3 ms·

Ahhh, now I get what Reader Mode is for. I grew up with Badgers flying overhead and later on the blink tag and yet this is worse!

Lammy 2y ago
Am I missing something? I turned off Dark Reader and uBlock and this site still looks totally fine — great even. I love the colors. There are like seven example banners on the entire page, three icons for navigation, and mostly text. Or are you talking about some of the example sites the article links to like http://thombs.com/Dann_1996-06/noframes.htm http://thombs.com/Dann_1996-06/noframes.htm in which case yeah I get it lol
- gerdesj 2y ago
  "I turned off Dark Reader and uBlock" When you get older, not only do parts of your body head south and start to refuse to co-operate with the rest of you, your eyesight goes badly off track. Its all a bit disconcerting. I have never been a fan of "dark mode", even when the www didn't exist. Sometimes magazines would go weird and print an article in reverse - white on black. Dramatic effect or some such bollocks. When the fount (a specific instantiation of a typeface) was small enough and the print blead too badly in the specific copy you are reading it became very tricky to read. Nowadays we have pixels small enough to be much better than ye olde skoole CRT scan lines and a LED screen has a refresh rate that, even in my florescent tube lit lair (not really), is rock solid. I can read the site but it is not as easy as possible for me and let's face it: a book with a well chosen typeface and fount is a fair standard of readability and legibility. Why not replicate that in a web page? Why on earth is the text occupying only 1/3 of my screen widthways? When have you seen a book or mag with 1/3 margins? The fount is a sans job but it is small and white on black which is hard for me. At least it is very thin so that the glare from the white text doesn't go too fuzzy. Have a look at Wikipedia. There's a good reason for their design choices - they have to worry about everyone and not just their mates.
  - kalleboo 2y ago
    > When have you seen a book or mag with 1/3 margins? Magazines almost always have their text in thin columns, because long lines are difficult to follow. Books are also typically 1/3th the width of a typical computer screen for the same reason.
    - gerdesj 2y ago
      Columns work if you can see all of the column - screens are wide and short, books/mags are thin and deep. A physical book has a ratio of exactly the opposite of your laptop. Amazon realised this quite quickly and you will note that their readers have a book shape. Look at this web site (HN) which is used by some of the most vociferous nerds ever (including you and me) and tell me I am talking bollocks! Note the styles, layout, colours in use. How far removed from white on black text, 1/3 screen width and teenager bedroom looks are we away from?
      - xboxnolifes 2y ago
        > Look at this web site (HN) which is used by some of the most vociferous nerds ever (including you and me) and tell me I am talking bollocks! Note the styles, layout, colours in use. I use HN in a half window, so the text is roughly the same width as the website here.
    - bigstrat2003 2y ago
      Long lines aren't that difficult to follow. And for those who find it so, they can just resize their browser window. Meanwhile I have to go mess with the dev console on half the sites I visit these days because they insist on having text in a 2-inch wide column. That is a way worse problem.
  - msla 2y ago
    Too bad Wikipedia made their site less accessible (and less readable) with the recent redesign.
    - 2y ago
NikkiA 2y ago
Sadly firefox's reader mode still renders it in a thin strip of text. Granted it's in a readable font that way, but still.

Lammy 2y ago

Am I missing something? I turned off Dark Reader and uBlock and this site still looks totally fine — great even. I love the colors. There are like seven example banners on the entire page, three icons for navigation, and mostly text. Or are you talking about some of the example sites the article links to like http://thombs.com/Dann_1996-06/noframes.htm http://thombs.com/Dann_1996-06/noframes.htm in which case yeah I get it lol

gerdesj 2y ago
"I turned off Dark Reader and uBlock" When you get older, not only do parts of your body head south and start to refuse to co-operate with the rest of you, your eyesight goes badly off track. Its all a bit disconcerting. I have never been a fan of "dark mode", even when the www didn't exist. Sometimes magazines would go weird and print an article in reverse - white on black. Dramatic effect or some such bollocks. When the fount (a specific instantiation of a typeface) was small enough and the print blead too badly in the specific copy you are reading it became very tricky to read. Nowadays we have pixels small enough to be much better than ye olde skoole CRT scan lines and a LED screen has a refresh rate that, even in my florescent tube lit lair (not really), is rock solid. I can read the site but it is not as easy as possible for me and let's face it: a book with a well chosen typeface and fount is a fair standard of readability and legibility. Why not replicate that in a web page? Why on earth is the text occupying only 1/3 of my screen widthways? When have you seen a book or mag with 1/3 margins? The fount is a sans job but it is small and white on black which is hard for me. At least it is very thin so that the glare from the white text doesn't go too fuzzy. Have a look at Wikipedia. There's a good reason for their design choices - they have to worry about everyone and not just their mates.
- kalleboo 2y ago
  > When have you seen a book or mag with 1/3 margins? Magazines almost always have their text in thin columns, because long lines are difficult to follow. Books are also typically 1/3th the width of a typical computer screen for the same reason.
  - gerdesj 2y ago
    Columns work if you can see all of the column - screens are wide and short, books/mags are thin and deep. A physical book has a ratio of exactly the opposite of your laptop. Amazon realised this quite quickly and you will note that their readers have a book shape. Look at this web site (HN) which is used by some of the most vociferous nerds ever (including you and me) and tell me I am talking bollocks! Note the styles, layout, colours in use. How far removed from white on black text, 1/3 screen width and teenager bedroom looks are we away from?
    - xboxnolifes 2y ago
      > Look at this web site (HN) which is used by some of the most vociferous nerds ever (including you and me) and tell me I am talking bollocks! Note the styles, layout, colours in use. I use HN in a half window, so the text is roughly the same width as the website here.
  - bigstrat2003 2y ago
    Long lines aren't that difficult to follow. And for those who find it so, they can just resize their browser window. Meanwhile I have to go mess with the dev console on half the sites I visit these days because they insist on having text in a 2-inch wide column. That is a way worse problem.
- msla 2y ago
  Too bad Wikipedia made their site less accessible (and less readable) with the recent redesign.
  - 2y ago

NikkiA 2y ago

Sadly firefox's reader mode still renders it in a thin strip of text. Granted it's in a readable font that way, but still.