Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think most of your advice is solid, but I take issue with one point: > - If your font colour is more thant #333 on white, you're being cruel, especially to those who suffer astigmatism. A designer should think hard before reducing contrast. You may be improving the experience for one group at the expense of others: - A low contrast page is difficult to read on a cell phone in daylight. - A low contrast page is diff…
We actually agree, but I've phrased that one a bit bad. See my other comment downthread. I was going to edit to clarify, but it does not let me anymore. Comments become fixed way quicker these days ain't it?
Five minute guide to better typography
131–133 of 133 posts
Re: Five minute guide to better typography
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree completely, typography is an artform and therefore completely subjective. I actually preferred the unaligned header example. Sometimes there is a lot of white-space that makes people perceive things to be aligned. Often perfectly aligned text calls for something unaligned to stand out. There may be a scientific approach to finding the best typography to convey information to a specific group of people but…
Completely subjective is too strong! Music is art but harmony is mathematical.
Re: Five minute guide to better typography
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Completely subjective is too strong! Music is art but harmony is mathematical.
Who says harmony is "good"? http://www.fretjam.com/right-wrong-music.html
But letting go of the principles of harmony in favor of "subjective absolutism" seems kind of strange and I would even say harmful. It's like asking about architecture "Well, why should a building be comfortable and durable? If I prefer a dangerous and awful structure, isn't that just another valid subjective preference?" Well, okay, but so then what? Abandon teaching structural integrity?
It's pretty interesting to discuss the differences between arts, crafts, trades, and sciences... but these discussions are also often kind of stupidly polarized between objectivist and subjectivist views.
I had a friend who staunchly refused to learn any music theory, or any patterns of musical tradition, because they were attached to a subjectivist position on music. Actually I think it's a deep position that has to do with the individual's place in civilization! This person's music was outsider music, much of it really cool, but in some way fundamentally alienated.
One of my favorite books ever is Alistair MacIntyre's After Virtue, which (with a somewhat conservative flavor) argues that contemporary subjectivism is because enlightenment rationalism just fails as a basis for ethics, and that this is the reason for "the interminable character of contemporary debates." It makes the case for virtue within traditions and societal roles as the antidote for subjectivism, basically.
So typography is a tradition of virtue in our society, kind of, right? It's like, wow, there's this whole guild of craftspeople stretching back hundreds of years, who have developed a body of practice and theory that forms a coherent framework for font shapes and text layout; that's pretty cool!
Of course there are deep questions like "How are the traditions, skills, and theories of typography modified by the encounter with digital media?"
You could even ask "Is typography (or whatever other creative trade) a gated community of elite tastemakers who just prescribe their own aesthetics as if they were natural laws?"
But at the end of the day you have to look at the alphabet itself. That's not subjective. It's not really "objective" either. It's a cultural heritage and a common standard. If you mess around with it arbitrarily, people will think you're a weirdo, and they might not understand you at all.