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posted by janrinok on Tuesday October 11 2016, @11:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the stuff-that-matters dept.

Our recent story, More Than 800 Languages in a Single Typeface: Noto got me to thinking about the fonts that I currently use. And where, and why. And to wondering what fonts my fellow Soylentils use. I've explored different options over the years and this seems to be as good a time as any to revisit my choices. Why not learn from the collected experience of the community?

For my PC, I've got a 1920x1200 monitor plugged into a laptop. Some font choices I've made are simply from inertia having just defaulted to whatever was available "way back when" and a lack of desire to change. Like in a CMD.EXE window, my default choice is an "8x12 Raster Font" (on a 192x66 character window). When writing code in Emacs, I use "Lucida Console". There are two other applications where I seem to spend the most of my time on my home system. First, my browser (Pale Moon 26.5.0 x86) where I have selected "Serif", "Times New Roman", "Arial Unicode MS", and "Courier New". My other highly-used program is HexChat where I've loaded "Unifont Upper CSUR" (Available at unifoundry.com). I tested the implementation of Unicode support on SoylentNews and needed access to a font with more complete code coverage. It is especially convenient as it provides relatively complete coverage in a single font file.

I have an older Android phone and use the default fonts in Chrome when browsing. The rest of the phone UI, is whatever default it came with, too. I do tend to select the smallest font size available so I can maximize the amount of information displayed on the screen at one time.

<rant>One pet peeve of mine is how often a font makes it hard to distinguish between "tom" and "torn" where the letter spacing between "r" and "n" is so small that it is nearly indistinguishable from "m".</rant>

So, my case is not terribly exciting — I'm more of a pragmatist who looks for whatever provides the largest amount of legible text on my display. I make the best choice I can from the available options at the time — and if what I find is "good enough", then I tend to run with that until I learn of something better becoming available.

So, given the arrival of the Noto fonts, I've gotten the thought it may be time for me to reappraise my font choices. What fonts do you use? What do you most like about them? Dislike? (If you got the font from the web, please provide a URL so others may download and try them, too.)


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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Snotnose on Tuesday October 11 2016, @11:42PM

    by Snotnose (1623) on Tuesday October 11 2016, @11:42PM (#413166)

    I change the size but not the font itself. I got tired of dicking with fonts installing LaTex in the late 80s/early 90s, I want nothing to do with them anymore.

    For those of you too young, early LaTex installs were a nightmare. You got asked a bunch of questions like "Do you want the flapdoodle in the argus?", and "did you enable fribizz?". You'd take a guess at all these, let it build, see what failed, and start over with a little more information. It typically took me 3 tries to finally get it built and installed. Keep in mind at the time I'd been using Unix for 10+ years, 4 of them as a sysadmin.

    LaTex was great once you got it installed, but jeez, installing it was a royal pain.

    --
    Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Funny=3, Total=3
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Snotnose on Wednesday October 12 2016, @12:58AM

    by Snotnose (1623) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @12:58AM (#413189)

    Mods, wasn't aiming for funny here. Try again.

    --
    Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday October 12 2016, @01:13AM

      by frojack (1554) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @01:13AM (#413196) Journal

      flapdoodle in the argus.

      Be thankful for the funny mods. Someone is sure to be triggered somewhere, thinking about a lawsuit.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @02:28AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @02:28AM (#413225)

      Mods, wasn't aiming for funny here. Try again.

      "To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and, whatever you hit, call it the target."

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by aristarchus on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:55AM

        by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:55AM (#413260) Journal

        Mods, wasn't aiming for funny here. Try again.

        "To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and, whatever you hit, call it the target."

        The technical name of this, in Logic, not in LaTeX, is "The Texas Marksman Fallacy". Usually something to do with epidemiology and the broad sides of barns. The rest is left to the reader as an exercise.

        (And, snotnose, very funny!!!)

    • (Score: 5, Funny) by Snotnose on Wednesday October 12 2016, @02:28AM

      by Snotnose (1623) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @02:28AM (#413226)

      This is hilarious. My post saying my original post wasn't aiming for funny is now funnier than my original post. Which is still moderated as funny.

      --
      Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
      • (Score: 5, Funny) by JNCF on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:27AM

        by JNCF (4317) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:27AM (#413249) Journal

        Okay Snotnose, it was Funny the first three times. Four, and it's karma whoring!

        • (Score: 5, Funny) by Snotnose on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:44AM

          by Snotnose (1623) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:44AM (#413255)

          It's actually hilarious. People who moderate have no clue as to the backstory so they moderate on how I stated it. I'll bet $100 those who moderated me funny never tried to install LaTex in the late 80s/early 90s. My meaningless word 1 verb meaningless word 2 are simply examples of A) how the questions made no sense; and B) My lack of memory 30 years later of the specifics while remembering the pain.

