4 ms·

Make that two: Verdana. Both designed by Matthew Carter. You may remember him from the hit film, Helvetica.

by goldmab 15y ago

ugh 15y ago
I don’t like Verdana that much but I’m slightly irrational about that. The reason are the curly quotes. “They are all weird for English text” (you might still justify the way they look somehow – I guess they are not technically incorrect) and flat out wrong „when you follow the German convention for curly quotes”. (Since HN uses Verdana you can see right here how screwed up those curly quotes are.) Those quotes should look like 66 (beginning, top) and 99 (end, top) for English text and like 99 (beginning, bottom) and 66 (end, top) for German text. I guess you could use «guillemets» instead.
- jokermatt999 15y ago
  Perhaps this is somewhat heretical to typography-knowledgeable people (I honestly don't know), but I've always preferred quotes to be straight up and down, as in this preview box: " It just looks cleaner to me. Curved quotes look good in large size print, but I'm really not a fan in smaller font sizes. Do you have any examples of good quotes in small font sizes?
  - ugh 15y ago
    Curly quotes are problematic on low PPI screens. They tend to just become unidentifiable clumps. The features that make them distinct become unidentifiable, they only look slightly odd and uneven. I do, however, think that as we are moving to higher PPI screens curly quotes do look better (and, as you can see from my German example, some languages require you to put quotes in places where you cannot put straight quotes). I, for example, really don’t think straight quotes look any good in print which is high resolution. In print all the small features of quotes are always clearly identifiable. I actually think that Georgia has nice curly quotes but they do clump up below 12px or so font sizes. I think no font is free of that problem. I still like to use curly quotes, well, just because. I certainly can understand why you wouldn’t want to use them at small font sizes on the screen. (There is one exception. I like to use Letter Gothic for my snail mail correspondence. Letter Gothic is a great monospaced typewriter font and to preserve that typewriter vibe I like to use straight quotes.)
joshfinnie 15y ago
Helvetica was really a fantastic film. If anyone is in the mood for an informative documentary, I would recommend it.

Make that two: Verdana. Both designed by Matthew Carter. You may remember him from the hit film, Helvetica.

by goldmab 15y ago

Make that two: Verdana. Both designed by Matthew Carter. You may remember him from the hit film, Helvetica.

ugh 15y ago

I don’t like Verdana that much but I’m slightly irrational about that. The reason are the curly quotes. “They are all weird for English text” (you might still justify the way they look somehow – I guess they are not technically incorrect) and flat out wrong „when you follow the German convention for curly quotes”. (Since HN uses Verdana you can see right here how screwed up those curly quotes are.) Those quotes should look like 66 (beginning, top) and 99 (end, top) for English text and like 99 (beginning, bottom) and 66 (end, top) for German text. I guess you could use «guillemets» instead.

jokermatt999 15y ago
Perhaps this is somewhat heretical to typography-knowledgeable people (I honestly don't know), but I've always preferred quotes to be straight up and down, as in this preview box: " It just looks cleaner to me. Curved quotes look good in large size print, but I'm really not a fan in smaller font sizes. Do you have any examples of good quotes in small font sizes?
- ugh 15y ago
  Curly quotes are problematic on low PPI screens. They tend to just become unidentifiable clumps. The features that make them distinct become unidentifiable, they only look slightly odd and uneven. I do, however, think that as we are moving to higher PPI screens curly quotes do look better (and, as you can see from my German example, some languages require you to put quotes in places where you cannot put straight quotes). I, for example, really don’t think straight quotes look any good in print which is high resolution. In print all the small features of quotes are always clearly identifiable. I actually think that Georgia has nice curly quotes but they do clump up below 12px or so font sizes. I think no font is free of that problem. I still like to use curly quotes, well, just because. I certainly can understand why you wouldn’t want to use them at small font sizes on the screen. (There is one exception. I like to use Letter Gothic for my snail mail correspondence. Letter Gothic is a great monospaced typewriter font and to preserve that typewriter vibe I like to use straight quotes.)

joshfinnie 15y ago

Helvetica was really a fantastic film. If anyone is in the mood for an informative documentary, I would recommend it.