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Atkinson Hyperlegible Font

brailleinstitute.org

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Re: Atkinson Hyperlegible Font

#81

Post by systemvoltage »

shakabrah wrote: post #45

An aside: Why is it that most posts about a new product or project some people have put together is usually greeted with skepticism and negativity in HN comments? What is that all about? It is a pattern Ive continuously seen and it seems like only the true home runs receive any kind of praise. Most replies are either about lack of evidence or someone’s alternative preference. I see that latter one a good deal.

There is a healthy amount of skepticism that is required to produce good for the society. It can be adjusted based on supply/demand of such commodity or service. But, by large, skepticism is good. As a creator myself, it is important to equip yourself with the right mentality. I would never blame everyone else for being skeptical. After all, most people mean good and there is often a solid reason they're spending time writing about it.

Highly, highly recommend reading Adam Savage (Mythbuster fame)'s book about creativity and skepticism, it is filled with good wisdom: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43319933-every-tool-s-a-...

If there is a complete lack of criticism/skepticism, you get a regressive world: https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/

Re: Atkinson Hyperlegible Font

#82

Post by Bakary »

shakabrah wrote: post #45

An aside: Why is it that most posts about a new product or project some people have put together is usually greeted with skepticism and negativity in HN comments? What is that all about? It is a pattern Ive continuously seen and it seems like only the true home runs receive any kind of praise. Most replies are either about lack of evidence or someone’s alternative preference. I see that latter one a good deal.

- The comment structure favors the 'middlebrow contrarian' style of response. This phenomenon is particularly acute on Reddit but on here it's a more understated process that's proportional to HN's design differences to the former.

- Insecurity. Criticism is the most acute and well researched on here with child prodigies, more so than any other topic. Since people here get their sense of identity from their self-perception of intelligence, knowledge, and capacity to build certain things, there are many vulnerability points.

- Wide, industry ranging experience with bullshit technology claims for most users.

- Class and ethnographic differences. Criticism will vary depending on whether the product in question is inherently appealing to adult high-income nerds, no matter its overall utility

Re: Atkinson Hyperlegible Font

#83

Post by solardev »

soco wrote: post #23
cyral wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why it wouldn't open for you, but it opens fine in Chrome on Mac. I thought it would be some ridiculous 50 page legalese but it's actually only 1.5 pages long. it's basically a license similar to what you'd see on a Github repo.

But why PDF at all? Is there a reason to put the online license in a PDF? Or any other places, like the restaurant menus? is there anybody who wants/needs to print the license or the restaurant menu?

> Or any other places, like the restaurant menus? is there anybody who wants/needs to print the license or the restaurant menu?

Web devs are expensive, sadly, and not everyone has the patience to figure out the DIY platforms (Square, SquareSpace, Wix, etc.). It got a bit better during the pandemic when takeout took off. But generally restaurants need to print menus anyway, so it's just easier to upload that design as a PDF than to redo it for the web with labor they don't have, or paying for it with margins they don't have...

Re: Atkinson Hyperlegible Font

#85

Post by GekkePrutser »

kulhur wrote: post #50
OneLeggedCat wrote: post #12

I like this idea, but when I go to the web page... > Download the Font… and change the world! By downloading, installing and/or using the font software, you confirm that you have read and agree to be bound by the terms of this End-User License Agreement... Sigh. I guess I need to read that EULA. Anyway, clicking on that then downloads a pdf rather than a nice link to some web page text. Sigh. So then anyway, trying t…

> Why must everything in the world be so hard? linux user?

On FreeBSD with Firefox this PDF opened right away, just saying

Re: Atkinson Hyperlegible Font

#86

Post by jonpalmisc »

OneLeggedCat wrote: post #12

I like this idea, but when I go to the web page... > Download the Font… and change the world! By downloading, installing and/or using the font software, you confirm that you have read and agree to be bound by the terms of this End-User License Agreement... Sigh. I guess I need to read that EULA. Anyway, clicking on that then downloads a pdf rather than a nice link to some web page text. Sigh. So then anyway, trying t…

PDF also cannot change from underneath you, unlike a web page. Better to have a copy of what the license was at the time you agreed to it, imo.

