Is This Better?

« Sunday Night Journal 11/19/2006

Is This Better?

November 21, 2006 by Daniel Nichols

Trying to read the lengthy comments on the papacy thread below, I realized just how much I don’t like the light-on-dark text. As I’ve mentioned before, there is a very limited number of stock layouts available on TypePad, and to my taste most of them are non-starters, either pale pastels which seem best suited to discussions of herbal tea or blindingly bright ones made for conversations in which the shift key, punctuation marks, and spelling are optional or discouraged. Anyway, here’s one that may prove more readable. Feel free to declare your preference. There’s a variation on this one which is a little more in a green and blue direction.
–Maclin Horton

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Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

18 Responses

on November 21, 2006 at 11:06 am | Reply Thomas Storck

Maclin,

Go back to the other style.
on November 21, 2006 at 11:20 am | Reply Maclin Horton

Hmm, that’s a surprise. I expected people to prefer this one. Well, I’ll leave it up for 24 hours or so and see what the prevailing opinion is. By the way, I’ll be away from computers from now until fairly late tonight, so there won’t be any response from me till then.
on November 21, 2006 at 11:56 am | Reply Francesca

Still horrible mud green.
on November 21, 2006 at 12:02 pm | Reply Daniel Nichols

Can we see the blue-green? This is army green…
on November 21, 2006 at 12:56 pm | Reply Kate

I must not pay much attention (or I’ve been letting Bloglines usurp my actual blog-visiting) but I can’t remember the old format! This is very easy on the eyes, if that was your intent, and, while a little drab, not unpleasant.
on November 21, 2006 at 1:19 pm | Reply Christopher Zehnder

I like it, Maclin. Especially the column width.
on November 21, 2006 at 2:07 pm | Reply Thomas Storck

Column width! I was thinking of telling Maclin that the colors weren’t so bad, but couldn’t he please make the column wider, the print is so small.
on November 21, 2006 at 2:52 pm | Reply Christopher Zehnder

Well, Tom, maybe it’s too small for an old man like you…

But, distinguo, column width is one thing; type size, another. Maybe Maclin could bump up the type size a couple of points, for those of us of a more venerable age.
on November 21, 2006 at 2:59 pm | Reply bmj

Generally, I like it, but I would bump the column width a bit. Font size doesn’t bother me much–I can always Ctrl+ the font size.
on November 21, 2006 at 3:05 pm | Reply M.Z. Forrest

On most sites, if you have difficulty reading in Internet Explorer goto
View->Text Size
and select larger or largest.
on November 21, 2006 at 4:04 pm | Reply Petellius

I find the new format aesthetically better, but much harder on the eyes.

Staring at a white-ground on a computer is not the same as looking at a white sheet of paper – it’s much more like staring at a lightbulb. It’s a great strain on the eyes, and (at least for me) eventually leads to massive headaches.

I also support the idea of wider columns/larger text. Anything that is easier on the eyes.
on November 21, 2006 at 6:36 pm | Reply The Western Confucian

It looks fine on my Mac using Safari.
on November 21, 2006 at 9:25 pm | Reply Chris Ryland

Much better!
on November 21, 2006 at 9:46 pm | Reply Maclin Horton

Francesca, I figured you were going to say that.

Daniel, I didn’t figure you (or anybody) would say that. Maybe this is somewhat Rorschachian. These colors are, if you’ll pardon the expression, just earth tones to me. I promise, the army never crossed my mind; I am not trying to do a subliminal pro-military thing.

Petellius, I think this is actually a slightly off-white, but I know what you mean. As a “computer professional” (snicker) for quite a few years, I’ve experimented a lot with screen readability. What works best for me is a fairly faint yellow-tan-beige sort of color. Also, the end of the CRT is helping that problem–LCDs have much less of that light-bulb effect.

Everybody: when I say all I can do is pick from a set of existing formats, I mean it literally. I can’t change type sizes or anything else (except by paying more money, which I don’t want to do at the moment). As noted, you should get acquainted with ctrl+ and ctrl-, which increase and decrease, respectively, type size in most browsers on most sites.

I will try another candidate format shortly.
on November 22, 2006 at 5:24 pm | Reply The young fogey

Anything that makes it more readable is better. Thanks for the change!
on November 23, 2006 at 3:31 am | Reply Francesca

I am going to put my head over the parapet and say I find this one easier to read.
on November 23, 2006 at 11:49 am | Reply Maclin Horton

By “this one” you mean the blue one or the previous candidate that was also muddy?

“Parapet”? Have no fear, I am not emotionally involved with any of these designs.
on November 23, 2006 at 11:50 am | Reply Francesca

The blue one. I find it easier on the eye than picking out the white in the green.

Now could you do something about that slate grey edging :)