8 ms·

It seems there's a bit of a fad of people using humanist serifs on minimal websites about technical topics. I find this an interesting and somewhat strange thin

It seems there's a bit of a fad of people using humanist serifs on minimal websites about technical topics. I find this an interesting and somewhat strange thing to do. The style of these typefaces dates to the early Renaissance and emulates the script used in illuminated manuscripts. These faces were also revived around the time of the Bauhaus and used in a similar sort of minimal layout by people like Jan Tschichold, but in the context of books and literature, which benefit from the association to the early history of the printed word and the authoritative aesthetic of early Christianity. Using such a typeface on such a technical website is for one totally anachronistic, but also without any logic that I can discern. Moreover, that particular font is somewhat hard to read and looks like it's wiggling its serifs around as you eyes pass over the letters. Try something like Sabon if you're going for that aesthetic.

Surio 13y ago
I had two minds about typing a reply to you, as it would be the beginning of a tangential discussion on something else rather than the article in question... but, (edit: this seems to be the topmost comment on the page, as I write, so I felt impelled to add my voice as well) Opinions on fonts are very hard to quantify. The font in question, used here is Alegreya, and I've found that it is both aesthetic and pleasing to the eyes. I use it as default font in MS-word/Libreoffice and also as a font replacement (using Stylish - FF, font replace table - Opera addons) in my browsers. So, as a regular user of the font in question precisely because of its (in my view,) readability and aesthetics, I respectfully disagree with some of the opinions you make about the font, regardless of how learned your opinion appears to be. :-)
ChrisClark 13y ago
That's a nice description, wiggling its serifs around. While reading it I couldn't help but feel like something was about to move, like some sort of tension, everything was about to tip over. :) I think that could be a nice effect if you were writing something suspenseful, at least for me, depends on how everyone else sees it too. Edit: And I see another reply from someone who loves it. So maybe it's just you and me that see it moving. Maybe we should get that checked out. :)
platz 13y ago
I think some experimentation is healthy. Although I noticed the different style of font usage here, I kind of like it. I'm tired of looking at fonts that leave no trace of the history of the act of writing. Perhaps tech writers want to emphasize the act of writing itself? For example, maybe they are trying to get as far away from something that looks like a monospaced font, since that looks too much like code and this is writing.
kintamanimatt 13y ago
Typefaces affect how people perceive content. Content presented in a serif font appears to the reader to be more credible. [1] It used to be the case that serif fonts were a no-no on VDUs because their low resolution made serif fonts difficult to display and less readable. This really hasn't been a problem for a long time, especially when the font size is larger, as in this case. I tend to find that dark text on a high contrast background "jumps" around making it somewhat difficult to read for long stretches when I'm reading on my computer or phone. You might want to play with the accessibility settings in your browser to make plain white backgrounds a light gray and text a dark gray. (I have my PDF reader set to display content like this and it's infinitely more readable when I'm reading something that's several hundred pages long!) Apparently impaired contrast sensitivity is common in dyslexics [2], although I'm almost certain I'm not dyslexic! Dyslexics also have issues with serif fonts, although this isn't an issue for me. [1] http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670556/are-some-fonts-more-believable-than-others http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670556/are-some-fonts-more-beli... [2] http://uxmovement.com/content/6-surprising-bad-practices-that-hurt-dyslexic-users/ http://uxmovement.com/content/6-surprising-bad-practices-tha...
- itsybitsycoder 13y ago
  Content presented in a serif font appears to the reader to be more credible. This 'study' was a survey that appeared on an online version of a newspaper. The tested content was wedged inside an article that always used a serif font, on a website that always uses a serif font, in a part of the writing industry that nearly always uses a serif font. I'm not that confident that the findings can be generalized to technical readers reading technical blogs, where the standard is sans serif. How do we know that following industry standards for the type of content isn't what made the serif fonts look more credible?
- msutherl 13y ago
  I'm not sure if this is meant as a refutation or an orthogonal comment, but yes, the typeface selected affects how people perceive content. Each typeface has a history and certain associations. It is the job of a graphic designer to align the history and associations of the typeface with the content. This is not really an empirical matter. Serif type might make something appear more credible, but this is only by association to other things that seem credible. In this particular case, the association is to the early Renaissance, and to some extent the early 20th century, which I think now both have a somewhat mixed reputation when it comes to credibility.
tyre 13y ago
I use markdown in a gist because I just want the text, without frills. Markdown is a good example for this article because all it does is simple text formatting (though I understand it is a shitshow to work with behind the scenes.) That said, I appreciate the advice and will build a better version to host future articles. Now that you say it, the text bothers me :)
jjs 13y ago
Not quite. http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=3454 http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=3454 When the humanist hand was invented, the prevailing hand for illuminated manuscripts was blackletter. While either is aesthetically pleasing, the humanist hand caught on because it was readable and vastly more ergonomic to write. Practice some dip pen calligraphy and you'll quickly notice that a humanist hand feels natural, and takes much less effort than blackletter to form beautiful characters. Blackletter (as an everyday hand) persisted in church manuscripts (and in Germany, perhaps due to a cultural love of precise craftsmanship), but it's not surprising that many monks also adopted humanist: if your job is copying written works by hand, it makes sense to keep your eyes and hands under as little strain as possible. P.S. What's a "typeface"? ;)
- msutherl 13y ago
  Yes, but when humanist type was invented, humanist script had already been used in illuminated manuscript. Thanks for the provocation though – it prompted me to take a closer look at the history and I think I may have been wrong to bring up the association to early Christianity. Indeed blackletter is the script of early Christianity and humanist script more indicative of the return to antiquity and the resulting cultural revolutions. So, there are actually 3 periods that are evoked by such typefaces – the late Roman and Carolingian eras, the early Renaissance, and the early 20th century's recontextualization of that aesthetic.
idan 13y ago
Hi there. Designer of gist.io here. The reasoning is more prosaic. I wanted a workhorse body serif that met the following criteria: - Google web fonts. I love and use typekit, but gist.io sees a decent amount of traffic. I needed something unmetered in this case. - A full four cuts: I don't control the content that people post, so I needed roman and italic cuts in both book and bold weights. This cut the selection of fonts available down to almost nothing. At the time, I didn't know about Poly, and Merriweather still doesn't have italics. [Edit: realized Poly doesn't have a bold weight either, so nevermind.] The face isn't ideal, but it's grown on me the more I read it. Ideally, I'd love to license Process Type's Elena for use on gist.io.
- msutherl 13y ago
  Just browsing casually and Noto Serif looks nice. It's based on Droid Serif, which I find to be a nice adaptation of the serif for technical or UI content.
blablabla123 13y ago
I feel exactly the same. Although what concerns me the most is: just text, black&white and on my Netbook only 50% of the screen width is used. It feel reading a 900 pages Stephen King book. A technical text should be more easy to read and I would appreciate some eye candy. People understand texts much easier when there is an illustrative picture inside or a summary table.

