolas as my default text editor font! (I take all my work notes in text using Notepad++.)

Screenshot from the Windows 11 font manager showing Cascadia Code and Cascadia Mono fonts installed on the computer.

You win some, you lose some, I guess.

To be fair, as someone who cares very much about cybersecurity, I will always choose security over convenience.

Whether locking-down Edge that tightly will genuinely make our work computers more secure, I don’t know. That said, Edge is a Microsoft product so I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry :)

Still, being unable to install uBlock or any other ad blocker in our default web browser seems like a major oversight, especially since uBlock Origin used to come pre-installed in our browsers on Windows 10.

Like I said before: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Photo walk] Spring Street #1

I attended a business lunch near Parliament House in Melbourne, so afterwards I walked up to it took a few photos.

Free Palestine, at the tram stop outside Parliament House in Melbourne

Black-and-white photo of the sidewalk at a tram stop. Graffiti written in chalk on the wall of this sidewalk reads, “Free Palestine”.

Photo and video projects in progress on the steps of Parliament House

Photo of a large stonework building with tall pillars and a very set of stairs across the front. Several people are sitting and standing on these stairs. In the foreground of the photo are a bride, groom, and bridesmaid who are having their photos taken. Next to them is a film crew that has paused filming while the wedding photo group relocates to a different section of the building. In the background, at the top of the steps, in another photographer taking a photo of someone standing on the steps.

Talent and crew ready for the next take

Photo of an actress in a black, formal outfit and maroon high heels standing on the inclined driveway that leads up to the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne. In the foreground is a camera operator holding his camera on a self-stabilising gimbal at knee height as he prepares to video the talent as she walks up to the building. This photo is taken through the gap between the pillars of the stone banister that lines the driveway.

Actress ready for the next take

Photo of an actress in a black, formal outfit and maroon high heels standing on the inclined driveway that leads up to the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne. She is waiting for the director to call, “Action!” before walking up the driveway. This photo is taken through the gap between the pillars of the stone banister that lines the driveway.

Camera operator filming

Photo of a camera operator holding his camera on a self-stabilising gimbal at knee height as he shoots his video. This photo is taken through the gap between the pillars of a stone banister.

Escalator down to Town Hall Station in Melbourne

Black-and-white photo looking down at a bank of escalators leading to an underground train station. The escalators are empty, but the legs of one traveller are visible in the top-right corner of the photo.

Melbourne Pride March 2026, part 3

Finally, here my photos of some of the dogs at Melbourne’s Midsumma Pride March 2026 :)

Tiny puppy

Photo of a tiny, tan-and-white puppy straining on a leash in a grassy field. The puppy is only slightly taller than the ankle of the person it is standing next to. A small Progress Pride flag has been attached to its leash.

Dog playing fetch

Photo of a medium-sized, brown-and-white dog wearing a baseball cap. The dog is walking across a grassy field as it carries a stick back to its owner.

Fluffy white dog

Photo of a small, fluffy, white dog with lots of pride paraphernalia attached to it. The dog is being walked on a lead across a grassy field.

Fluffy white assistance dog

Photo of a small, fluffy, white dog wearing an assistance-dog harness and a poofy, colourful skirt. A rainbow pride flag has been attached to the dog's harness. The dog is being walked on a blue leash that has an “assistance dog” label on it. The dog and its owner are walking across a grassy field.

Pride noodle

Photo of a greyhound dog wearing a rainbow-coloured sweater is being walked on a yellow leash across a grassy field before Melbourne Pride March 2026.

Fluffy backpack dog

Photo of a fluffy, white, medium-sized dog in a backpack. The backpack is being work by a man in a bright orange t-shirt with the Commission for Children and Young People logo on it. The man has a Progress Pride flag sticker on his cheek.

Fluffy white dog in a backpack

Photo of a fluffy, white, medium-sized dog in a backpack. The backpack is worn by a man in a bright orange t-shirt. Next to the man is a woman wearing a rainbow-heart-themed tie-dye t-shirt, with rainbow paint on her cheek and a rainbow hair tie.

