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Tufte CSS

edwardtufte.github.io

1–10 of 50 posts

Re: Tufte CSS

#2
Is it just me who finds the serif font used in this website too narrow and hard on the eyes, even on Retina displays?

Re: Tufte CSS

#4
post #2

Is it just me who finds the serif font used in this website too narrow and hard on the eyes, even on Retina displays?

This style (fancy Georgia-like typeface on a cream background) was a big trend back in the 2010s, when this page was created.

Re: Tufte CSS

#5
post #2

Is it just me who finds the serif font used in this website too narrow and hard on the eyes, even on Retina displays?

You use dark mode I assume? The serif text work much better in light mode. Dark mode often need additional font weight to work well.

Re: Tufte CSS

#7
I recall quite liking the typography on this website the first time I saw it years ago. It's amazing how much it has dated for me since (I think primarily due to being liberally copied exactly in too many places around the web).

> a reminder about the goal of this project. The web is not print. Webpages are not books. Therefore, the goal of Tufte CSS is not to say “websites should look like this interpretation of Tufte’s books” but rather “here are some techniques Tufte developed that we’ve found useful in print; maybe you can find a way to make them useful on the web”.

Reading this I think an interesting alternative approach could to be apply Tufte's principles to a CMS rich text field editor or to a frontend templating library - something that generates HTML - rather than focusing purely on the CSS side. This & selecting some less print-oriented type.

Re: Tufte CSS

#8
post #2

Is it just me who finds the serif font used in this website too narrow and hard on the eyes, even on Retina displays?

This style (fancy Georgia-like typeface on a cream background) was a big trend back in the 2010s, when this page was created.

And I really don't think it's aged that well. Large parts of defining what "good layout" for text is relies on a societal consensus that their taste aligns with it, and I think we've moved on.

Re: Tufte CSS

#10
Bembo-like font is atrocious.

Kerning is horrible.

Small caps have different stroke widths.

Tufte’s style is ok, just the open-source Bembo bad-clone font is very-very bad.

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