Surio 13y ago

I had two minds about typing a reply to you, as it would be the beginning of a tangential discussion on something else rather than the article in question... but, (edit: this seems to be the topmost comment on the page, as I write, so I felt impelled to add my voice as well) Opinions on fonts are very hard to quantify. The font in question, used here is Alegreya, and I've found that it is both aesthetic and pleasing to the eyes. I use it as default font in MS-word/Libreoffice and also as a font replacement (using Stylish - FF, font replace table - Opera addons) in my browsers. So, as a regular user of the font in question precisely because of its (in my view,) readability and aesthetics, I respectfully disagree with some of the opinions you make about the font, regardless of how learned your opinion appears to be. :-)

ChrisClark 13y ago

That's a nice description, wiggling its serifs around. While reading it I couldn't help but feel like something was about to move, like some sort of tension, everything was about to tip over. :) I think that could be a nice effect if you were writing something suspenseful, at least for me, depends on how everyone else sees it too. Edit: And I see another reply from someone who loves it. So maybe it's just you and me that see it moving. Maybe we should get that checked out. :)

platz 13y ago

I think some experimentation is healthy. Although I noticed the different style of font usage here, I kind of like it. I'm tired of looking at fonts that leave no trace of the history of the act of writing. Perhaps tech writers want to emphasize the act of writing itself? For example, maybe they are trying to get as far away from something that looks like a monospaced font, since that looks too much like code and this is writing.