Enjoying the event from a distance

Photo of a woman and her large, white dog sitting calmly in a children's play area close to the start of Melbourne Pride March 2026. The dog is looking off-camera at the crowd of people preparing to march.

Melbourne Pride March 2026, part 2

Here are my photos of some of the marchers at Melbourne’s Midsummer Pride March 2026.

The kids are alright

Photo of dozens of teenagers holding pride signs getting ready to march at Melbourne Pride 2026. Signs include, “Bi, shy & ready to cry”, “Non-binary & proud”, and “Lesbians are lovely”.

This is pride at work

Photo of a placard being held by employees from Seek as they march at Melbourne Pride 2026. The placard reads, in bright-pink, all-caps lettering, “this is pride at work”.

RACV Pilot Service car

Photo of a bright yellow 1967 Morris Mini Deluxe car with “RACV Pilot Service” painted on it. The car is being driven along the Melbourne Pride March route by a woman in a bright pink t-shirt and a rainbow-coloured feather boa around her neck. A woman in the passenger seat, who is wearing a bright blue t-shirt, is smiling a she looks straight at the photographer taking this photo.

All-sparkly

Photo of two women in red and purple sparkly, strappy dresses and rainbow-coloured headpieces marching at Melbourne Pride March 2026.

Rainbow earrings

Photo of a woman smiling while marching at Melbourne Pride March 2026. The woman is wearing a blue RACV t-shirt and rainbow earrings.

Melbourne Pride March 2026, part 1

I didn’t spend as much at time as I wanted at this year’s Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne, but I did get a few good photos.

There are my general photos and photos of some of the kids there. Coming up after this are my photos of marchers and dogs :)

From Paris to Melbourne

Zoomed-in photo of a man wearing rainbow coloured sneakers and rainbow coloured socks with an outline of the Eiffel Tower on them. The man is standing in a grassy field alongside other people and a black-and-white dog.

Kinetic’s Pride Bus

Photo of a man wearing a rainbow jacket attaching a rainbow flag to a city bus that's been painted in rainbow colours. A heart shaped sign attached to the front windscreen reads, “You are loved”.

Riding along

Photo of a young girl in pink-and-blue clothes, with long, light-pink coloured hair extensions in two braids, riding on the shoulders of a person walking through the crown at Melbourne Pride 2026. Slightly out of focus, and in the background on the photo, is a large Progress Pride flag.

Having an important conversation

Photo of two toddlers sitting near a crowd of people who are preparing to march at Melbourne Pride 2026. One of the girls is pointing her finger at something while explaining something to the other girl. A slightly older boy who is walking nearby is looking at this exchange with a smile on his face.

Unicorn toddler

Photo of a small child sitting in a stroller while wearing a rainbow-coloured unicorn-horn headband.

Stepping up to take a photo

Photo of a young man in a purple t-shirt standing on something so he can raise himself well above the spectators and supporters lining the Melbourne Pride March route. The man has a phone in his hand is taking a photo or video of the group that is marching by.

Cleaning up after the crowds

Photo of a man in the section of a large, grassy, sports field that is now empty of people. The man is wearing a high-visibility vest and blue, plastic gloves. He is picking up fallen bits of pride-march costumes and is packing them into a very large garbage back. In the far background are marchers who have not yet started marching at Melbourne Pride March 2026.

It is cool to see how much I’ve improved as a photographer since 2023 (part 1, part 2), which is when I last took my mirrorless camera (Fujifilm X-S10) to Pride to take photos.

Because I got almost everything right in-camera, this year’s photos are brighter and cleaner, and I’ve had to do far less cropping and post-processing on them.

Also, because I now know how to use my camera’s burst modes properly, this year I missed far fewer “moments” and expressions that I wanted to capture.

The difference in skill is even more stark when you look back at the photos I took in 2020 (with my Google Pixel 3XL phone) or, heck, my photos from as far back as 2010 (with my Canon IXUS 80 IS). Though to see those 2010 photos you’ll have to scroll to the bottom of my ‘Melbourne Pride March’ album of Flickr.

