131–140 of 159 posts
Monospaced fonts are harder to read in long form.
Using box-drawing characters when you have a web browser seems silly. I’d rather have minimalistic design with proper canvas, CSS, etc. You’re already using rounded borders, anyway.
It looks nice, and I'm glad that it's semantic and responsive, but the fundamental problem is that monospace just isn't great for body text. I've read blog posts on multiple sites with monospaced body text, it's okay, but proportional really is the way to go in my opinion.
Out of curiosity, what font would you prefer for body text? I use monospace on my own blog because it plays nice with my poor vision and scaling settings, but I am always curious about improved readability for all, since accesability is important to me.
On modern high density displays serif fonts can also work fine. But not all displays out there are actually of that high density.
That's just one aspect though. There has been a lot of research over the years which for some reason is often ignored.
I was about to write out a lot more and while looking up various sources stumbled upon a medium post that dives into things quite deeply: https://medium.com/@pvermaer/down-the-font-legibility-rabbit...
Very nice! I like how bold and monolithic it looks (I just fell in love with that JetBrains Mono font). I did something similar (but fully based on HTML semantics) for people who like the style of my theme for Hugo, but don't want to use Hugo and all they need is a simple CSS file. https://panr.github.io/terminal-css/
/*
Character Variants settings for JetBrains Mono
(All are off by default, left them here all for reference.)
H/T https://wakamaifondue.com/ for the inspect!
This set is pretty much like "ss01" but with "cv07" on
or like "ss02" but with "cv05" off
"id" state `affected glyphs` effect when enabled (my pref/note)
*/
font-feature-settings:
"zero" off, /* `0` slashed, instead of dotted */
"cv01" on, /* `l` flat serif bottom instad of curve (on!!)*/
"cv02" off, /* `t` bottom curve instead of hook */
"cv03" off, /* `g` double-storey (sadly not nice) */
"cv04" off, /* `j` rounded bottom hook */
"cv05" off, /* `l` rounded bottom hook */
"cv06" on, /* `m` smaller middle apex (on!) */
"cv07" on, /* `W` smaller middle apex (on!) */
"cv08" off, /* `K Ж` straight without horizontal joint */
"cv09" on, /* `f` slab serifs (on!!) */
"cv10" on, /* `r` slab serifs (on!!) */
"cv11" on, /* `y λ` rounded tails (on!) */
"cv12" on, /* `u` spur (on!) */
"cv14" on, /* `¢ $` broken strikes (on?) */
"cv15" off, /* `&` like 'ET' */
"cv17" off, /* `f` curved */
"cv18" off, /* `2,6,9 curved diagonals */
"cv19" off, /* `8` symmetrical halves */
"cv20" off, /* `5` rounded bow */
"cv99" off, /* `С с` (cyrillic es) inverted‽‽ */
"liga" off, /* Sadly, not. */
"ss00" off !important; /* // just a terminating bogus without comma. */
I've put it into [1] along with some rules that makes it slightly easier to my eyes.
[1] https://userstyles.world/style/17888/owickstrom-github-iothe...
Ooh, this is the thread to ask my question in. A few years ago I ran across a ... I think a video game walkthrough? maybe? which was written to be read in monospace font, and it was full justified perfectly all the way through (thousands of lines!) SOLELY through word choice. Anyone know what I'm talking about and have a link?
Cf. also http://tom7.org/bovex/ (a layout engine that tries to achieve a similar effect by rephrasing the input using an LLM).
I've been keeping a list of monospace pages: https://wonger.dev/posts/monospace-dump#web . Currently have ~50. Spacing is a challenge. And you lose some legibility giving up proportional fonts. I think kerning in proportional fonts makes a big difference, letting your eyes recognize the shape of different letter groupings. Monospace text is fine if you avoid long-form text, like when it's structured and highlighted i…
I agree, monospace without color and some formatting is like giving up a sense or spatial dimension. It's pointless austerity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
maybe there needs to be a gopher protocol refresh. some 2024 approach of the same idea.
The problem is not really with the protocol or the file formats, though. I gave this some thought in the past, and, since this is more of an artistic/crafting endavor than anything else I'd say we decide on some arbitrary rules (like "only monospace fonts, no external javascript, only static content", I don't know, I'm just spitballing here) and create our own certification to display at the top of the page (like the…
I think that's a great idea. You can go a long way with just Unicode these days: https://gwern.net/utext
All you need HTML/CSS for in an ordinary Gemini/gopher/Markdown-style document is clickable hyperlinks, really, and you can hack that by alternating a bit of HTML or by client-side convention.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, this is wild! Maintaining perfect justification solely through word choice is... quite a writing constraint, lol. I don't think I've seen this done before.
I betcha it wasn’t perfectly through word choice alone as I can think of a few “tricks” that could be deployed undetectably.
I've been keeping a list of monospace pages: https://wonger.dev/posts/monospace-dump#web . Currently have ~50. Spacing is a challenge. And you lose some legibility giving up proportional fonts. I think kerning in proportional fonts makes a big difference, letting your eyes recognize the shape of different letter groupings. Monospace text is fine if you avoid long-form text, like when it's structured and highlighted i…
Kerning makes such a huge difference in proportional fonts. Proper kerning allows your brain process word shapes much faster.
At least it's not green on black.