4 ms·

Large fonts stress my eyes more than smaller ones. I fit less words in the center of my vision with a large font, which means I read slower and my eyes have to

by pubby 13y ago

Large fonts stress my eyes more than smaller ones. I fit less words in the center of my vision with a large font, which means I read slower and my eyes have to travel longer. Having ~60 character columns is the important thing. Large fonts, not so much.

mikeyanderson 13y ago
One of the difficulties of a screen is that you can't control how far away the reader is from the screen. With a book and mobile device the user can easily adjust distance to match their preference—on a screen you can make the type responsive to screen size, but if someone is closer to the screen or further away there isn't much that I know of that can help get this dialed.
- joshvm 13y ago
  Isn't this why browsers have text zoom? On Firefox if I want to make text larger I can simply do cmd + or ctrl +. Assuming the site is coded well, the text will flow accordingly.
  - dmckeon 13y ago
    I can recommend the "NoSquint" Firefox add-on that remembers your preferred text size for each site: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nosquint/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nosquint/ My pet peeve on layout is when a page is multi-column, but each column is taller than the viewing window, so the reader must scroll or page down in each column, then go up for the next column, then down to the next page. This issue often shows up in PDF versions of scientific journal papers. Bonus points if a "page down" function operates on the source page images rather than on the window view (iow, if repeated "page down" only shows the top of each source page, rather than each visible part of the viewing window.) Mouse-wheel scrolling helps, modulo interface "features".
- didgeoridoo 13y ago
  There's always responsive typography using the webcam :) https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/02/responsive-web-typography-with-webrtc/ https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/02/responsive-web-typography-...
  - mikeyanderson 13y ago
    With Xbox One having an always on camera facing you this might actually be possible, although I think that the right size probably depends on your eyes and vary depending on how far or near sighted you are—that's just a guess.

by pubby 13y ago

mikeyanderson 13y ago

One of the difficulties of a screen is that you can't control how far away the reader is from the screen. With a book and mobile device the user can easily adjust distance to match their preference—on a screen you can make the type responsive to screen size, but if someone is closer to the screen or further away there isn't much that I know of that can help get this dialed.

joshvm 13y ago
Isn't this why browsers have text zoom? On Firefox if I want to make text larger I can simply do cmd + or ctrl +. Assuming the site is coded well, the text will flow accordingly.
- dmckeon 13y ago
  I can recommend the "NoSquint" Firefox add-on that remembers your preferred text size for each site: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nosquint/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nosquint/ My pet peeve on layout is when a page is multi-column, but each column is taller than the viewing window, so the reader must scroll or page down in each column, then go up for the next column, then down to the next page. This issue often shows up in PDF versions of scientific journal papers. Bonus points if a "page down" function operates on the source page images rather than on the window view (iow, if repeated "page down" only shows the top of each source page, rather than each visible part of the viewing window.) Mouse-wheel scrolling helps, modulo interface "features".
didgeoridoo 13y ago
There's always responsive typography using the webcam :) https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/02/responsive-web-typography-with-webrtc/ https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/02/responsive-web-typography-...
- mikeyanderson 13y ago
  With Xbox One having an always on camera facing you this might actually be possible, although I think that the right size probably depends on your eyes and vary depending on how far or near sighted you are—that's just a guess.