So yay for experience and, of course, better cameras and lenses!

[Photo walk] Little Collins Street, Melbourne #1

It’s been a while since I did a photo walk in the city, so today I grabbed my trusty 40mm prime lens and walked a few blocks down Little Collins Street.

It was a hot, sunny, 30 degree day, but it was quite pleasant in the shade. And not only did I get a couple of decent photos, I also got to check out a half-assembled film set, which was fun :)

Fonz electric motorcycle parked in the corner on Little Collins Street

Photo of a dark green, classic Italian style, electric motorcycle parked on the pavement outside a building.

Things are looking bright for this Fonz electric motorcycle

Photo of a dark green, classic Italian style, electric motorcycle parked on the pavement outside a building. The font of the motorcycle is in shadow of the building, but the back is brightly lit by the sun.

After-hours at Five Points Cafe on Little Collins Street

Photo through the shop window of a stack of paper coffee cups stacked neatly next to a coffee machine in a cafe. The ‘Five Points’ wordmark is stamped on each coffee cup.

Ready for the night shoot with this lantern soft box mounted on a crane

Photo looking up at a powerful cinema light mounted on a crane. The light is covered by a large, lantern-shaped soft box, which is a box made out of white cloth that softens the light that's coming from the LED bulbs.

I don’t know which movie is being filmed here, but I do know what city Melbourne is standing in for today

Photo of a white Ford sedan parked on the side of a narrow city road in Melbourne, Australia that will eventually become a film set. An orange crane with cinema lights mounted on top of it is parked behind this car. There are lights on top of this car that identify it as an American police vehicle. Blue stickers pasted on the car read, “NYPD Police”.

Australian Open 2026

Unlike last year’s Australian Open tennis tournament – during which there was a thunderstorm – this year’s tournament featured two heatwaves.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We were there during the second of those heatwaves, but we took good care of ourselves :)

Here are my photos from this year’s tournament.

Our 2026 annual Australian Open selfie

Selfie of a man and a woman sitting outside a tennis complex on a sunny day. The man is wearing a black t-shirt and glasses; the woman is wearing a black sleeveless top and sunglasses. They are both wearing straw hats.

Lots of shaded seating at ANZ Arena

Wide-angle photo of an outdoor tennis court at a tennis tournament. The tennis court has seating all around, and shading has been erected so that almost all the seats are in the shade. The blue-coloured tennis court is empty because the next scheduled match has not yet started.

Hanyu Guo serving in her round 2 women’s doubles match

Photo of professional tennis player Hanyu Guo (China) in the air while in the middle of her tennis serve. The players are playing in a tennis court with a hard, blue coloured surface.

Australian supporters at Australian Open 2026

Photo of five women sitting in a row in the stands of a tennis court during a tournament. They are all wearing identical, patterned green-and-yellow tops as well as green straw hats with a yellow tennis ball affixed to the top.

View of Rod Laver Arena from ANZ Arena

Photo of the signage at the top of the Rod Laver Arena tennis court, as seem from the stands of a nearby outdoor tennis court.

Ball kid running to grab a tennis ball

Photo of a ball kid in blue shorts, a blue shirt, and a blue hat stopping his run across a blue-coloured tennis court as he approaches a tennis ball lying on the ground.

Ball kid running back having grabbed a tennis ball

Photo of a ball kid in blue shorts, a blue shirt, and a blue hat running back across a blue-coloured tennis court after he has retrieved the tennis ball that was lying on the ground.

Ball kid passing tennis balls across the court

Photo of a ball kid in blue shorts, a blue shirt, and a blue hat rolling tennis balls across a blue-coloured tennis court to another ball kid that’s off-camera.

Ball kid holding up a tennis ball for the serving tennis player

Photo of a ball kid holding up a tennis ball in case the serving tennis player wants another ball. Only the top of the ball kid’s hat at the ball kid’s arm are visible, with the rest being blocked from view by the wall of the tennis court.

Talia Gibson’s ball toss

Photo of professional tennis player Talia Gibson (Australia) tossing a tennis ball in the air at the start of her serve during a tennis match.

