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This title doesn't accurately describe the content of the article. The author's argument is that web designers should be allowing default fonts while including

This title doesn't accurately describe the content of the article. The author's argument is that web designers should be allowing default fonts while including @font-face fonts, and that Web Fonts had it coming. It also states that ad blockers are just an implementation of the idea of disabling crappy/slow web fonts. And my opinion: Please make your website legible. Serif fonts, or sans-serif fonts with high weights and large sizes and appropriate widths. Black rather than light gray. It would be really nice if I didn't have to cURL your website or hack up its CSS in the Inspector to actually read it. The new design trends are cute, but there's nothing like actually being able to read a page. (and if you're using Canvas or something, I've already closed the tab.)

nitrogen 11y ago
Please make your website legible. I suspect a huge part of the legibility problems a lot of sites see is the gamma, DPI, and font rendering of the designer's system not matching their audience. A very thin font with gray-on-gray might look great on a calibrated 5K iMac with Safari, but be completely unreadable on Firefox for Windows on a standard 1080p screen with bad colors.
- DiabloD3 11y ago
  I am guilty of only color calibrating my screens (mainly for contrast/gamma reasons, less for straight up color accuracy), and I do this so I get an accurate look at what contrast actually looks like. I have 3x Dell U2414H (absolutely fantastic monitors, if you can find any for sale still (discontinued recently), buy them all up), and display in newest stable Chrome, newest stable Firefox, MSIE11 in Windows with unadjusted ClearType settings (only MSIE11 listens to Cleartype settings, and basically destroys ultra-thin fonts if you adjust Cleartype, so, uh, just leave it alone, trust me), and then Safari on a retina MBP because Safari both has different (possibly better, possibly worse, clearly different) font rendering but also the fact it is on HiDPI increases the difference in how things are rendered on top of it just being Safari.... and if I don't like what I see in all four, then I fiddle with it until text is clearly readable. I'm okay with thin fonts, I actually adore them because they are easier to read on larger font sized text over thicker text, but please check it on a standard Windows non-HiDPI machine, especially if you're a Mac fanatic that loves Safari on a Retina Mac. Just do it.
  - radicalbyte 11y ago
    This. I interviewed a designer whose personal "showcase" site didn't work on Chrome/Windows. I'm a rMBP user but expect me to test on all major browsers/platforms.
    - uxp 11y ago
      And hardware? My Windows 10 VM I keep around has significantly different rendering properties than the Windows 10 box I have on my office desk, even more so when running the VM on my rMBPe and even surprisingly when running on the same monitor.
      - radicalbyte 11y ago
        Yeah, at home at least. Physical Win 8 box with two different monitors (Dell IPS, Samsung TN). I'm of the opinion that web designers should work on $500 Dell laptops with those lovely 1366x768 TN panels. Don't even start me on colour-blind support (no, red is not a good choice as a 'highlight' colour when for 30% of men it's a flat 'dark' colour).
        nitrogen 11y ago
        I'm of the opinion that web designers should work on $500 Dell laptops with those lovely 1366x768 TN panels. Especially when deciding what background color will distinguish ads from normal content.
  - gherkin0 11y ago
    > I have 3x Dell U2414H (absolutely fantastic monitors, if you can find any for sale still (discontinued recently), buy them all up) The Dell IPS monitors are great, but I'd recommend the Dell U2415. It has a now-hard-to-find 16:10 aspect ratio, which gives more vertical pixels.
    - DiabloD3 11y ago
      Problem with the U2415 is it doesn't have the amazingly low total latency that the U2414H has. Including the latency from the panel itself, it is about 4ms from pixels flowing into the monitor to them flowing out to your eyeballs: this is better than every single gamer-oriented monitor on the market (which virtually all of them buffer 1 frame, which at 60hz, is 16.6ms, plus another 2-4ms from the panel itself).

nitrogen 11y ago

Please make your website legible. I suspect a huge part of the legibility problems a lot of sites see is the gamma, DPI, and font rendering of the designer's system not matching their audience. A very thin font with gray-on-gray might look great on a calibrated 5K iMac with Safari, but be completely unreadable on Firefox for Windows on a standard 1080p screen with bad colors.

DiabloD3 11y ago
I am guilty of only color calibrating my screens (mainly for contrast/gamma reasons, less for straight up color accuracy), and I do this so I get an accurate look at what contrast actually looks like. I have 3x Dell U2414H (absolutely fantastic monitors, if you can find any for sale still (discontinued recently), buy them all up), and display in newest stable Chrome, newest stable Firefox, MSIE11 in Windows with unadjusted ClearType settings (only MSIE11 listens to Cleartype settings, and basically destroys ultra-thin fonts if you adjust Cleartype, so, uh, just leave it alone, trust me), and then Safari on a retina MBP because Safari both has different (possibly better, possibly worse, clearly different) font rendering but also the fact it is on HiDPI increases the difference in how things are rendered on top of it just being Safari.... and if I don't like what I see in all four, then I fiddle with it until text is clearly readable. I'm okay with thin fonts, I actually adore them because they are easier to read on larger font sized text over thicker text, but please check it on a standard Windows non-HiDPI machine, especially if you're a Mac fanatic that loves Safari on a Retina Mac. Just do it.
- radicalbyte 11y ago
  This. I interviewed a designer whose personal "showcase" site didn't work on Chrome/Windows. I'm a rMBP user but expect me to test on all major browsers/platforms.
  - uxp 11y ago
    And hardware? My Windows 10 VM I keep around has significantly different rendering properties than the Windows 10 box I have on my office desk, even more so when running the VM on my rMBPe and even surprisingly when running on the same monitor.
    - radicalbyte 11y ago
      Yeah, at home at least. Physical Win 8 box with two different monitors (Dell IPS, Samsung TN). I'm of the opinion that web designers should work on $500 Dell laptops with those lovely 1366x768 TN panels. Don't even start me on colour-blind support (no, red is not a good choice as a 'highlight' colour when for 30% of men it's a flat 'dark' colour).
      - nitrogen 11y ago
        I'm of the opinion that web designers should work on $500 Dell laptops with those lovely 1366x768 TN panels. Especially when deciding what background color will distinguish ads from normal content.
- gherkin0 11y ago
  > I have 3x Dell U2414H (absolutely fantastic monitors, if you can find any for sale still (discontinued recently), buy them all up) The Dell IPS monitors are great, but I'd recommend the Dell U2415. It has a now-hard-to-find 16:10 aspect ratio, which gives more vertical pixels.
  - DiabloD3 11y ago
    Problem with the U2415 is it doesn't have the amazingly low total latency that the U2414H has. Including the latency from the panel itself, it is about 4ms from pixels flowing into the monitor to them flowing out to your eyeballs: this is better than every single gamer-oriented monitor on the market (which virtually all of them buffer 1 frame, which at 60hz, is 16.6ms, plus another 2-4ms from the panel itself).