Why Tahoma font for the forum? Time for a change?

[fisha]

With the new mobile and desktop redesigns, surely the simplest way to freshen the forum would be to flip to a Helvetica / Arial typeface, and that would go a long way to matching the forum look to the current styles being used.

The theme of the forum colour wise it don't mind at all. Tahoma just seems out of date these days.

 

[MinEderPlayz]

Nice idea. I don't like Tahoma either.
What would be really cool for an Apple Forum is Myriad Pro of course, but no one has that font except Adobe CC users.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Well, I loathe, detest, and abominate Arial. As as font, I find myself gritting my teeth whenever I see it, which is far too often, unfortunately…..

Neither Tahoma nor Helvetica thrill me; give me something legible, and easy and relaxing to read on the eye, something elegant, and timeless, rather than pandering to the idea that something is out of date. Sometimes, a design is timeless….

 

[fisha]

Myriad Pro would be good as well ... but i suggested Arial/Helv since thats more of a web standard font which just about all machines looking at the forum will be able to render by default ... Myriad Pro unfortunately isn't.

I suppose you could point a link towards a web font, but imagine on a forum this size, the traffic it would generate would be quite a lot.

Then again, if you just set the forum font to the browser's setting of Sans Serif, then we could all choose what ever we wanted !

 

[AppleP59]

Comic Sans?

 

[Weaselboy]

Comic Sans?

No.

 

[mojolicious]

Are we talking about the font used by posts? I believe that I see (non-Sceptical) posts in Verdana. You could drive a bus between the individual letters.

EDIT – this post is worthless without pics! Might have to open in new window to see full size...

 

[fisha]

No, my mistake, you're right, its Verdana and not Tahoma. (oops!)

Original thought still stands though ... its a bit meh these days.

On Comic Sans: An interesting link - Comic Sans Hated

 

[Oohara]

 

[Menel]

I vote Courier New bold, timeless and classic, ideal for a technology forum.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Are we talking about the font used by posts? I believe that I see (non-Sceptical) posts in Verdana. You could drive a bus between the individual letters.

EDIT – this post is worthless without pics! Might have to open in new window to see full size...

Image

Well, this whole forum was originally set up to discuss Apple and Apple related matters. Computers, and the rest of the Apple universe.

Now, of the many things that are debated and discussed, there are a few things many members on this forum seem to be agreed on. One is that Steve Jobs was a Godalmighty genius, although some who hold this view run the risk of confusing a gifted individual for a divinity.

Two, is that the acme, the apex, of seriously good design is some sort of fusion of form (how it looks) and function (what it does, or is supposed to do).

And three, combining our knowledge of The Life and Times of the Inestimable Late Mr Jobs, there is the fascinating fact, (to me at any rate) that before dropping out of university education, Steve Jobs actually studied calligraphy, and how fonts influence how we respond to the text, and the message in the text.

Thus, he came to use a modified version of Garamond (one of my own personal favourites) for use in Apple.

Personally, while I accept that Verdana may be legible, I don't much like it; I loathe Arial, finding it narrow and difficult to read, and dislike Tahoma.

There are a number of fonts which I like, and they tend to be classic styles. I love Garamond and have done for years, long before I ever had an Apple computer. Others I like a lot include, Arno Pro, and I quite like Georgia. Needless to say, I retain a huge respect fro Times New Roman…...

 

[arn]

The font was chosen a long time ago. I don't know if I love it. But changing it would be a big change for the general tone/feel.

We are getting a new design done. I know I've said that before. And it was true before too. We just have had a few false starts.

arn

 

[mojolicious]

Looking at the other vBulletin sites I frequent I'd assume that Verdana is the default font? If you stare at Verdana for too long then the kerning starts to look quite random; I guess that's a feature of the generous tracking.

I like Sceptical's use of TNR, but I think that might be down to the larger point size as much as the the serifs. Ignoring the typeface itself, I think both of the following would improve readability:

a) Increase the leading by a couple of points. I've got absolutely no idea if this is possible (I haven't noticed any other vB forum with greater leading, which suggests it might not be) but I'd *love* to see a bit more white space.

b) Find a way of reducing the minimum page width. At present a line of default text is around 120 characters. Sceptical's TNR comes in at 110 characters. Count the characters per line in three random paperbacks and I think you'll be surprised at just how low that number is. It looks as though the minimum page width is determined by the top of page menu items, but there's scope to reduce the typeface/button sizes. Alternatively you could just bodge it by doubling the width of the poster details column!

The tight leading and long lines make reading lengthy paragraphs quite difficult (for my old eyes, at least) and I think this would be the case regardless of which typeface is used, but if arn is considering a change then I say this:

 

[fisha]

a) Increase the leading by a couple of points. I've got absolutely no idea if this is possible (I haven't noticed any other vB forum with greater leading, which suggests it might not be) but I'd *love* to see a bit more white space.

Most forum software run their looks off CSS style sheets. So there will be a section on the CSS for the look of the main body of text of the forum. You would be able to change the line space by use of the line height command, works in the same way as line spacing in the likes of word processors and has been supported from the start by browsers.

That being said, is it just me, or has the edit box for posting messages been expanded to allow the choice of fonts? I really don't remember that option being there when typing the previous posts on this thread let alone others, but I wasn't really paying attention

Also sizes changes as well...

 

[Weaselboy]

Most forum software run their looks off CSS style sheets.

Also sizes changes as well...

I use the Safari extension Quickstyle to change fonts on a few sites I regularly visit and I just tested it out here and it seems to work okay. Just set your default 1 and default 2 fonts to what you want in the extension settings, then with a couple clicks you can permanently apply those fonts to whatever section of the site you like.

I applied Arial to the comments here and get this.

 

[localoid]

I use the Safari extension Quickstyle to change fonts ...

There's also an extension for the Chrome browser similar to the Quickstyle (Safari) extension called ExtensionFont Changer with Google Web Fonts™, which lets the user select the font face (and font size and weight) that they want to use, either on a given website or globally. It work well with MacRumors for me. YMMV.