Talia Gibson ready to strike the ball

Photo of professional tennis player Talia Gibson (Australia) mid-swing as she prepares to strike a tennis ball during her women’s doubles match.

Sara Errani winning the point / everyone going in a different direction

Photo of professional tennis player Sara Errani (Italy) as she hits a ball into the opposing court during a tennis match.

Ball kid waiting for Kimbery Birrell to serve

Photo of a ball kid waiting by the side of the net at a tennis tournament. In the background of the photo professional tennis player Kimbery Birrell (Australia) prepares to serve.

A fun convergence around the monospace typeface aesthetic

Let’s talk about monospaced typefaces.

Who still uses monospace typefaces?

One of the only places normies will read anything in a monospaced typeface these days is when they buy something from a store and they get a long paper receipt from a point-of-sale machine (aka cash register).

Screenshot of a digital receipt from Australian retailer JB Hi-Fi for a Microsoft Surface laptop and pen. The typeface used here is Courier.

There are, however, two groups of people who still frequently use monospace typefaces.

Computer nerds

The first group is software programmers and computer nerds like me.

We read and write things in plain text files (software code, system configurations, etc) and we use our computer’s command line all the time, both of which use a monospace typeface by default.

Screenshot of a computer’s command line showing the list of files in a directory (aka folder). The typeface used here is Hack.

Film nerds

The second group is folks who work in the film and television industry, as well as film nerds like me.

We work with – or, in my case, just read – screenplays all the time, and virtually all of those are written in a monospace typeface. (At least all the screenplays written in the Latin script.)

The font used in these screenplays is almost always 12pt Courier, Courier Prime (which was designed specifically for screenplays), or Courier Sans Mono.

Screenshot of the screenplay to the film ‘Sinners’ by Ryan Coogler. Source: SimplyScripts. The typeface used here is Courier.

Old-school cool

Even though most of us rarely use monospace typefaces in our daily lives, the impact that geekdom and filmdom have had on popular culture means that there’s an “old-school cool” aesthetic about using monospace typefaces.

Of course this is also partly because Courier was the typeface used by IBM Selectric typewriters, and that was the typewriter of choice for many famous authors and journalists from the 1960s onwards.

‘Thomson and his typewriter’ (Source). Photo of American author and journalist Hunter S. Thomson standing calf-deep in snow outside his cabin in Aspen, Colorado, USA in 1989. Thomson is wearing blue jeans, a blue jacket, and a brown fedora hat. He is pointing a silver handgun at beige coloured IBM Selectric typewriter lying on the snow a short distance away from him.

All that to say there are still plenty of monospace typefaces being designed and published every year. And some techie/nerdy websites and blogs also continue to use monospace typefaces for their body text and headings – like Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic, which uses your browser/computer’s default monospace typeface in all its text elements.

A convergence of aesthetics

This brings me to the fun convergence that is the topic of this post, where we have two type designers who approached the monospace-typeface aesthetic from opposite directions.

A monospaced typeface with a proportional typeface aesthetic

In 2021, Owen Earl from indestructable type* published the Drafting* Mono typeface.

This monospace typeface is a gloriously “weird, wildly inconsistent” serif/sans-serif hybrid that “[imitates] the spirit of typewriters, not the literal look”.

Basically, this is a typewriter-inspired, monospaced typeface that has the aesthetic of proportional typefaces (aka variable-width typefaces).

Meaning this typeface functions like a monospace typeface but reads like the regular serif/sans-serif typefaces we’re used to seeing every day.

Graphic showing the first two paragraphs of Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Carol set in the Courier Prime and Drafting* Mono typefaces.

A proportional typeface with a monospaced aesthetic

In 2024, Pedro Arilla from Arillatype.Studio published the At Textual typeface.

This is a typeface that “draws inspiration from the texture, readability, and honest utilitarianism of monospaced fonts”.

Basically, this is a proportional typeface that has the aesthetic of monospaced typefaces.

Meaning this typeface functions like a proportional typeface, but reads like the monospace typefaces you see in text files and film scripts.

