71–80 of 97 posts
Is it just my MacBook Air + OS X, or is the Font (ironically) on that site painful to read? Compare: https://medium.com/@willgossin/the-uncanny-valley-race-merit... To: http://practicaltypography.com/billionaires-typewriter.html [Edit: Also - no HTTPS? And No Favicon?]
Medium's typography is simple and readable. I like reading things on Medium more than reading things on most blogs because nobody can mess it up. The focus is on the content. That's exactly what I want; I want to read and not be distracted. The way this article is displayed, however, is not only distracting, but a perfect example of how dogma-like design choices can take away from the functionality and usability. I u…
The large majority of people have terrible taste in design. I think design constraints on platforms like medium just serve to prevent people from actively ruining their content with bad design.
There are some things I miss about a typewriter, like the visceral satisfaction of pounding on the keys and watching the text emerge. I also miss typewriter fonts. Yes, I know I can get typewriter fonts, including the typewriter font that HD uses for its text entry boxes. I mean the unevenness of it due to mechanical variations, variations in the ribbon, etc., leading to every impression being slightly different. Com…
While they're typically considered gauche, there are typefaces which emulate a broken typewriter. I somewhat like those as well.
If I was designing ebook software, I'd support a rendering that would ever-so-slightly mis-position each letter, and in fact have a dozen incarnations of each letter, all slightly different, and pick one at random each time.
I'd also make the background not quite perfect white. It'd be tan with a bit of variation in it, and maybe adding tiny specs of dirt.
So it looks like a real book!
It wouldn't be hard, either.
"As a writer, the biggest potential waste of your time is not typography chores, but Medium itself. Because in return for that snazzy design, Medium needs you to relinquish control of how your work gets to readers." Amen. Finally, someone has put this simply. The issue here has nothing to do with type. The author does a pretty good job of pointing out why Medium's pandering to design is clearly B.S. — but…
It's a distraction from the fact that they own you. 1) Many people do not care to maintain a blog 2) Many people do not plan on writing regularly; maybe once every three months may even be a miracle, in which case a shared platform is preferable. 3) Writing on your own blog is like building your own restaurant in the desert instead of a strip mall, it will take a lot to get people to find it. 4) Sometimes you just wa…
2) Some car owners only drive once every few weeks yet still own a car instead of renting one. Don't make simplistic assumptions. There are benefits in ownership even for casual users.
3) Ever heard of Social Media ? Word of Mouth ? If you have good content, you will get linked, re-linked, and bookmarked.
4) See 1.
5) "Many" ? Who ? Where ? If anyone is serious about sharing their ideas, they can do it in multiple forms. You can write a book, you can do a presentation in front of folks, you can join a club - a blog is only one way of sharing stuff, not the ultimately most efficient one, depending on what you are passionate about.
Just as many people treat youtube as a get-go place for their video/music content needs (many people start to treat it as their TV, especially kids), Medium hopes people will, in time, treat Medium as the only magazine/newspaper/blog-place they need - and that should also push traditional media to utilize it (same as happens for TV channels and youtube). This is a long-term plan, but given how Internet tends to favour natural monopolies (see Google, Facebook, YouTube) it might actually work. Even if they will fail at this someone else will probably succeed.
What is the point of inserting a "◊" before each link? It looks ridiculous and distracts from reading the article.
Because it's a web-based book? I've browsed about and haven't seen a clear explanation. (It took a while to figure out what the hell is going on at that site.) Apparently he considers underlining a sin against typography [ http://practicaltypography.com/underlining.html ] as one of the "bad typewriter habits" [ http://practicaltypography.com/typewriter-habits.html ]. That might be why. Which is funny, because one of…
Certainly some 'rules' are broken, and it can ruffle feathers. But I don't think any progress is made without feather-rufflage. This book is a really great example of a readable, usable piece of literature, published on the web, and feels like a next-generation book. I like it.
What is writing? Is it getting all the words down before you forget your point? Or is it polishing and formatting your content to appeal to the readers? It's easy to throw the term around, brand your software for writers , the best writing tool , etc. I can't say I agree 100% with either author. On the one hand, Wichary shows some 'gorgeous' LaserDisc snippet and lauds it as some return to the good old pre-typewriter…
It's amusing that--speaking of typography on the web--disabling the download of fonts fails so gracelessly that I'm seeing this in your post: The goal is to cre the il that every on Medium be-long to one ed ecosys, as if it's the New York Times. Apprently I need some "DejaVu Sans Mono".
I saw something like that (dropped characters) on another site, as well.
Only with Chrome, neither with IE nor Firefox.
Medium's typography is simple and readable. I like reading things on Medium more than reading things on most blogs because nobody can mess it up. The focus is on the content. That's exactly what I want; I want to read and not be distracted. The way this article is displayed, however, is not only distracting, but a perfect example of how dogma-like design choices can take away from the functionality and usability. I u…
I agree with the author's fundamental concerns about freedom.
I imagine some years in the future the same people heralding Medium will become its harshest critics. How many times does it take for people to be burned by proprietary apps/services before they stop using them? In the case of Medium, there are ample alternatives.The author is right that marketing Medium really is what Medium does best.