One thing this completely missed are non-Latin script. For example, the default Thai font on Windows is just plain ugly.
Web fonts, boy, I don't know
191–200 of 333 posts
Re: Web fonts, boy, I don't know
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
As much as I believe font matters, I really think people should just use system fonts in general. No content is definitely more annoying than ugly content, but I have a seething hatred for webpages who jump around as content loads. "Let's click on this link... ah, not that link, let's go back. Yes, this link... NO! STOP MOVING!" Besides, I'm used to my fonts. I know your fonts are a deliberate design choice, but I'm…
"Let's click on this link... ah, not that link, let's go back. Yes, this link... NO! STOP MOVING!" This is my #1 complaint about reddit. Not due to fonts; but rather when I load reddit on my phone, a "get the reddit app" banner appears... timed perfectly so that my attempt to view my messages sends me off to the app store.
Why aren't you using Reddit Sync yet? Who uses the mobile site these days anyway?
Re: Web fonts, boy, I don't know
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Categorizing type as "a design choice" dismisses it as fashion rather than function, which I don't think is the case. I think it's a question of how often it's one vs. the other. There are precious few good examples of web font usage -- so few, in fact, that I can't even think of one off the top of my head. > Type can put fashion over function, but it can also enhance function by making text more readable, How so?…
https://www.wired.com is excellent in how they use fonts to subtly indicate importance/recency/category. Many newspapers use fonts very consciously, which usually has the effect that it doesn't enter the reader's consciousness. It's a subtle cue indicating the brand and the image it wants to project. oCmpare the NYT and the Economist – they aim to reach almost identical populations, but the NYT uses serifs (tradition…
> https://www.wired.com is excellent in how they use fonts to subtly indicate importance/recency/category.
You call that "subtle"??? There are like 10 different fonts/boldnesses jumping at me at first sight.
Re: Web fonts, boy, I don't know
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have none of you ever worked for a designer or marketing person who was unwilling to accept that a bit of text might wrap on Windows (Arial), but fit on one line on a Mac (Helvetica)? Until we can get the major operating systems to include some of the most popular open-source fonts, we're stuck with web fonts. If macOS, Windows, Debian, iOS, and Android all came with Roboto, Source Sans, Lato, Merriweather, Raleway,…
This is because a vanishingly small percentage of designers have truly, in their heart, accepted the web as a medium. They'll sit lovingly with a bunch of dinged up old lead typesetting tools, positively jizz over imperfections in ink distribution, but try to talk to them about system fonts, box models, or free phones and their eyes glaze over and they drift off into their color calibrated RAW dreamland. In schools t…
This is a completely unrealistic view of how designers work.
I've yet to meet a web designer who would have the first clue what to do with hot metal. There are some old guys who remember physical typesetting for print, but design has been primarily electronic for around twenty years now.
The history of the web started after most print had already moved to digital fonts and layout with Pagemaker, then Quark Xpress.
It's one of the tragedies of browser development that it took the web 15 years to start to catch up with industry standard page layout possibilities, and another 5 years to start dealing with fonts intelligently.
And the web - frankly - still sucks for this kind of work. It's not that responsive design is harder than print, it's more that from a designer's POV CSS has been a train wreck for most of its history.
I understand some people here want their own font stylings, and that's fine. But designers use fonts for a reason, and "Not invented here because I don't like this" isn't a good enough reason to make it impossible for them to do that.
Re: Web fonts, boy, I don't know
#195Are web fonts smart enough to download only the symbols that you’re using? With Unicode growing all the time, and fonts supporting significant parts of that total set, it would be insane to have to download hundreds of thousands of symbols when you’re just trying to write a 3-word headline.
Another problem is aggressive filtering, oddly. I once visited China and found my entire web site wouldn’t load; it turned out to be triggered by a font from a Google domain. How silly for content to be thrown out because an optional style element is unavailable. I have since stripped out all my Google dependencies.
Re: Web fonts, boy, I don't know
#196Re: Web fonts, boy, I don't know
#197Are web fonts smart enough to download only the symbols that you’re using? With Unicode growing all the time, and fonts supporting significant parts of that total set, it would be insane to have to download hundreds of thousands of symbols when you’re just trying to write a 3-word headline. Another problem is aggressive filtering, oddly. I once visited China and found my entire web site wouldn’t load; it turned out t…
For icon fonts you can use this great service to generate only what you need from various icon fonts:
Re: Web fonts, boy, I don't know
#198Are web fonts smart enough to download only the symbols that you’re using? With Unicode growing all the time, and fonts supporting significant parts of that total set, it would be insane to have to download hundreds of thousands of symbols when you’re just trying to write a 3-word headline. Another problem is aggressive filtering, oddly. I once visited China and found my entire web site wouldn’t load; it turned out t…
Nope, I don't think so. It would be hard to pull off as you might be using the font on an and the user could type any character. Or you could be pulling text in through an XHR and won't know in advance what characters will be returned.
Re: Web fonts, boy, I don't know
#199Are there actually font blockers like ad blockers? That would solve the problem pretty easily for everybody who's annoyed. Although they probably won't be available for mobile browsers, where it's the most painful.
uBlock Origin has a switch to block "remote fonts". Should work in Firefox on Android as well.
Firefox on Android has a switch for this. Menu -> Settings -> Advanced -> Show web fonts. The mobile web is remarkably faster to load with it off, even on wifi.
Re: Web fonts, boy, I don't know
#200Badly engineered, multi-purpose WordPress themes are my favorite on that matter. Not only they make you download the entire set of assets ( Think of ~2 icon fonts, half a megabyte stylesheets, megabytes of JS and on top of that 5$ DO box serving all the PHP `magic` ), but also include some entrance animations, which take additional time, before you focus on the content. Actually this reminds me of the IoT DDoS attack…
Most of these are premade themes from themeforest or other similar marketplaces.
The devs have no incentive to optimize their themes as they are usually bought by non-tech people and they don't know how adding five different fonts in their website makes it really hard to load and render.