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Webdesigners: please make text readable

contrastrebellion.com

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Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable

#21

Post by arkitaip »

duopixel wrote: post #12

There's a second problem that's popping up lately: font-face on the body text. System fonts have been painstakingly hinted to make them more readable on-screen. Most web-embeddable fonts don't have appropriate hinting or are just plain bad choices for body text. Hoefler & Frere Jones (one of the most respected foundries around) haven't released embeddable fonts because they've been working on it for years . The resul…

Core fonts don't necessarily equal good web typography. Arial, for instance, is pretty mediocre for the web. You could say the same about Helvetica (it is still better designed than Arial).

As for web fonts, Adobe and other foundries have large collections of gorgeous fonts specifically designed for the web.

Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable

#22

Post by pilif »

Even worse (or probably related) than the general contrast problem is the absolutely crazy suggestion to use

-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;

in your CSS (http://maxvoltar.com/archive/-webkit-font-smoothing)

I've yet to come across an instance where antialiased is better than using subpixel hinting.

In addition, I think it's crazy that the browser would allow a site designer to alter such a highly OS- or even machine-specific setting.

Heck - there's even special tuning wizards in most OSes to configure the subpixel hinting perfectly for a specific monitor.

Dear designer, turning that off for everybody just because you didn't manage to configure it correctly on your machine is egoistic and, IMHO, plain stupid as you make everyone suffer for a thing you should fix at your end.

/endrant

Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable

#24

Post by arkitaip »

chexton wrote: post #18
arkitaip wrote: post #4

I've gotten into the habit of modifying the CSS of web sites I frequent to improve the readability and usability in general. I do this using a plugin for the web browser. For instance, this is how the HN home page looks like: http://i.imgur.com/WaTQq.jpg This is the most perfect design because it's tailored to my needs. Here's how YouTube looks like: http://i.imgur.com/eZAsx.jpg Reddit: http://i.imgur.com/rnaxb.jpg

YouTube is very clean. I don't suppose you would share your CSS? If not, I'll do it myself...but it's always nice not to re-invent the wheel.

It would be my pleasure: https://gist.github.com/1106842

This CSS fix for YouTube removes a lot of functionality like the search form but since I can search youtube using extensions and the browser address field this isn't a huge issue.

Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable

#25

Post by hammock »

aw3c2 wrote: post #10

tldr: Do not waste your time on this. ----- Webdesigners: please make sites usable. The non-javascript fallback display is somewhat broken but at least it works. With javascript enabled the site is stuck on the second slide (Opera 11.50). And then there is the part where the site says "Content ≠ Illustration". Well, yeah, you first. And by the way, centered text is hard to read. And I can't use my browser's back butt…

I also don't understand why people feel the need to use giant text everywhere- that's just as hard/annoying to read as tiny text. I'm with you on all points.

Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable

#27

Post by hammock »

arkitaip wrote: post #4

I've gotten into the habit of modifying the CSS of web sites I frequent to improve the readability and usability in general. I do this using a plugin for the web browser. For instance, this is how the HN home page looks like: http://i.imgur.com/WaTQq.jpg This is the most perfect design because it's tailored to my needs. Here's how YouTube looks like: http://i.imgur.com/eZAsx.jpg Reddit: http://i.imgur.com/rnaxb.jpg

Seems like you might just have poor eyesight. Why not simply Ctrl-scrollwheel the text larger instead of going through the trouble to alter the CSS?

Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable

#28

Post by FilterJoe »

The author's focus on just 2 things, contrast and font, are not only overly simplistic, but are not even universally true for all people. For my eyes, reading high contrast black on white all day causes eye fatigue, while HN level of contrast (and the contrast on my site) causes less fatigue. I have no idea what percentage of people feel that way, but clearly some do.

I am a huge proponent of designing web sites for readability, and discuss my thoughts on optimizing site design for reading here:

http://www.filterjoe.com/2009/03/23/site-design-for-reading/

So many sites have too much clutter or layout problems that using Readable or Readability has become a requirement for me. For anyone not sure which to choose, I reviewed the latest versions of them here:

http://www.filterjoe.com/2011/04/11/web-page-reformatting-se...

I'd be curious for thoughts from HN readers on my own site's readability. It's what I optimized for, though I'm always open to improvement.

EDIT: reorganized, added eye fatigue

Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable

#29

Post by arnemart »

pilif wrote: post #22

Even worse (or probably related) than the general contrast problem is the absolutely crazy suggestion to use -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; in your CSS ( http://maxvoltar.com/archive/-webkit-font-smoothing ) I've yet to come across an instance where antialiased is better than using subpixel hinting. In addition, I think it's crazy that the browser would allow a site designer to alter such a highly OS- or even m…

Yes, a thousand times yes. Even worse are those who use

    -webkit-text-stroke: 1px transparent;
which absolutely _kills_ scrolling performance.
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