Webtype,
Okay Type, and
Bold Monday have donated web font services to TypeDrawers. TypeDrawers is now using
Alright Sans by Jackson Cavanaugh as the primary typeface and
Nitti by Pieter van Rosmalen for code. Thanks to Nick Sherman for making this happen.
Comments
Could do with a larger size for subsequent comments and a bit more linespacing, though?
Thank you to all those who made this possible.
By the way, Okay Type is two words and Bold Monday is at: http://www.boldmonday.com
(In never understood why replies would be smaller in any board. Those aren’t secondary information. It’s the main content of site.)
But thanks for implementing the webfonts! :-)
Though I'd agree that the size should be adjusted. The type that appears here in the comment-composition box is a comfortable reading size. The type in the posts themselves seems a little small. I'd prefer to see them all the same (larger) size.
There's a big difference between a totalitarian place and the web. Which browser do you use?
I just noted a smaller distance between the letters in the new font, compared to the old one. (Did I see this wrong?) Also, in general, it is harder to read small size text in which the distance between letters is relatively small, compared to text in which this distance is bigger. (Is this not true?) Therefore, because I prefer an easier read, I prefer the old font. I would prefer anyone to respond to this argument, rather than being awarded a troll flag.
David, I use Chrome. Perhaps I see things in this browser, which not everybody sees. When I use Safari, it looks a little better, be it a bit blackish. The relatively small distance between the letters, is the same in both browsers. — When I use a third browser, Opera, the text is much bigger, and it looks much better.
Now, we're talking about webfonts here, which means that unless you're sitting next to Ben Blom looking at the same browser on the same system on the same screen, you're basically unable to determine whether his complaint about the spacing of the new type is reasonable. So am I. But I don't think it is an ideological issue. And I don't think it constitutes a 'troll'.
Thanks for un-trolling Ben now the point is made.
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* There was a thread in The Other Place recently about whether there would be 'classic' fonts in future. My pessimistic response was that yes, there would be: Helvetica, Baskerville, Times New Roman.... Recalling that, I'm more sympathetic to your affirmative action stance on use of new designs in this narrow window before the boring old dross -- sorry, the classics -- hit the web big time.
Agree with Matthew that if we want to convince people to use webfonts, we should lead by example (And have always criticized Typekit for not using them in their own blog). I was also among the first ones in implementing my own webfont for my own foundry website. Even that the font was not perfect, I still wanted to use it as an example. And hope that more and more foundries will embrace their own webfonts for their own websites.
That being said, I also agree with with John that system fonts hinting quality are still unmatched. But webfonts are good enough to be used at 14px and bigger. The only problem here, as many have already stated, seems to be that 13px is just a little bit small for long lines of text. Just set it at 14px and everybody happy!
Perhaps I have been nitpicking about the new font. To be able for others to see my visual experience with both the old and new font, I made a picture with both of them (old one above, new one below). The old font is still visible when trying to watch this site through the WayBack Machine. When I look at the image and compare the two fonts, I would, for the most comfortable reading experience, prefer the font above — but others might just prefer the other one. (Click on the image to see its original size.)
With that thought in mind, I suggested Alright Sans as a face that could do the tough job of filling all roles throughout the site (except the monospaced type) with as little fussing as possible. The font change couldn’t be more quick and dirty: it literally just swaps out Lucida without changing any sizes, spacing, or anything. Obviously this isn’t ideal, but I must say how impressed I am with how Alright performs under the circumstances.
In the mean time, unless someone wants to redesign the site (Webtype is happy to donate the fonts) and James wants to work with them to implement it, I’d be content to just have the standard size of the comments increased by a couple pixels.
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At the risk of going off-topic or, at least, onto another topic, I concluded last year that in 90% of cases the term 'sans serif' is another way of saying 'too tightly spaced'.
...if you used a browser that just uses the default fonts and ignores everything else, you can remain unaffected by anyone else's preferences, ever. Surely there are going to be hundreds of sites, perhaps 1,000s in the future, with text choices, of both size and style, you don't like/can't read/are not adjustable to.
How do you live with all that print in the world where there is no way out?
body {letter-spacing: 0.01em !important;}
But I suppose not all browsers/platforms/renderers would respect or handle such a small increment?
Windows XP (SP2), 1280 x 1024 pixels screen resolution (32-bit colors), DPI setting 125% of normal size (120 DPI), ClearType activated, Chrome 17.0.963.83.
I expect this system will be laid to rest later this year.