[OT] Re: [TxMt] site with textmate

[Allan Odgaard]

On 6/7/2006, at 23:58, Ollivier Robert wrote:

> [...] Typography generally advise on using serif fonts for plain  
> text and sans
> serif ones for headings.  It is less of an issue for online reading  
> [...]

Reading happens by “jumping” from place to place on the line (I  
believe there is a technical term for these movements) and the eye  
will fixate shortly on each location visited (sometimes a regressing  
will happen.) I.e. it’s not one continuous motion from left to right  
(as it feels like) but instead “snapshots” of segments of the line.

So my take on this is that the serifs are there as visual cues to  
help the jumps happen faster (because of less cognitive overhead) and/ 
or help with orientation after each jump, as the serifs make the line  
more explicit.

For online reading the resolution tends to be too low for the serifs  
to do their job, and instead they introduce noise [1] making the  
reading process harder instead of easier -- for larger text this is  
not the case, but for that the serifs are not useful (so it doesn’t  
matter what you choose here.)

So I’d say the serif/sans serif advice for text/heading in typography  
should be reversed for online reading -- the advice (about making  
them distinct) is btw for aesthetic reasons, as we (people) like  
contrast, and mixing serif/sans serif gives that clear contrast as  
opposed to e.g. using another serif font for headings, which would  
often just give a feel of “there is something wrong with the type  
when used in the headings” instead of making the headings (more)  
visually distinct.

I know however that there are actually people who like serif fonts  
for online reading, so I guess it does to some degree boil down to  
personal preference.

As for Comic Sans: in addition to not be crafted for optimal reading  
efficiency (but instead for comic bubbles) “serious people” (like  
myself :) ) generally associate it with amateurish content, since  
it’s often the first choice when someone needs to make an invitation  
or similar look more personal -- so on that ground alone I would stay  
the hell away from this type ;)



[1] There are some semi-serif fonts specially crafted for online  
reading which are generally good. The problem is really using types  
created for print on a monitor, and most of those classic serif fonts  
are made for print.