[update: Here I use Art & Perception’s Theme files, but with the basic Sans-Serif font. You can compare the two sites to see which is easier to read. On many systems, both should be easily readable.]
[update 2:. . . Here is how I see the Art & Perception text:
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Here is the text from my site using Sans-Serif:
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Aside from the size difference, the font difference is fairly subtle.
I looked at both fonts on a PC earlier today. They were also slightly different there, but equally legible.
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Above is how Art & Perception looks on Angela‘s computer (font-wise). Can we choose a better font?
Here are some samples to begin the search:
#1
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the earth’s crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, gray and white. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have been strongly identified with certain regions.
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#2
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the earth’s crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, gray and white. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have been strongly identified with certain regions.
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#3
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the earth’s crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, gray and white. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have been strongly identified with certain regions.
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#4
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the earth’s crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, gray and white. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have been strongly identified with certain regions.
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#5
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the earth’s crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, gray and white. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have been strongly identified with certain regions.
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#6
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the earth’s crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, gray and white. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have been strongly identified with certain regions.
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Which do you find the best? Which is the worst? Is the best better than the current Art & Perception font for text?
#6 looks good to me.
#2 or #6 are my favorites. The bold text hurts my eyes after awhile because of the contrast. #1 and #5 seem too small.
Leslie and Bob,
Thanks for the rankings.
How does #6 compare to the current font (e.g., for all the normal sized text on the front page)?
on my IBM, #2 and #6 also look the best.
Karl,
I am not particularly picky about such things so all 3 seem fine to me. But then again I am not having the effects that Angela is getting on her screen – that would bug me a lot. I am kind of fond of our current font just because there is lots of space between letters (I forget what that’s called in typography). It’s also bigger and I guess I am getting old and like big print!
Font display also depends on browser settings. On my FireFox on Windows with default settings, #2 and #6 look the same, a bit more condensed than the current font (and are best to my eye) and so do #1 and #5.
It’s possible to give the viewer control over this, say via a php parameter that sets a font style or determines which style sheet is used, but I’m barely beginning to learn about customizing WordPress.
#2 and #6 look best to me. If there is a difference between them, I can’t tell what it is without seeing them simultaneously.
The bold ones feel like shouting. The serif fonts feel cluttered, but maybe that’s because they’re small.
Hmmm….
#6 is a smaller verion of #2 (and this works in the Dashboard compose window) but here on the published blog, they come out the same (on my system at least, and David’s as well.) This was not my purpose, but it shows that your judgments are consistent. I’ll wait to hear from Angela, then see what to do next.
From the screenshot, it looks like Angela probably has issues with her browser settings and or installed fonts. Angela, can you tell us about your system when you report on the font displays? Somewhere under the Options or Preferences is a place where fonts can be selected; check what is showing there.
Can I infer from the comments above that most people are not having a problem with the current A&P font? If we can fix Angela’s problem on her own computer, are we safe leaving the fonts as they are? My feeling is if Angela can’t see them well, many other people won’t either, although we might not ever hear about it.
I’ve had no problems with the A&P fonts.
I liked #6 – if you are forced to change, but I have no issues witht he current font…
David,
That is valuable information because you use so many different computer systems. Tomorrow I’ll go to the library and some internet cafes and check out the view from there.
Sunil,
#6 seems to be the favorite, not including the current font.
Thanks, Karl. I misposted. Thank you.
Misposted? I’d call it artistic juxtaposition. Hey, I could use that term more often.
That is valuable information because you use so many different computer systems.
Actually I don’t. I mean, I have access to them, but I mostly view A&P on IE using Windows XP. I look at things on other systems when I’m checking my designs, but not much otherwise.
I prefer the current font if no one else is having trouble and if Angela’s problems can be fixed.
Looks like Angela is missing fonts on her system; either that, or she has things set to disregard the fonts in the style sheet. She’s getting an non anti-aliased version of Lucida Sans Unicode. THis is a fine font when anti-aliasing works, but is horrible when it isn’t. She may even have a broken version of Windows — as in missing or virus infected .dll files.
I prefer the current base font (Trebuchet MS). It is the most reliably cross browser/platform font available. Changing it would be a fragging disaster. When we went with it, I could read the site for the very first time, even at small font sizes.
(The title fonts and all that blue blue could definitely use some tweaking, and one fine day, I’ll upload the already adjusted version, but may I say, “If it ain’t broke…”)
#6 looks really good.
I think using a font that is reliable like Arial or Times will guarantees us all. I understand they are general and sympathise the fact some people won’t like changes… but think about how more people will read them like mine. Safe is for all!
Angela,
I’m using the Art & Perception theme now on my own blog in order to understand it better. I will adjust the fonts there on zipser.nl and we can see how it looks. I’ll make a further comment when I have changed it. Thanks for bringing the problem to our attention!
Okay, here is the basic Art & Perception style, but using the most basic Sans-Serif font (#6 above): zipser.nl
The font can be a bit bigger of smaller of course. How does this look? Angela, can you see it better? Rex, is it difficult to read on some systems?
Looks good, excellent job Karl!
I like the font on your blog much better, Karl.
My old IBM laptop does not have the Sans-serif font, it only has Trebuchet. The fonts on A&P and zipser.nl look different. But I don’t know what font my computer uses to interpret either site. Any font copied into ‘word’ gets automatically translated into Times New Roman. Hopefully, I soon get a new charger for my Mac!
The current A&P font in its somewhat greater roundness looks more Fen-Shui. The Sans-Serif is fully readable but reminds me a little of the boxy 8-point Geneva font I used many years ago on my Mac
Making slides on memory and long-term potentiation, I am reading wikipedia.
What is the font used by en.wikipedia.org ?
Wikipedia must have figured out how to be readable across the different platforms?
It is not as round as Trebuchet. It also does not look like the Sans-Serif on zipser.nl
I updated this post again with a couple of screen shots comparing artAndPerception.com and zipser.nl as seen from where I am.
This font discussion could be considered the most boring thing in the world. I choose not to see it that way. I think this is a fascinating exercise in web programming, which is the reality and functional basis of our community. What it demonstrates to me is that it is extremely difficult to do good web design and that having a lot of people looking at the site from many different hardware/software viewpoints is critical.
Rex says that the Trebuchet MS font is superior to Sans Serif, especially at small font sizes, and that changing would be a disaster. I’m open to that argument, but I don’t feel I’ve seen enough evidence yet. If by small font sizes he means smaller than normal, I don’t see the use. We are aiming for a font that everyone can read well at normal size.
Perhaps Angela has an unusual configuration for fonts on her computer. But if I were looking from Angela’s machine it would never occur to me that the computer was at fault. I would simply think, “Hey, these guys chose a really ugly font for an art site.” We can’t fix the configuration of everyone’s computers. We know what we could do to make the site work on Angela’s computer. Angela can also see the fonts for the Default WordPress Theme: “font-family: ‘Lucida Grande’, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif;”
Rex, we have the Sans Serif font at zipser.nl now. In what way is it a disaster? Can you make a screen shot of your view of the two sites?