4 ms·

While I agree with the rational component of the article (webp may be inappropriate for artistic photos) I had to force myself to read it. The "t" in the font s

While I agree with the rational component of the article (webp may be inappropriate for artistic photos) I had to force myself to read it. The "t" in the font screws me up completely, I tried twice to wipe the screen of my phone then thought that maybe it's a background picture getting in the way. So overall I find author's aesthetic sense very questionable which contrasts with his high-moral-ground tone.

walteweiss 3y ago
Haha, I used iPhone’s reader mode, which I do most of the times.
aidenn0 3y ago
The "t" or the "ct" ligature?
- michaelcampbell 3y ago
  "st", also.
  - myfonj 3y ago
    It's the "historical-ligatures" feature of used font, if you aren't in the reader mode already, F12 and document.body.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend','<style>p { font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures discretionary-ligatures contextual;}</style>') should turn it off. (Was "too much" for me either.) But besides this, I found typography of that article quite nice; interesting that there are thin spaces before "?" and "!" and wide spaces (not double spaces) after sentences - also "old school" (and often frowned upon). I guess some WP plugin does it, but I admit don't remember seeing seen this anywhere else recently. (And I like it.)
- mlok 3y ago
  Wow I am reading it at 170% zoom, and in the fourth paragraph the word "distribution" which contains the "st" ligature is automatically cut and "hyphenated" between the "s" and the "t" letters. But the ligature remains : half the ligature at the end of one line, and the other half of that ligature at the beginning of the next line ! This looks wrong. CSS has probably missed an edge case here. Or is it the job of some "text renderer" in the browser ?
bigstrat2003 3y ago
For me it's the horrible layout. For God's sake, stop making narrow columns of text. Having the text take up most of my monitor is much more pleasant to read.
- diego_sandoval 3y ago
  I think the opposite. When text in a webpage takes up all my monitor's width, I go into Developer Tools and manually add a max-width rule so that I can read the text comfortably. And AFAIK, all HCI literature seems to agree with me.
- Andrew_nenakhov 3y ago
  Long lines of text cause significantly more eye strain than reasonably short ones. Generally, one should try to have ~80 characters per line of text.
  - caseyohara 3y ago
    Research suggests optimal line length is 50-75 characters https://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability https://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability
bobbylarrybobby 3y ago
Discretional ligatures… well, they require discretion, which the author seems to sorely lack.

walteweiss 3y ago

Haha, I used iPhone’s reader mode, which I do most of the times.

aidenn0 3y ago

The "t" or the "ct" ligature?

michaelcampbell 3y ago
"st", also.
- myfonj 3y ago
  It's the "historical-ligatures" feature of used font, if you aren't in the reader mode already, F12 and document.body.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend','<style>p { font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures discretionary-ligatures contextual;}</style>') should turn it off. (Was "too much" for me either.) But besides this, I found typography of that article quite nice; interesting that there are thin spaces before "?" and "!" and wide spaces (not double spaces) after sentences - also "old school" (and often frowned upon). I guess some WP plugin does it, but I admit don't remember seeing seen this anywhere else recently. (And I like it.)
mlok 3y ago
Wow I am reading it at 170% zoom, and in the fourth paragraph the word "distribution" which contains the "st" ligature is automatically cut and "hyphenated" between the "s" and the "t" letters. But the ligature remains : half the ligature at the end of one line, and the other half of that ligature at the beginning of the next line ! This looks wrong. CSS has probably missed an edge case here. Or is it the job of some "text renderer" in the browser ?

bigstrat2003 3y ago

For me it's the horrible layout. For God's sake, stop making narrow columns of text. Having the text take up most of my monitor is much more pleasant to read.

diego_sandoval 3y ago
I think the opposite. When text in a webpage takes up all my monitor's width, I go into Developer Tools and manually add a max-width rule so that I can read the text comfortably. And AFAIK, all HCI literature seems to agree with me.
Andrew_nenakhov 3y ago
Long lines of text cause significantly more eye strain than reasonably short ones. Generally, one should try to have ~80 characters per line of text.
- caseyohara 3y ago
  Research suggests optimal line length is 50-75 characters https://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability https://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability

bobbylarrybobby 3y ago

Discretional ligatures… well, they require discretion, which the author seems to sorely lack.