3 ms·

Not completely convincing IMHO... Good advice about size, line length, line height, paragraph spacing. But the recommendations for font choice feel completely a

by bambax 4y ago

Not completely convincing IMHO... Good advice about size, line length, line height, paragraph spacing. But the recommendations for font choice feel completely arbitrary. > The angular, geometric Abolition works great Not for me. It's hard to read, and unusual. I think articles that have just one font for everything, text, title, subtitles, etc. are much easier to parse.

kijin 4y ago
Abolition looked totally wrong at first, but the next step increases the size of the title and makes it look more balanced with the rest of the page. Sci-Fi doesn't need to be all slab-serif and uppercase, but I think the author's suggestion captures the usual clichés about the genre pretty well. It's a decent introduction for typesetting a typical Sci-Fi book. Web pages, not so much.
TheOtherHobbes 4y ago
The font is there to set a mood and context. It has to be legible, but it also has to signal what readers are going to get. No one is going to set a science fiction novel in this. It would be too weird. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_English_typeface.svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_English_typeface... Similarly using different fonts for title, subhead, and body gives readers a preview of the content. Abolition is good for the title. Personally I didn't agree with the subhead choice because I thought it was too on-the-nose and cliched. But it's a fine line, and originality always has to be balanced with expectation.
- bambax 4y ago
  > Abolition is good for the title. / Personally I didn't agree with the subhead choice Well... that confirms my point: it's arbitrary, a matter of opinion, and therefore, everyone is going to have a different preference.
- Archelaos 4y ago
  > No one is going to set a science fiction novel in this. It would be too weird. Well, Carl Amery's "Der Untergang der Stadt Passau" at least includes passages styled after medeavial chronicles, that are set in Fraktur. As a university teacher of mine once said: Write down a set of rules for a genre and you get a manual on how to violate it.
giraffe_lady 4y ago
It is arbitrary but that doesn't make it meaningless. "Just use one font" is the "just eat only soylent" of typography. It ignores or dismisses the fact that arbitrary aesthetic factors do affect us and how we approach or receive a text.

by bambax 4y ago

kijin 4y ago

Abolition looked totally wrong at first, but the next step increases the size of the title and makes it look more balanced with the rest of the page. Sci-Fi doesn't need to be all slab-serif and uppercase, but I think the author's suggestion captures the usual clichés about the genre pretty well. It's a decent introduction for typesetting a typical Sci-Fi book. Web pages, not so much.

TheOtherHobbes 4y ago

The font is there to set a mood and context. It has to be legible, but it also has to signal what readers are going to get. No one is going to set a science fiction novel in this. It would be too weird. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_English_typeface.svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_English_typeface... Similarly using different fonts for title, subhead, and body gives readers a preview of the content. Abolition is good for the title. Personally I didn't agree with the subhead choice because I thought it was too on-the-nose and cliched. But it's a fine line, and originality always has to be balanced with expectation.

bambax 4y ago
> Abolition is good for the title. / Personally I didn't agree with the subhead choice Well... that confirms my point: it's arbitrary, a matter of opinion, and therefore, everyone is going to have a different preference.
Archelaos 4y ago
> No one is going to set a science fiction novel in this. It would be too weird. Well, Carl Amery's "Der Untergang der Stadt Passau" at least includes passages styled after medeavial chronicles, that are set in Fraktur. As a university teacher of mine once said: Write down a set of rules for a genre and you get a manual on how to violate it.

giraffe_lady 4y ago

It is arbitrary but that doesn't make it meaningless. "Just use one font" is the "just eat only soylent" of typography. It ignores or dismisses the fact that arbitrary aesthetic factors do affect us and how we approach or receive a text.