kintamanimatt 13y ago

Typefaces affect how people perceive content. Content presented in a serif font appears to the reader to be more credible. [1] It used to be the case that serif fonts were a no-no on VDUs because their low resolution made serif fonts difficult to display and less readable. This really hasn't been a problem for a long time, especially when the font size is larger, as in this case. I tend to find that dark text on a high contrast background "jumps" around making it somewhat difficult to read for long stretches when I'm reading on my computer or phone. You might want to play with the accessibility settings in your browser to make plain white backgrounds a light gray and text a dark gray. (I have my PDF reader set to display content like this and it's infinitely more readable when I'm reading something that's several hundred pages long!) Apparently impaired contrast sensitivity is common in dyslexics [2], although I'm almost certain I'm not dyslexic! Dyslexics also have issues with serif fonts, although this isn't an issue for me. [1] http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670556/are-some-fonts-more-believable-than-others http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670556/are-some-fonts-more-beli... [2] http://uxmovement.com/content/6-surprising-bad-practices-that-hurt-dyslexic-users/ http://uxmovement.com/content/6-surprising-bad-practices-tha...

itsybitsycoder 13y ago
Content presented in a serif font appears to the reader to be more credible. This 'study' was a survey that appeared on an online version of a newspaper. The tested content was wedged inside an article that always used a serif font, on a website that always uses a serif font, in a part of the writing industry that nearly always uses a serif font. I'm not that confident that the findings can be generalized to technical readers reading technical blogs, where the standard is sans serif. How do we know that following industry standards for the type of content isn't what made the serif fonts look more credible?
msutherl 13y ago
I'm not sure if this is meant as a refutation or an orthogonal comment, but yes, the typeface selected affects how people perceive content. Each typeface has a history and certain associations. It is the job of a graphic designer to align the history and associations of the typeface with the content. This is not really an empirical matter. Serif type might make something appear more credible, but this is only by association to other things that seem credible. In this particular case, the association is to the early Renaissance, and to some extent the early 20th century, which I think now both have a somewhat mixed reputation when it comes to credibility.

tyre 13y ago

I use markdown in a gist because I just want the text, without frills. Markdown is a good example for this article because all it does is simple text formatting (though I understand it is a shitshow to work with behind the scenes.) That said, I appreciate the advice and will build a better version to host future articles. Now that you say it, the text bothers me :)

jjs 13y ago

Not quite. http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=3454 http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=3454 When the humanist hand was invented, the prevailing hand for illuminated manuscripts was blackletter. While either is aesthetically pleasing, the humanist hand caught on because it was readable and vastly more ergonomic to write. Practice some dip pen calligraphy and you'll quickly notice that a humanist hand feels natural, and takes much less effort than blackletter to form beautiful characters. Blackletter (as an everyday hand) persisted in church manuscripts (and in Germany, perhaps due to a cultural love of precise craftsmanship), but it's not surprising that many monks also adopted humanist: if your job is copying written works by hand, it makes sense to keep your eyes and hands under as little strain as possible. P.S. What's a "typeface"? ;)

msutherl 13y ago
Yes, but when humanist type was invented, humanist script had already been used in illuminated manuscript. Thanks for the provocation though – it prompted me to take a closer look at the history and I think I may have been wrong to bring up the association to early Christianity. Indeed blackletter is the script of early Christianity and humanist script more indicative of the return to antiquity and the resulting cultural revolutions. So, there are actually 3 periods that are evoked by such typefaces – the late Roman and Carolingian eras, the early Renaissance, and the early 20th century's recontextualization of that aesthetic.

idan 13y ago

Hi there. Designer of gist.io here. The reasoning is more prosaic. I wanted a workhorse body serif that met the following criteria: - Google web fonts. I love and use typekit, but gist.io sees a decent amount of traffic. I needed something unmetered in this case. - A full four cuts: I don't control the content that people post, so I needed roman and italic cuts in both book and bold weights. This cut the selection of fonts available down to almost nothing. At the time, I didn't know about Poly, and Merriweather still doesn't have italics. [Edit: realized Poly doesn't have a bold weight either, so nevermind.] The face isn't ideal, but it's grown on me the more I read it. Ideally, I'd love to license Process Type's Elena for use on gist.io.

msutherl 13y ago
Just browsing casually and Noto Serif looks nice. It's based on Droid Serif, which I find to be a nice adaptation of the serif for technical or UI content.

blablabla123 13y ago

I feel exactly the same. Although what concerns me the most is: just text, black&white and on my Netbook only 50% of the screen width is used. It feel reading a 900 pages Stephen King book. A technical text should be more easy to read and I would appreciate some eye candy. People understand texts much easier when there is an illustrative picture inside or a summary table.