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Serious question: what is so important about fonts? I don't consider them nearly interesting enough to load them from some remote server. Is there data to sho

Serious question: what is so important about fonts? I don't consider them nearly interesting enough to load them from some remote server. Is there data to show that fonts improve anything objectively?

TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
> don't consider them nearly interesting enough to load them from some remote server. Many, or even most, websites already do this by using custom fonts. Typography is valuable in the sense that the color palette used on a website is also valuable.
- quesera 4y ago
  You can disable this behaviour. It's a reasonable choice, but there are pros (privacy, efficiency) and cons (layout mostly) to doing so.
- wruza 4y ago
  Tbh, I hate most of these fonts (especially thin ones) and acid, blurry, pastel, dark, bright, washed, monochrome, contrast colors. I wish there was an accessibility standard for sighted fullcolor people so I could use everything without constant irritation. Design and typography are two top things for that syndrome where most unimportant details get maximal attention. For me sites with “cool design” usually correlate with “I read it thoroughly and still have no fucking idea what it is about, ctrl-w”. Maybe you should have prioritized texts over fonts.
quesera 4y ago
> Is there data to show that fonts improve anything objectively? Of course there are. The primary motivation is aesthetics though. This is of course part of "anything", but it's a bit subjective. Fonts (typefaces) make people so upset. You care, or you care not. Having strong opinions about what other people care about is a path to madness.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  But… COMIC SANS!
  - yakubin 4y ago
    I hope you don't read any OpenBSD slides... ;)
CharlesW 4y ago
> Serious question: what is so important about fonts? My shortest serious answer: If you're asking, the answer for you is "mostly nothing". A slightly longer serious answer: Typography is a core dimension of a design's "voice", and so people who care about that tend to care a lot about typography. Examples to help visualize this: https://www.fastsigns.com/blog/miscellaneous-trending/colors-fonts/right-message-wrong-font-10-brand-messaging-miss/ https://www.fastsigns.com/blog/miscellaneous-trending/colors... A less-serious answer: Change your coding/console font to Ariel for a week.
- quesera 4y ago
  > A less-serious answer: Change your coding/console font to Ariel for a week Actually I think that's the perfect answer! Someone will say "but that's different.". But it is not.
- wruza 4y ago
  Typography is a core dimension of a design's "voice", and so people who care about that tend to care a lot about typography So it matters only to designers’ tastes. Reminds physiognomy, when ears and nose can tell you a life story. People mostly don’t care about your voice notes or ear tips, unless it is the whole point of your performance or they are retarded. Change your coding/console font to Ariel for a week Variable width jokes aside, let’s compare our coding fonts and try to explain why one of that many should be considered the “main” one.
  - adrian_b 4y ago
    I believe that the point of the suggestion of replacing a console or programming font with Arial or Helvetica, in order to become aware of their unsuitability for such a task, was not that they are variable-width typefaces, but that they belong to the group of sans-serif fonts that have exaggerated with the simplification of the characters, so that they have many different characters that cannot be distinguished, creating ambiguities that are intolerable in programming or in console windows.
    - 4y ago

TedDoesntTalk 4y ago

> don't consider them nearly interesting enough to load them from some remote server. Many, or even most, websites already do this by using custom fonts. Typography is valuable in the sense that the color palette used on a website is also valuable.

quesera 4y ago
You can disable this behaviour. It's a reasonable choice, but there are pros (privacy, efficiency) and cons (layout mostly) to doing so.
wruza 4y ago
Tbh, I hate most of these fonts (especially thin ones) and acid, blurry, pastel, dark, bright, washed, monochrome, contrast colors. I wish there was an accessibility standard for sighted fullcolor people so I could use everything without constant irritation. Design and typography are two top things for that syndrome where most unimportant details get maximal attention. For me sites with “cool design” usually correlate with “I read it thoroughly and still have no fucking idea what it is about, ctrl-w”. Maybe you should have prioritized texts over fonts.

quesera 4y ago

> Is there data to show that fonts improve anything objectively? Of course there are. The primary motivation is aesthetics though. This is of course part of "anything", but it's a bit subjective. Fonts (typefaces) make people so upset. You care, or you care not. Having strong opinions about what other people care about is a path to madness.

TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
But… COMIC SANS!
- yakubin 4y ago
  I hope you don't read any OpenBSD slides... ;)

CharlesW 4y ago

> Serious question: what is so important about fonts? My shortest serious answer: If you're asking, the answer for you is "mostly nothing". A slightly longer serious answer: Typography is a core dimension of a design's "voice", and so people who care about that tend to care a lot about typography. Examples to help visualize this: https://www.fastsigns.com/blog/miscellaneous-trending/colors-fonts/right-message-wrong-font-10-brand-messaging-miss/ https://www.fastsigns.com/blog/miscellaneous-trending/colors... A less-serious answer: Change your coding/console font to Ariel for a week.

quesera 4y ago
> A less-serious answer: Change your coding/console font to Ariel for a week Actually I think that's the perfect answer! Someone will say "but that's different.". But it is not.
wruza 4y ago
Typography is a core dimension of a design's "voice", and so people who care about that tend to care a lot about typography So it matters only to designers’ tastes. Reminds physiognomy, when ears and nose can tell you a life story. People mostly don’t care about your voice notes or ear tips, unless it is the whole point of your performance or they are retarded. Change your coding/console font to Ariel for a week Variable width jokes aside, let’s compare our coding fonts and try to explain why one of that many should be considered the “main” one.
- adrian_b 4y ago
  I believe that the point of the suggestion of replacing a console or programming font with Arial or Helvetica, in order to become aware of their unsuitability for such a task, was not that they are variable-width typefaces, but that they belong to the group of sans-serif fonts that have exaggerated with the simplification of the characters, so that they have many different characters that cannot be distinguished, creating ambiguities that are intolerable in programming or in console windows.
  - 4y ago