3 ms·
CMR has been one of the worst possible fonts that proliferated throughout the academic world. I don't understand it, perhaps it's just me, but there are dozens
by korginator 5y ago
CMR has been one of the worst possible fonts that proliferated throughout the academic world. I don't understand it, perhaps it's just me, but there are dozens of other fonts that are more readable on paper and on screen.
There's just something very wrong about the glyphs, the relative widths of letters, and the way that some of the letters get sort of squished together to make the text nearly unreadable.
I remember way back in the 1990's when I had to get an approval from the head of our department to submit my thesis in another font because I refused to use CMR.
- pgtan 5y agoIt is you. CM is based on the Modern fonts used in scientific typesetting decades before Knuth made a MF version of it. I had often chance to give non-TeX (coming from humanities) proofreaders and copy-editors the choice between Times and CM. Almost all of them choosed CM.
- kps 5y agoIt's not you. Computer Modern is based on Monotype Modern 8A, one of the typefaces available for Monotype's ‘4-line system’ of typesetting mathematics. It's a Scotch Roman design, a 19th-century fashion that represents the nadir of typographic taste.
- agalunar 5y agoI'm not sure if I'd call it a low point unless you're simply describing your personal taste; I think there's far from uniform concensus that Scotch romans (and other "modern" faces, like the didones) were a mistake. I mean, Georgia and Miller (both by Matthew Carter, who also did Verdana and Tahoma) are both revivals in spirit, used for body copy, and they're less than three decades old. But I'm really glad someone mentioned the Monotype 4-line system! Two papers come to mind that might be worth sharing, which I thought were really enjoyable and well-done: https://typeculture.com/academic-resource/articles-essays/the-monotype-4-line-system-for-setting-mathematics/ https://typeculture.com/academic-resource/articles-essays/th... http://ultrasparky.org/school/pdf/DanielRhatigan_Dissertation.pdf http://ultrasparky.org/school/pdf/DanielRhatigan_Dissertatio...
- Chris_Newton 5y agoThank you. The history in the documents you linked is interesting, and IMHO the author also did a beautiful job with the presentation.
- bruce343434 5y agoWhat's wrong about CMR is the criminally thin parts of some glyphs. It's practically unreadable (for me).