Graphic showing the first two paragraphs of Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Carol set in the Courier Prime and At Textual typefaces.

Converging around an aesthetic

I love that the two designers started from completely opposite directions (and largely remained within their respective lanes) but they both ended up converging around the idea that the monospace typeface aesthetic is cool, even in body text applications, and that they should do something about it :)

Want a different typewriter aesthetic?

By the way, if you’re after a monospace typewriter aesthetic but Courier and Drafting* Mono are too plain and neutral for you, check out Clack by Matthew Hinders-Anderson.

Graphic showing the phrase “Rabbit hole” set in the Courier Prime, Drafting* Mono, At Textual, and Clack typefaces. The text set Courier Prime is flagged as being standard and neutral; the text set in Drafting* Mono is flagged as being stylish and quirky; the text set in At Textual is flagged as being stylish and proportionally-spaced; and the text set in Clack (Medium) is flagged as being elegant.

Clack is a lovely interpretation of the typefaces found on IBM Selectric typewriters (ie Courier and its variations) and is great for reading and writing text. It has weights that range from thin to black, and it has italics (which not all typewriter-inspired typefaces have, fyi) so it has a super versatile set of fonts as well.

Graphic showing the first two paragraphs of Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Carol set in the Courier Prime and Clack typefaces.

The only catch with all of Hinders-Anderson’s typefaces is that, while they’re free for anyone to use, they can only be used for non-commercial purposes.

This is why, for example, design agency Forge could use Hinders-Anderson’s Union Gothic typeface for the 2025 ‘Zohran for NYC’ campaign, but no brand can use that typeface for any commercial purpose – which I think is really cool :)

Screenshot from the Zohran for NYC campaign website showing headings set in the Union Gothic sans serif typeface.

Favourite monospace typefaces

That’s all I have to say about monospace typefaces today.

Though, if you want, you can check out my December 2025 list of favourite typefaces in which I include my favourite monospace typefaces towards the end.

Do you have any favourite monospaced typefaces? I’d love to know what they are. Especially the ones you use for writing text, not just code.

Cool type pairings on the web, part 3

Time for another instalment of my cool type-pairing series, this one featuring a range of online publications.

Ars Technica

You can build an excellent website using just free typefaces if you pair them well, which is what Ars Technica has done.

This site uses Source Sans 3 (Adobe, Paul D Hunt) for body text, Faustina (Omnibus-Type) for headings, and Exo 2 (Natanael Gama) for bylines and metadata. All of which help make this website look modern and serious/authoritative.

Screenshot from the Ars Technica website of an article titled, “A quirky guide to myths and lore based in actual science”.

Source Sans 3 and Faustina are both on my most recent (Dec 2025) favourite typefaces list, by the way :)

Semafor

While Ars Technica’s style is that of a modern, web-only publication, Semafor’s style is very classic newspaper/magazine, though also one that’s web-only. In fact, its two main typefaces were both originally designed for magazines that were published by the New York Times.

This website uses Lyon Text (Commercial Type) for body text and Feature Flat Display (Commercial Type) for its headings. Oh, and it uses good old Helvetica for its metadata, captions, menus, etc.

Screenshot from the Semafor website of an article titled, “Semafor Tech’s predictions for 2026”.

Hodinkee

Sticking with websites that use modernised classic typography, let’s look at Hodinkee.

Hodinkee uses mostly the Portrait typeface family (Commercial Type): Portrait Text for body text, Portrait Regular for headings, and Portrait Inline Sans for the article category (ie the “Essays” that’s in all-caps in the screenshot below). Portrait is a minimalist, screen-friendly interpretation of French Renaissance typefaces like Garamond.

The site also uses Brown (Shinntype) for bylines and metadata and Proxima Nova (Mark Simonson) for the headings and metadata in the comments section.

Screenshot from the Hodinkee website of an article titled, “An Exciting 2026 And A Push For More In 2026”.

Harvard Business Review

Let’s end on a website that uses two of my favourite typefaces, the website in question being the venerable Harvard Business Review (HBR).

