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> It looks like a font designed by an engineer, not a designer This is exactly why I like it. Designed by an engineer for the purpose of typesetting engineeri

> It looks like a font designed by an engineer, not a designer This is exactly why I like it. Designed by an engineer for the purpose of typesetting engineering articles and books. Most of the other alternative fonts feel like they were designed by a designer with all the unnecessary flairs that would make a great title/heading font to pad the portfolio but are needlessly distracting in a paragraph of dense technical text interspersed with equations. Keep in mind that Google / Facebook / Twitter / Apple / Microsoft / etc hire hordes of professional designers and the result is a horrible user experience for everyone. I much prefer Wikipedia and Hacker News to most "modern" web design by professionals.

hocuspocus 5y ago
> Most of the other alternative fonts feel like they were designed by a designer with all the unnecessary flairs that would make a great title/heading font to pad the portfolio but are needlessly distracting in a paragraph of dense technical text interspersed with equations. Serious alternatives were designed by foundries decades or even centuries ago.
crazygringo 5y ago
I don't know where you're getting "unnecessary flair" from. What unnecessary flair do fonts like Times New Roman or Baskerville or Bodoni have? (Obviously I'm comparing with other similar fonts traditionally used for body text typesetting with equations.) I'm talking about good sense of aesthetic proportion and balance, not "flair". And what exactly is the horrible user experience that Google has created with Roboto, or Apple with San Francisco, or Microsoft with Calibri? They're actually quite excellently balanced and pleasing fonts for their purposes.
leephillips 5y ago
You’re both wrong. It was designed by a mathematician, for use in printing mathematical books.
- SeanLuke 5y ago
  Computer Modern is largely a copy of Monotype Modern, which dates from 1896. Monotype Modern was, I assure you, not designed by a mathematician nor was designed for use in printing math books. However many math books had lately been printed using typefaces similar to Modern, and Knuth liked how it looked.
suprfsat 5y ago
Hacker News is in Verdana, which was designed for Microsoft.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

hocuspocus 5y ago

> Most of the other alternative fonts feel like they were designed by a designer with all the unnecessary flairs that would make a great title/heading font to pad the portfolio but are needlessly distracting in a paragraph of dense technical text interspersed with equations. Serious alternatives were designed by foundries decades or even centuries ago.

crazygringo 5y ago

I don't know where you're getting "unnecessary flair" from. What unnecessary flair do fonts like Times New Roman or Baskerville or Bodoni have? (Obviously I'm comparing with other similar fonts traditionally used for body text typesetting with equations.) I'm talking about good sense of aesthetic proportion and balance, not "flair". And what exactly is the horrible user experience that Google has created with Roboto, or Apple with San Francisco, or Microsoft with Calibri? They're actually quite excellently balanced and pleasing fonts for their purposes.

leephillips 5y ago

You’re both wrong. It was designed by a mathematician, for use in printing mathematical books.

SeanLuke 5y ago
Computer Modern is largely a copy of Monotype Modern, which dates from 1896. Monotype Modern was, I assure you, not designed by a mathematician nor was designed for use in printing math books. However many math books had lately been printed using typefaces similar to Modern, and Knuth liked how it looked.

suprfsat 5y ago

Hacker News is in Verdana, which was designed for Microsoft.

deleted 5y ago
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