[Pydotorg-redesign] Unreadable fonts in proposed design

[Michael Geary]

Greetings,

I'm new to this list, having just taken a look at the proposed redesign at
http://www.pollenation.net/journal/index.php?p=37&c=1.

Please forgive me and correct me if this is the wrong place for the comments
that follow--and I hope I won't make too many enemies by saying this :-) but
I am extremely distressed by this design. The typography is just
unacceptable. It probably looks fine on the designer's 21" monitor, but it
is very hard to read on my high-resolution notebook display.

Here is a copy of the detailed comments I posted on the site mentioned
above:

Sorry, but the typography on the main page is just horrible. The text is
only 10 pixels high, and I'll bet a nickel it's specified in "px" units,
isn't it? Don't forget that not everyone uses a 21" monitor. I do all my
work on a ThinkPad A30p, running 1600x1200 on a 15" panel.

On my display, this is 5.4 point text! No one wants to read 5.4 point text.
(Put another way, each character is less than 1/13" high. That's mighty
small text!)

Also, you've got *zero* leading. Zoom in on your main page under Case
Studies where "Python" is above "adoption". Note that if the word Python
happened to be three pixels farther to the right, the descender on the "y"
would touch the ascender on the "d".

Finally, the text is a gray-blue color (RGB:59,81,153). This averages out to
97.7, which means you've thrown away 38% of the available contrast!

The interior page is both better and worse. Here the text is 12 pixels high
with two pixels of leading. The color is (RGB:112,110,103), for an average
of 108.3, so you have thrown away 42% of the available contrast.

Compare all of this with the beautifully readable text on the current
python.org page. The CSS simply leaves BODY text unspecified, so it uses my
default browser font. I can read the page in any typeface and any font size
I want. It respects the font size selection in any browser, and the text is
solid black on white for 100% contrast.

THAT is how you design for usability: respect the user's wishes instead of
imposing unreadable fonts on them. This proposed design is a huge step
backwards.

Sorry I'm so critical, but bad website typography happens to be my pet
peeve. :-)

-Mike