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I'm not embarrassed about what I said. Maybe you think I should be, and I put extra effort into saying it because I knew it would be a controversial issue. But

by Retra 11y ago

I'm not embarrassed about what I said. Maybe you think I should be, and I put extra effort into saying it because I knew it would be a controversial issue. But I wasn't talking about design in general, I was talking only about kerning. I simply can't imagine that the kerning of text that I read has made my life less painful in any way, except in the situation where we've avoided clearly unreadable, awful kerning. Now tell me how the Google logo is that kind of situation, and maybe I'd understand your point. Also, I do care to understand this subject. I just also care to understand more than just that. We can talk all day about kerning, but you don't do good design by talking all day about kerning, you do it by talking about human experiences. And as a human experience, kerning isn't really on most people's radar.

dasil003 11y ago
You put effort into saying that? Because it read like an undifferentiated rant against all typography. If it was only about kerning, why did you set up a huge strawman about monospaced fonts implying that you would by fine in a world with only monospaced fonts, and that readability is not really a thing, and then going on to set up some analogy about relationships that is utterly unfathomable in its irrelevance. If it's just about kerning then I suppose you didn't intend any of this, but that's definitely how it comes off.
- Retra 11y ago
  When I was talking about monospaced fonts I was doing so only to point out that people tend to talk about abolishing them like it's all upside. My point is to suggest that one take a broader view of the subject before advocating a design position, and focusing on the kerning of the Google logo is an example of failing to do that. If I had written more, it would probably look more like a rant, and if I'd written less, it would've been bull-in-china-shop writing. Writing subtle criticism on the internet is walking a fine line.

by Retra 11y ago

dasil003 11y ago

You put effort into saying that? Because it read like an undifferentiated rant against all typography. If it was only about kerning, why did you set up a huge strawman about monospaced fonts implying that you would by fine in a world with only monospaced fonts, and that readability is not really a thing, and then going on to set up some analogy about relationships that is utterly unfathomable in its irrelevance. If it's just about kerning then I suppose you didn't intend any of this, but that's definitely how it comes off.

Retra 11y ago
When I was talking about monospaced fonts I was doing so only to point out that people tend to talk about abolishing them like it's all upside. My point is to suggest that one take a broader view of the subject before advocating a design position, and focusing on the kerning of the Google logo is an example of failing to do that. If I had written more, it would probably look more like a rant, and if I'd written less, it would've been bull-in-china-shop writing. Writing subtle criticism on the internet is walking a fine line.