HBR’s website uses Tiempos Text (Klim Type Foundry) for body text and GT America (Grilli Type) for headings and everything else (metadata, menus, captions, etc).

Screenshot from the Harvard Business Review website of an article titled, “Don’t Underestimate the Value of Professional Friendships”.

Tiempos Text is a modernisation of typefaces like Plantin and Times (the Linotype interpretation of Times New Roman that’s available on macOS). Times New Roman itself is based on Plantin.

According to its designers, GT America is “the missing bridge between 19th century American Gothics and 20th century European Neo-Grotesk typefaces” – meaning it takes the best design features from American typefaces like Franklin Gothic and European typefaces like Helvetica and Univers.

Both Tiempos Text and GT America are really cool. And also really expensive. <sigh>

What’s next?

After focusing on large publications in this instalment, I think I’ll focus on personal blogs in my next cool type-pairing post.

Avenir alternatives

Two of my all-time favourite sans serif typefaces are Frutiger and Avenir, both of which were created by Adrian Frutiger.

I’ve already written an extensive post about my recommended Frutiger alternatives, but here’s a quick run-down of my favourite Avenir alternatives.

Why an alternative?

Two reasons.

Avenir is expensive!

A single-user, desktop-only licence to Avenir Next costs AU$1,520.

So if you don’t already have access to Avenir through some other means, then you’ll want a free or more affordable alternative.

Of course if you’re a macOS user, then this reason won’t apply to you since you already have all of Avenir and Avenir Next pre-installed in your operating system.

Regular weight may be too light for text

If you only have access to Avenir through a Microsoft 365 subscription, though, this second reason might apply to you.

That’s because the Avenir fonts included with the Microsoft Office suite are:

  • Avenir Next Light + Italic

  • Avenir Next Regular + Italic

  • Avenir Next Demi Bold + Italic

  • Avenir Next Bold + Italic

The problem with this is that the Regular weight of Avenir is quite light, so if you’re using it as a text font – especially at smaller sizes – it’s not the easiest to read on screens.

Compare the text below set in Avenir Next Regular (on the left) and Helvetica Neue Regular (on the right). The text on the left does look a little more elegant, yes – since lighter typefaces tend to look more elegant anyway – but the text on the right is easier to read.

macOS users don’t have this problem because they can just use the Medium weight of Avenir Next instead – like in the graphic below where both columns are easily readable.

Paid alternatives

My favourite paid alternatives to Avenir are Hint from Paratype and Sailec from Type Dynamic.

Noah from Fontfabric is also good but, like Avenir, its Regular weight is a little light.

None of these are copies of the Avenir, of course, so you won’t get all its design quirks – like the horizontal tail of the uppercase ‘Q’ – but they all have a vibe that’s similar to Avenir’s.

Hint

Hint doesn’t have the 1920s luxury feel of Avenir (with its tall and narrow letterforms) but it does have a more “quiet luxury” feel about it.

Sailec

Sailec is billed as a “totally neutral” typeface, but it has much more style than Helvetica, for example, and is a good, albeit somewhat muted, alternative to Avenir.

Free alternatives

My favourite free alternatives to Avenir are Figtree from Eric Kennedy and Montserrat from Julieta Ulanovsky and others.

A more neutral, but still somewhat elegant, alternative is Poppins from Indian Type Foundry.

Of these, Montserrat has the most interesting uppercase ‘Q’ but I think Figtree is a better overall alternative for use on screens.

Figtree

According to its designer, Figtree’s vibe walks the line between “simplicity and friendliness” so it doesn’t quite have the elegant vibe you get from Avenir. But because many of its its letterforms are so similar to Avenir’s, it does work as a decent alternative.

It’s probably more accurate to say that Figtree is a good alternative to Frutiger, by the way – and perhaps a version of Frutiger that leans more towards the elegance of Avenir.

Montserrat

Montserrat has a stylish/elegant vibe, but its letterforms are both larger and wider than Avenir’s – which makes sense, given Montserrat’s inspiration came from old posters and signs in the Montserrat neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. Still, it’s a pretty decent alternative to Avenir.

