Anybody else notice the "X" on Apple's main page is poorly designed? The lines don't match up!! Sorry if this has been brought up.
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Bad X! Bad!
- Thread starter vassillios
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Lol, I only noticed that when you posted and had to look really closely to even notice. Maybe this was intentional?
typography is designed to align optically, not geometrically. it does not matter if it looks right to a ruler, it matters if it looks right to the eye. if you look hard enough at any well designed letter glyphs you can find this kind of thing all the time.
Pfffhtt! I call horse doodie! I don't care! For some reason I turned my head to the side and it became apparent. Not only that.....if you use a ruler to align, you will see that the alignment is not consistent an all sides...it is poorly designed. You are most probably a graphic designer....
Using my awesome photoshop skills I have attempted to show you where the curve should go if it were done properly.
Turn your head to the right. Now look at the left most slope...going from top left to bottom right. Align the left side edge....almost perfect.
Now align the right edge. The top portion is more narrow than the bottom.
Now turn your head to the left. It appears that the top of the X (the right part) is shifted more than the bottom part. This alignment is waaaay different and can not be attributed to "Coloring" or anything design related.....someone just screwed up!
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that proves nothing other than you can use photoshop and the fact that reality can be distorted to make us see what the author/designer wants us to see.
the fact IS that if an object exists, it does not change shape with relationship to the viewers angle.
Now align the right edge. The top portion is more narrow than the bottom.
Now turn your head to the left. It appears that the top of the X (the right part) is shifted more than the bottom part. This alignment is waaaay different and can not be attributed to "Coloring" or anything design related.....someone just screwed up!
[quote removed by moderator because quoted post was removed]
that proves nothing other than you can use photoshop and the fact that reality can be distorted to make us see what the author/designer wants us to see.
the fact IS that if an object exists, it does not change shape with relationship to the viewers angle.
it does? i think it proves jasonbot can use photoshop. he is tottally l33t, too.
which is the entire point of my responses.
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My point is it does not change shape....the point of view may change....but the object does not transform into another shape..... whatever....I don't really give a ****, I was just making an observation....
AND...I'm still right that is is poorly designed.
Sorry, that comment was for you ...I'm still trying to figure out what you were trying to get across...please explain...thanks.
My point is it does not change shape....the point of view may change....but the object does not transform into another shape..... whatever....I don't really give a ****, I was just making an observation....
AND...I'm still right that is is poorly designed.
Sorry, that comment was for you
...I'm still trying to figure out what you were trying to get across...please explain...thanks.
vassillios said:
Ill bet Apple is working on this for the 10.5.2 update XD Along with snappier Safari
I showed that the curves dont line up, and the other bit doesnt line up. I used a transparent box so you can see the difference.vassillios said:Sorry, that comment was for you
for those of us with 'limited eyesight':
Thank God! Snappy!
yes....i did see that...which only proves my point that things don't line up. were you just backing up my point? or trying to prove something else? just curious...because i'm willing to discuss something with someone who does not call me ignorant.
Maybe its like a Greek column, where they are intentionally distorted or widened so that they "look" correct to the eye from a distance?
Or is that an urban legend? Once I discovered Feta and stuffed grape leaves, I kinda stopped paying attention.
Or is that an urban legend? Once I discovered Feta and stuffed grape leaves, I kinda stopped paying attention.
Wow, I never realized how worked up some people get over a slightly misaligned X. I never noticed it until this thread, and even then, it took several times for me to get it.
Open up your favorite word processor and type a lower-case "x". Set its size to 240 points or more. Do your ruler test and you will note that many of your sans-serif fonts will have "misaligned" arms on the x (serif typefaces tend to have aligned arms).
Optical geometry is about far more than making every line straight with a ruler. A good example is to look at a lot of photographs that have been matted without frames. A good mat will have a wider margin on the bottom than on the top. This is because our eyes, in conjunction with our brains, will interpret a mat with equal margins on all sizes to be slightly lower than center. When you widen the bottom margin a little bit compared to the top margin, it will appear more centered.
Typography is the same way. The "x" in Apple's logo looks spot on when you look at it with your face right-side up. I agree that when I rotate my head to the left, it starts to look stilted. However, I don't read with my head rotated to the left and even though the difference is quite obvious when I tilt my head, I can't see it at all with my head straight up. This suggests that the line would seem misaligned in the opposite direction if it were perfectly aligned and my head were straight up.
I have ten years of experience in design and photography. Designers eyeball a LOT of things rather than measuring them precisely. We do an awful lot of measuring when we need to specify things for other people to carry out, but when creating a layout in the first place, we eyeball things with careful attention to detail. Slavish devotion to the ruler and protractor leads to uninspired design.
Optical geometry is about far more than making every line straight with a ruler. A good example is to look at a lot of photographs that have been matted without frames. A good mat will have a wider margin on the bottom than on the top. This is because our eyes, in conjunction with our brains, will interpret a mat with equal margins on all sizes to be slightly lower than center. When you widen the bottom margin a little bit compared to the top margin, it will appear more centered.
Typography is the same way. The "x" in Apple's logo looks spot on when you look at it with your face right-side up. I agree that when I rotate my head to the left, it starts to look stilted. However, I don't read with my head rotated to the left and even though the difference is quite obvious when I tilt my head, I can't see it at all with my head straight up. This suggests that the line would seem misaligned in the opposite direction if it were perfectly aligned and my head were straight up.
I have ten years of experience in design and photography. Designers eyeball a LOT of things rather than measuring them precisely. We do an awful lot of measuring when we need to specify things for other people to carry out, but when creating a layout in the first place, we eyeball things with careful attention to detail. Slavish devotion to the ruler and protractor leads to uninspired design.
I agree on all of these points...I was just simply pointing out an observation......and thought is was strange how the alignment was inconsistent all over the place. Concerning the matte analogy...you are less likely to find a matte with a margin of 1" on the left, 1.5" on the right, 1.75" on the top and 2" on the bottom......
And I doubt that the designer simply opened a word processor and enlarged the font.
No kidding...and heaven forbid you should make an observation about it....
You did not simply point out an observation:
vasillios said:
Emphasis mine. In that same post, you were the first person in the thread to attack a person's ideas without any rationale:
vasillios said:
At the beginning of the thread, you did indeed only point out an observation. When your observation was explained by shecky, you resorted to the tactic quoted above.
I agree that the alignment is out of whack all over the place if you look at it with a ruler, protractor, and compass. Our eyes lie to us all the time, and as previously mentioned, will tell us that two things are clearly aligned when the ruler shows they are not, and vice-versa. This is the source of many optical illusions, and good designers make use of the same tricks to improve their work.
You are right that a mat cutter would not normally cut a mat with uneven margins on all sides; he would, however, cut a mat with particular uneven margins to create the illusion of centered-ness. The designer of the "x" in Apple's branding for Leopard did the same thing here.
Have you ever looked at the front of your car, and then the back? I doubt they look the same.
There is the very slim chance that the designer messed up. More likely, this was intentional. Much more likely.
No, it's also true with some of the classical and neo-classical statuary, in which certain parts are emphasized so the statue would like "right" once the statue was placed up high, where it was designed to be.
Exactly, it's a design, it's not supposed to geometrically precise. An interesting little detail that tells one about typefaces, nothing more.