[P1] type appearance

[e.mkeene]

> i noticed the anti-aliasing thing and vaguely remember advice about 
> that
> from somewhere else, but can't remember: does anti-aliasing make it
> smudgier and turning it off makes it sharper...or vice the versa?	
Basically, anti-aliasing smears white on the white side and gray on the 
black side of character edges to minimize the "sharp, blocky" edges of 
the square pixels that create a character. By smudging both side os the 
outline, it fools your eye into seeing a smoother, vector type of 
outline edge. Some eyes are very acute and refuse to buy the smudge 
routine and other eyes get so distracted  by the sharp, blocky edges.

There is usually a balance point you can achieve by experimenting that 
will let you find the point of smudge that creates a comfort point that 
allows your brain and eyes to work in tandem to create the smooth 
outline edges that will permit comfortable, efficient viewing. For the 
most part, I personally find that magnification works better for me. 
Larger characters use more pixels for each character and the edges look 
cleaner as a result.

Some of the reasons I use comic sans are because the characters are 
thicker, ie, bolder but not "heavy". The spacing between characters and 
words is balanced so well, I never have to guess where the letters 
begin or end a word and each letter is so distinctive that it never 
masquerades as a different character. Fonts with thin lines are much 
harder to read especially on LCD screens because the faint traces of 
"black ink" compete with the backlighting of the screen and the 
backlighting washes them out so much, it is hard to read. Using a font 
with a wider line for your composing font will probably solve a lot of 
your screen esthetic problems. Or try using a thin font in a larger 
point size.

I know the "classic" text standard says to use a serif font for rapid 
and ease of reading because the serifs sort of pull your eyes along to 
the next character or word. For me, the serifs create a cluttered 
appearance that usually forces me to start guessing words instead of 
reading them.

I was puzzled the first time I tried comic sans as to why it worked so 
much better for me than all the years of reading research did. Then I 
happened to pick up a newspaper to read while waiting for a task to 
complete, (years ago). I turned to the comic page and it all made 
sense. The comics that were the most readable regardless of how tiny 
the words were, were written in a style very much like comic sans. It 
is the spacing and the distinctiveness of each character that 
"advertises" the meaning of the word instead of making me guess it.

With the exception of comic sans, I usually agree with the other 
"rules" for legibility espoused by graphic designers. If you want to 
stay with a serif font, try Palatino. It has a better weight and feel 
and is easier to read than many serif fonts.

Just remembered something else about Geneva and Helvetica from the old 
days of Mac fonts. One of them was designed for screen use and one was 
designed to be the Print version. They were essentially the same font 
but each was designed for a specific part of the viewing/reading task. 
I think Geneva was supposed to be the screen font and Helvetica the 
print font. But even then, I preferred Helvetica to Geneva because the 
character and word spacing made it easier for me to see the words as 
words versus groups of ink spots.