          --
          Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
          • (Score: 2, Funny) by aristarchus on Wednesday October 12 2016, @05:46AM

            by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @05:46AM (#413287) Journal

            People who moderate have no clue as to the backstory so they moderate on how I stated it. I'll bet $100 those who moderated me funny never tried to install LaTex in the late 80s/early 90s

            Pay up, you sorry old bastard! $100 to aristarchus@paymeallyourmoney.com. Unfortunately, this address requires that you have a 80's vintage LaTeX install!

      • (Score: 2) by snufu on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:39AM

        by snufu (5855) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:39AM (#413252)

        (I'm not trying to be (I'm not trying to be (I'm not trying to be funny)))

      • (Score: 5, Funny) by Snotnose on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:49AM

        by Snotnose (1623) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:49AM (#413257)

        Now my original post, which wasn't aiming for funny, is now +5 funny, as is my post saying my original post wasn't meant to be funny, is now +5 funny, as is my post saying my post about my original post wasn't meant to be funny is now +5 funny.

        I feel like Donald Trump without the money :(

        --
        Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
        • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday October 12 2016, @06:08AM

          by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @06:08AM (#413300) Journal

          I feel like Donald Trump without the money :(

          Well, given that Donald Trump clearly is a snotnose, you should not be surprised at that. :-)

          --
          The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 2) by jdavidb on Wednesday October 12 2016, @01:43PM

        by jdavidb (5690) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @01:43PM (#413425) Homepage Journal
        Just another reason I love this place.
        --
        ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday October 12 2016, @06:04AM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @06:04AM (#413298) Journal

      You are aware that to moderate you differently, you would first have to be downmodded? And since you cannot moderate the same post twice, the downmodder would have to speculate that another moderator would moderate you up again, otherwise your score would be permanently reduced (and if that upmoderation happens to be a Funny again, the downvote would effectively be a wasted modpoint).

      Also note that whoever moderated you funny cannot revise that decision anyway. Moderations are final (except for the possibility of the site owners modifying it, if necessary by directly changing the database — but I strongly doubt getting another moderation reason for your post is sufficiently important for that).

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday October 12 2016, @02:02AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 12 2016, @02:02AM (#413210) Journal

    I read whatever in whatever default font. It's pretty much all the same to me, except wingdings look stupid, ancient fonts look stupid and confusing. I dislike anything which isn't easily read, I want it simple. But, the details of the fonts? I read. I don't look at the letters, I look at the words and/or symbols.

    Remember, I started out on an Underhill typewriter, where the font was the font. After Selectric had been around awhile, you could change those little balls to get different fonts. Using a typewriter in the Navy required that you knew how to change those balls. Sometimes you used all caps, and a few symbols, other times it was upper/lower case with normal typewritten symbols, blah blah blah. So, when I got my first computers, I played with the fonts a little bit.

    In the end, I got tired of messing around with minor details that meant almost nothing to me, and just went with default. I still don't know what most fonts are, I only remember a few of them.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Wednesday October 12 2016, @02:25AM

      by Reziac (2489) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @02:25AM (#413223) Homepage

      Haha, yes, I remember when the choice was Pica or Elite, and if you were truly extravagant, an IBM that did proportional type (and jammed a lot).

      When I'd progressed to a typewriter that took printwheels, I mostly used OCR-B. Prints nice and legible even with an old ribbon.

      For stuff printed off the computer, I like the Lucida family. Over 23,000 fonts in my collection, and still can't beat it.

      For the screen, Tahoma (except for being annoyed by the common san serif issue of cl and d, and rn and m, being too similar) or Times New Roman.

      Or whatever the hell the website presents me with.

      --
      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
      • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday October 12 2016, @02:49AM

        by Snotnose (1623) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @02:49AM (#413235)

        Jesus Christ, I'd completely forgotten that bit of old tech history. I could check out a typewriter from the college library, and also check out a ball. If my essay had something to say I'd get the one with the little font, otherwise I'd bloviate with the larger font.

        Damn I'm getting old :( Beats the alternative, but still.....

        --
        Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
        • (Score: 3, Funny) by Reziac on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:44AM

          by Reziac (2489) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:44AM (#413254) Homepage

          Funny story... I was at some tech conference hosted by IBM, and we'd just heard a spiel about whatever was their latest-and-greatest tech. The presenter was doing the "get responses from the crowd and hand out T-shirts" schtick.... and asked the assembled crowd: "What is IBM known for?" with the obvious answer of course being their new tech we'd just heard about.

          Dead silence. Apparently the latest-and-greatest had made no great impression.

          And I couldn't resist. Into the silence I said, "Typewriters!"

          Won me a nifty T-shirt. :D

          --
          And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
  • (Score: 2) by snufu on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:43AM

    by snufu (5855) on Wednesday October 12 2016, @03:43AM (#413253)

    That is some pretty kinky kerning. Which Knuth book did you read?

    • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Thursday October 13 2016, @01:17AM

      by Snotnose (1623) on Thursday October 13 2016, @01:17AM (#413716)

      That is some pretty kinky kerning. Which Knuth book did you read?

      I actually bought the 3 that were available back then at something like $60/book. In 80's dollars. Suckers were expensive but worth it. Haven't bought any of his newer ones, the $$$/value isn't there.

      --
      Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.