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varispeedtoday at 3:21 PM11 repliesview on HN

I wonder when we reach the state of having a perfect font.


Replies

dguesttoday at 4:09 PM

There are people who don't want a perfect font, they want a new one every few years.

The rest of us just don't want it to be distracting.

limaoscarjuliettoday at 3:22 PM

Fonts are like cheesecakes. Everyone has their own favorite and there is always room for improvement.

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mihaelmtoday at 3:48 PM

We did that with Comic Sans MS

EstanislaoStantoday at 3:28 PM

I submit to you that I designed •the• perfect font while making one for my microgame recently: https://stan-stani.itch.io/vagaberry

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zemtoday at 5:56 PM

that reminds me of the time there was one particular combination of my laptop dpi, screen resolution, and windows 2000 font renderer that made lucida sans typewriter look perfect, but when I switched to linux the same font seemed less crisp and clean, and I ended up using bitstream vera instead. I still try lucida sans typewriter out every now and then but whatever sweet spot it hit on that machine never happened again.

swiftcodertoday at 4:21 PM

> I wonder when we reach the state of having a perfect font.

"Perfect font" can only happen when we stop developing new display technologies, and print dies out completely. If "perfect" is not subjective in the first place, it is definitely context-dependent. Fonts designed to work on budget smartphone displays don't necessarily look good on 6K desktop displays, and so on...

crazygringotoday at 4:21 PM

That's like reaching the state of having a perfect button-down shirt.

Styles change (like collar size, slim vs roomy), and what looks good on one torso doesn't look best on another. What fits well for one company/product/book doesn't fit well for another company/product/book.

hoofedeartoday at 3:23 PM

It'll be the same day we reach the state of having the perfect programming language

futuraperditatoday at 3:25 PM

That happened in 1957, but we can’t leave well enough alone.

azatomtoday at 4:36 PM

define perfect!

- read? mostly coders

- sell? mostly marketing

- fraud? rn.com vs m.com mostly designers