Fontzy says, "Aaaaaaaaaaaa..."

vaaaska

Oh my...oh geez...why do I even do this to myself...? I guess I love punishing myself...

Bill Gates wants computer users, well, Microsoft users, to have a more enjoyable on-screen reading experience -- so much so that he made improving reading on the screen one of his top five priorities.

Beginning in 2006, Microsoft says it will ship with its operating system and other software products six brand new typefaces created especially for extended on-screen reading

Even Weedie will be impressed. :p

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=47&aid=78683

Here's one of them...go read the article to see them all (they could be worse actually)...

goldbug

Hopefully font smoothing/antialiasing will be on by default on all OS's by then. Doesn't matter how well made a font is, when it's all jagged and bumpy on the user's screen.

EDIT: Just looked at those fonts, and while most of them are decent... what's up with "Consolas"? It looks a little too whimsical/fat for a monospaced (but could just be the AA algorithm of their image editor). /me sticks with Bitstream Vera Sans Mono

Merve

What's the big deal with consolas? It looks pretty much like any other monospaced font.

goldbug

Originally posted by Merve
What's the big deal with consolas? It looks pretty much like any other monospaced font.

It just looks a little chunky to me. Also, some of the horizontal strokes don't line up, when imho, they should (like the f and t) The letter spacing/kerning also looks a tad generous imho.

Merve

Yeah, it kinda looks ugly when you write "Microsoft". 😃

goldbug

Originally posted by Merve
Yeah, it kinda looks ugly when you write "Microsoft". 😃

Good thing I'll probably NEVER be writing that in code 🙂

Merve

Originally posted by goldbug
Good thing I'll probably NEVER be writing that in code 🙂

Au contraire,

<?php
$os_status=destroy($microsoft);
replace_with($os_status, $linux);
celebrate("streamers", "balloons", "party hats", "Haha, we destroyed Microsoft!");
?>

I see two Microsofts in that 😃

BTW, strange thing is i've never ever used linux in my life...oh well...
/me waits for shunning

vaaaska

I don't think the fonts are horrible or anything...sheesh, I'm getting to cynical about all of this...

Hey folks, have a great weekend!!!

😉

Weedpacket

Y'know, some of them look oddly familiar. On the other hand, the font designers look like they tended to choke on the lowercase italic g.

Edit: realised a bit later about the g is that these are designed for low-resolution display (i.e., screen as opposed to print and doesn't Verdana look ghastly at large sizes?) So the displayed samples aren't as useful for judging how they look as a chunk of text at a more appropriate size would be. Who knows what hinting rules would come into play then? Something like what's done there for "Consolas" (keeping goldbug's observation on that font in mind).

dalecosp

Originally posted by Merve
Au contraire,

<?php
$os_status=destroy($microsoft);
replace_with($os_status, $linux);
celebrate("streamers", "balloons", "party hats", "Haha, we destroyed Microsoft!");
?>

[/B]

Hmm, we've got one of those for FreeBSD. Replaces Linux, though. Maybe it's the wrong target ... The Depenguinator...