Re: Atkinson Hyperlegible Font

#87

Post by GekkePrutser »

soco wrote: post #23
cyral wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why it wouldn't open for you, but it opens fine in Chrome on Mac. I thought it would be some ridiculous 50 page legalese but it's actually only 1.5 pages long. it's basically a license similar to what you'd see on a Github repo.

But why PDF at all? Is there a reason to put the online license in a PDF? Or any other places, like the restaurant menus? is there anybody who wants/needs to print the license or the restaurant menu?

I really hate those restaurants that only have QR codes on the table for menus. A restaurant is for eating and talking, not for messing around with my phone.

I avoid those now. During Covid there was a slight point (though it was pretty soon proven that surface transmission was so minor a factor not to warrant such actions). But now we should just go back to normal menus.

Re: Atkinson Hyperlegible Font

#88

Post by KronisLV »

Sunspark wrote: post #64

Reminder that fonts are subjective. This one is good for specific people, not everyone. I can't use it because I find it overly rounded with tics. An example of a font that is also meant to be legible, but is on the squarish side, is Tiresias Screenfont. Increased legibility does NOT mean "flow". Just because each character is more "distinct" does not mean that the whole word is able to be processed with ease. Import…

> An example of a font that is also meant to be legible, but is on the squarish side, is Tiresias Screenfont.

Here's a quick example that a DuckDuckGo search turned up: https://catalog.monotype.com/font/bitstream/tiresias/screenf...

Personally, I rather liked the Atkinson Hyperlegible as well, though I found the "bgrpq" characters too similar in shape regardless, but maybe that's a criticism of the alphabet itself.

Regardless, a lot of the time I find myself using whatever is popular (e.g. Open Sans for web development) or something like Liberation Mono for writing code (though the rest of the Liberation fonts are great alternatives to Microsoft fonts, for example, when using LibreOffice).

Open Sans: https://www.opensans.com/

Liberation fonts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts

Re: Atkinson Hyperlegible Font

#89

Post by GekkePrutser »

Tempest1981 wrote: post #52
teo_zero wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think linking a PDF is less friendly to users who need Text-to-Speech technology, something the Braille Institute should be sensitive to...

What font does the PDF use? Maybe their Atkinson font?

It does indeed :)

Kinda funny that you need to read the EULA before downloading it because once you have the PDF on your computer you have already downloaded the font.

Re: Atkinson Hyperlegible Font

#90

Post by pbhjpbhj »

clearcarbon wrote: post #58
NelsonMinar wrote: post #27

I'm uncomfortable with people publishing work like this without studies to back up whether they work for their intended audience. I'm sure the Braille Institute is expert in needs of low vision readers. And the design certainly looks promising. But AFAICT no one has studied whether this font is actually more readable. https://www.maxkohler.com/notes/2021-02-16-atkinson-hyperrea... The mess with the popular-but-not-ef…

As a dyslexic the mechanism for OpenDyslexic always seemed a little off for me. How does a differently shaped font help adjust for a difference in cognition? However in this case it would seem like focusing on ensuring that the letters can be distingushed with poor vision has a more direct mechanism? - though it may be that other fonts are better

>"How does a differently shaped font help adjust for a difference in cognition?"

AIUI for some people with cognitive difficulties when using text they find orientation of glyphs (which form letter characters) to be difficult to discern, and similarities across glyphs to be confusing. Thus, if glyphs are more differentiated from one another, and if they have a non- rotationally-symmetrical shape, then letters can be easier to comprehend.

I'm curious whether fonts like Dyslexie mighty bed better for those learning to read. Children learning to read often confuse letters, b/d/p/q for example. I can see ways it could both help and hinder.

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