Re:The LaTeX Font Catalogue
by crazygringo on Thursday July 22, 2021 @12:15PM
(#27920718)
I don't know where you're getting "unnecessary flair" from. What unnecessary flair do fonts like Times New Roman or Baskerville or Bodoni have? (Obviously I'm comparing with other similar fonts traditionally used for body text typesetting with equations.)
I'm talking about good sense of aesthetic proportion and balance, not "flair".
And what exactly is the horrible user experience that Google has created with Roboto, or Apple with San Francisco, or Microsoft with Calibri? They're actually quite excellently balanced and pleasing fonts for their purposes.
Re:The LaTeX Font Catalogue
by hocuspocus on Thursday July 22, 2021 @11:48AM
(#27920268)
> Most of the other alternative fonts feel like they were designed by a designer with all the unnecessary flairs that would make a great title/heading font to pad the portfolio but are needlessly distracting in a paragraph of dense technical text interspersed with equations.
Serious alternatives were designed by foundries decades or even centuries ago.
Hacker News is in Verdana, which was designed for Microsoft.
Re:The LaTeX Font Catalogue
by leephillips on Thursday July 22, 2021 @01:10PM
(#27921525)
You’re both wrong. It was designed by a mathematician, for use in printing mathematical books.
Computer Modern is largely a copy of Monotype Modern, which dates from 1896. Monotype Modern was, I assure you, not designed by a mathematician nor was designed for use in printing math books. However many math books had lately been printed using typefaces similar to Modern, and Knuth liked how it looked.
This is exactly why I like it. Designed by an engineer for the purpose of typesetting engineering articles and books.
Most of the other alternative fonts feel like they were designed by a designer with all the unnecessary flairs that would make a great title/heading font to pad the portfolio but are needlessly distracting in a paragraph of dense technical text interspersed with equations.
Keep in mind that Google / Facebook / Twitter / Apple / Microsoft / etc hire hordes of professional designers and the result is a horrible user experience for everyone. I much prefer Wikipedia and Hacker News to most "modern" web design by professionals.