Final thoughts

I love Avenir and use it whenever I can (eg in presentations and in printed letters), but if I want an elegant typeface for body text font use on screens, then Hint is what I end up using most of the time.

Arial and Helvetica alternatives

I created a video [YouTube, 14:35min] about the typefaces I recommend when people tell me they’re bored of (usually) Arial and they want me to suggest a more interesting font that still looks professional.

However, I hate it when content is video-locked (ie available only in video format) so here are the key bits from that video in text form.

Why use something different?

There are two reasons you could be looking for an alternative to Arial and Helvetica:

  1. Same-same: You want a typeface that’s very similar to Arial and Helvetica. Maybe because you prefer a typeface with an open licence or one with a less expensive and less restrictive licence. Or maybe you just don’t have access to Arial and Helvetica and you want to use a drop-in replacement.

  2. Different: You want something slightly different from Arial and Helvetica, though you still want this typeface to have an overall neutral-ish vibe.

I have recommendations for you either way.

Similar to Arial and Helvetica

There are a lot of typefaces that are very similar to Arial and Helvetica, but these are the ones I usually recommend.

My free favourites

These are my two free recommendations:

I actually prefer Arimo over Arial for everyday use because I think Arimo looks better on screens: it has a slightly taller x-height, more open apertures, and a little more character overall. Check out the The Register website to see how good Arimo can look on a text-heavy website.

I also prefer Nimbus Sans over Helvetica because a commercial licence to Helvetica (ie not just the personal licence you get with macOS) is quite expensive.

Before you ask, I’m not a huge fan of Liberation Sans (from Red Hat) so that’s not a typeface I’d recommend.

My paid favourites

These are my four paid recommendations [1]:

Slightly different from Arial and Helvetica

For those of you who skipped my video on this topic [YouTube, 14:35min] these are the not-so-neutral, sans serif typefaces I recommend:

My free favourites

These are my four free recommendations:

Officer Sans was designed to be metrically compatible with Arial and Helvetica and I use this my default spreadsheet font.

When I need to write text in a neutral-ish, sans serif typeface, though – like a formal letter – its usually a toss-up between Public Sans and Officer Sans. [2]

My paid favourites

These are my four paid recommendations [1]:

If you want to know why I recommend these typefaces out of all the other ones that out there, you should watch my video.

Honourable mentions

I also have two honourable mentions:

Roboto is used everywhere on the web but I don’t see it being used very often in documents and presentations, so this might be an interesting alternative to consider.

I love Unica as a typeface, but I much prefer Lineto’s Unica77 over Linotype’s Neue Haas Unica (which, as it happens, I do have a licence to). Unfortunately, Unica77 is very expensive. That’s why I only have it under a trial licence and why it’s an honourable mention and not a full-on recommendation. <sigh>

Any others?

Do you have a go-to neutral sans serif typeface that you’d recommend to others? Let me know.

FYI, the text used in the comparison-graphics above is from the opening sentences of The Rook by Daniel O’Malley.

[1] Whenever possible, I recommend typefaces from only indepenedent, interesting, or otherwise notable type foundries.

[2] As its designer, Dan Williams, mentioned in an interview, Public Sans pairs really well with Georgia (or with Gelasio, which is the Google Fonts alternative to Georgia).

[Photo walk] Around the northern suburbs of Melbourne, part 9

Nadia and I have been enjoying our time off during the year-end break, going on walks around various parts of the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

Nadia at a community football pitch

Close-up photo of the back and side of a woman’s head and shoulders. The woman is wearing a black hoodie and a cyan 2020 ICC Cricket World Cup cap. Out of focus, in the background of the photo, is a neighbourhood football pitch.

Nadia looking out over a community football pitch

Photo of the back and side of a woman’s head and shoulders. The woman is wearing a black hoodie and a cyan 2020 ICC Cricket World Cup cap. Out of focus, in the background of the photo, is a neighbourhood football pitch.

Plane spotter waiting patiently in the Essendon Fields Airport flight path

Photo of the valley of a suburban river with a rail bridge crossing over it. A plane spotter is leaning against a wire fence that runs down the decline of the valley. A camera mounted on a tripod in set up in front of him.

Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge

Photo of a railway viaduct built across a creek’s valley and flood plain. The viaduct comprises steel girders supported by steel-framed towers. Behind the viaduct is the residential suburb of Gowanbrae.

Top of a Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge tower

Photo of the top of a steel-frame tower that is supporting a rain bridge, also built out of steel girders.

Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge on a bright day

Photo of a railway viaduct built across a creek’s valley and flood plain. The viaduct comprises steel girders supported by steel-framed towers. Behind the viaduct is the residential suburb of Gowanbrae.

Looking up at the Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge

Photo of a railway viaduct built across a creek’s valley and flood plain. The viaduct comprises steel girders supported by steel-framed towers.

Looking up along a tower of the Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge

Photo looking up along the length of a steel-frame tower that is supporting a rain bridge, also built out of steel girders.

Police helicopter over Strathmore Heights

Photo looking up at a blue-and-white Victoria Police helicopter hovering in the air above a residential suburb. Several tree branches and leaves can be seen in the foreground of the photo.

Walking her dog along Moonee Ponds Creek Trail

Photo of a woman walking a black dog along a trail that runs alongside a suburban river.

The Glenroy side of the Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge

Photo looking up, along an incline, at a railway viaduct built across a creek’s valley and flood plain. The viaduct comprises steel girders supported by steel-framed towers.

Riding a toy sled down a walking path

Photo of a young boy riding a wheeled children’s sled down a cemented walking/cycling path that descends into a suburban valley.

About to fall off a toy sled because he was going too fast

Photo of a young boy riding a wheeled children’s sled down a cemented walking/cycling path that descends into a suburban valley. The boy is leaning hard to one side so that he can follow the sharp curve of the path.

Walking path up Kingsford Smith Ulm Reserve

Photo of a walking/cycling path that goes up a suburban valley. The path is surrounded by trees on both sides. In the background of the photo a railway bridge can be seen crossing the valley.

Walking path at Kingsford Smith Ulm Reserve

Photo of a walking/cycling path that goes up a suburban valley. The path is surrounded by grass and trees. By the side of the path is a hairpin-turn sign for cyclists. In the background of the photo a railway bridge can be seen crossing the valley.

Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct Rail Bridge from Kingsford Smith Ulm Reserve

Photo of a railway viaduct built across a creek’s valley and flood plain, which is the Kingsford Smith Ulm Reserve. The viaduct comprises steel girders supported by steel-framed towers. Behind the viaduct is the residential suburb of Gowanbrae.

Nadia keeping an eye on her surroundings as she takes a photo

Photo of the back of a woman holding up her smartphone to take a photo. The woman is looking to her left to make sure she isn’t in the path of a cyclist. Her long, black hair is in a ponytail and she is wearing a brown sweatshirt and a cyan 2020 ICC Cricket World Cup cap. In front of her are the trees and bushes growing along the side of a suburban valley.

Straight stretch of walking path at Kingsford Smith Ulm Reserve

Low-angle photo of a walking/cycling path that goes up a suburban valley. At the end of this long stretch of path is a hairpin-turn sign for cyclists.

Turtles in a large pond

Photo of several brown turtles swimming along the banks of a large pond.

Turtle poking its head out of a pond

Photo of a brown turtle swimming in a pond, with its head poking out of the water.

Two turtles in a pond

Photo of two brown turtles swimming in a pond, one with its head poking out of the water and the other swimming completely underwater.

My favourite typefaces (December 2025)

[NOTE: The most up-to-date version of this list is always on the ‘Typography’ page.]

The end of the year is a good time for me to update my list of favourite typefaces.

Since my last update in December 2024, I have:

As a reminder, the typefaces below are grouped by their level of formality (‘How I think about typefaces’) and are sorted in decreasing order of versatility (ie how easy they are to use in different types of projects).

Serif typefaces

Sans serif typefaces

Slab serif typefaces

Monospace typefaces

Typeface wish list (realistic)

What are your favourite or go-to typefaces? I’d love to know.