I am on Chrome on Windows 10. Experimentation shows that the effect only happens when the page zoom is at 100%… if I zoom in or out, the w goes back to normal.
On that page, it is fine at normal zoom, but the problem occurs when I zoom out to 80%, at which point the text is roughly the same size as here. So I guess it is something to do with how the font is rendering at that size. Whether it is something wrong with my computer or with the font I don’t know.
Well, I guess I am disappointed in Edward Tufte. This makes it more likely that we will move away from our current font setup, which makes me sad since I do really like how the font renders on all of my devices.
When you select a new font to use, please make sure to select a font family which is complete (ET Book lacks a bold-italic variant, causing rendering issues, and also has other problems like inconsistency in numeral style between the variants), and has clearly visually distinctive weights!
Recommendations: Merriweather remains my preferred selection; in the “old style serif” category, EB Garamond is an excellent choice (do not use Google Fonts for this one, though; they only have the Regular variant—no bold or italics!). Noto Serif is also a fine, understated choice.
Regardless of what font you select—for people who block webfonts (with NoScript or similar), please define Georgia as the fallback for your webfont of choice (rather than dropping directly down to “serif”); the results are much more aesthetically pleasing and readable for such setups.
(I also strongly recommend verifying readability and rendering across a variety of platforms and setups before committing to a choice.)
I quite like Merriweather, which I think would be my default choice, though I think it feels a bit too modern for the page. Noto Serif also seems good, but I think it also gets rid of some of the flair of the page.
PracticalTypography recommends: Palatino Nova, Iowan Old Style, Verdigris and Bembo Book as fonts that are similarly modeled after Renaissance typography and the original Bembo typeface. I am not fully sure how to chose between them, but all of them seem reasonable to me. I like Bembo Book, but we appear to have run into some problems with the Bembo typeface, though I am not sure whether those would still exist if we would move towards the more standard interpretation, as opposed to Tufte’s version. After that I think I prefer Verdigris, and am indifferent between the other two.
If we go the route of professional fonts that cost money, we could also go the same way you went on readthesequences.com and choose Garamond Premier Pro, which I also quite like, but feels a bit too legal instead of renaissance-flavored to me. We could also go with PracticalTypography’s Equity, though again that feels a bit too legal, but it does have great readability. Strongly interested in more input on this, if you or anyone else has any strong opinions on any of the above.
Hmm, I am not noticing anything. Could you post a link to a screenshot?
Here is what I am seeing:
https://snag.gy/tvGpdx.jpg
I am on Chrome on Windows 10. Experimentation shows that the effect only happens when the page zoom is at 100%… if I zoom in or out, the w goes back to normal.
Wow, yeah. This is definitely broken.
One more way you could help me out. Could you send me a screenshot of how this page looks? https://edwardtufte.github.io/tufte-css/
That’s where a large part of our fonts and styles come from.
Certainly! Here it is: https://i.snag.gy/8QxDsF.jpg
On that page, it is fine at normal zoom, but the problem occurs when I zoom out to 80%, at which point the text is roughly the same size as here. So I guess it is something to do with how the font is rendering at that size. Whether it is something wrong with my computer or with the font I don’t know.
Well, I guess I am disappointed in Edward Tufte. This makes it more likely that we will move away from our current font setup, which makes me sad since I do really like how the font renders on all of my devices.
When you select a new font to use, please make sure to select a font family which is complete (ET Book lacks a bold-italic variant, causing rendering issues, and also has other problems like inconsistency in numeral style between the variants), and has clearly visually distinctive weights!
Recommendations: Merriweather remains my preferred selection; in the “old style serif” category, EB Garamond is an excellent choice (do not use Google Fonts for this one, though; they only have the Regular variant—no bold or italics!). Noto Serif is also a fine, understated choice.
Regardless of what font you select—for people who block webfonts (with NoScript or similar), please define Georgia as the fallback for your webfont of choice (rather than dropping directly down to “serif”); the results are much more aesthetically pleasing and readable for such setups.
(I also strongly recommend verifying readability and rendering across a variety of platforms and setups before committing to a choice.)
Excellent, thanks for the recommendation!
I quite like Merriweather, which I think would be my default choice, though I think it feels a bit too modern for the page. Noto Serif also seems good, but I think it also gets rid of some of the flair of the page.
PracticalTypography recommends: Palatino Nova, Iowan Old Style, Verdigris and Bembo Book as fonts that are similarly modeled after Renaissance typography and the original Bembo typeface. I am not fully sure how to chose between them, but all of them seem reasonable to me. I like Bembo Book, but we appear to have run into some problems with the Bembo typeface, though I am not sure whether those would still exist if we would move towards the more standard interpretation, as opposed to Tufte’s version. After that I think I prefer Verdigris, and am indifferent between the other two.
If we go the route of professional fonts that cost money, we could also go the same way you went on readthesequences.com and choose Garamond Premier Pro, which I also quite like, but feels a bit too legal instead of renaissance-flavored to me. We could also go with PracticalTypography’s Equity, though again that feels a bit too legal, but it does have great readability. Strongly interested in more input on this, if you or anyone else has any strong opinions on any of the above.