100 lines
5.3 KiB
Markdown
100 lines
5.3 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: "New fonts & site changes"
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description: "New fonts, more interesting typography, "
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author: Amolith
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cover: /assets/pngs/editor.png
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date: 2020-07-19T01:43:11-04:00
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categories:
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- Meta
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tags:
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- Fonts
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- Typography
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---
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I just got a couple of new (and rather expensive) fonts. So far, I'm
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incredibly happy with them and think it was money well-spent for a few
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reasons. Created by [Matthew
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Butterick,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Butterick)
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[Valkyrie](https://mbtype.com/fonts/valkyrie/) and
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[Concourse](https://mbtype.com/fonts/concourse/) are simply beautiful. I
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don't know which I like more but they both have their places on this
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website and will find their way onto others in the future. Because
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Concourse is a [sans-serif,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans-serif)
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it will be the default used all across Secluded.Site. Valkyrie is a
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[serif font](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif) and, though the type
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seems to be losing its place on the web, I think it adds a lot when
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reading content that's focused on a narrative rather than simply being
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informative. Because of that, it will be used for my posts about [pipe
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smoking](/categories/pipe-smoking/) and [Dungeons &
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Dragons.](/categories/dungeons-dragons/) I might come up with other
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categories where Valkyrie fits as well but it will likely remain limited
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to those two.
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In addition to simply changing the fonts, I've also modified some styles
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on the site. Headers (such as the title of this post) are now in proper
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small caps[^1] and I did some work to improve font size relative to the
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content width. Previously, the text was smaller than I would have liked
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which meant longer lines; there are some studies[^2] indicating that
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lines with a lower character count, while decreasing reading speed,[^3]
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are generally more comfortable and hold the reader's attention more
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effectively. The width hasn't changed but the size has increased and
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thus decreased the number of characters per line.
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One of the reasons I decided to buy the fonts was simply that I love the
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way they look and they have a lot of
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[features](https://mbtype.com/fonts/concourse/features.html) I wanted.
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In addition to that, however, I also wanted to support Matthew. His
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book, *[Practical Typography](https://practicaltypography.com/)* is an
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amazing resource for anyone that does anything with text. He has put a
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massive amount of work into it and simply [asks readers to
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pay.](https://practicaltypography.com/why-you-should-pay.html) There is
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no pay*wall* and no ads either; it's completely supported by readers.
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There are a few [ways to
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contribute](https://practicaltypography.com/how-to-pay-for-this-book.html)
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and one of them is buying his fonts. Interestingly enough, if you read
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his [first,](https://practicaltypography.com/economics-year-one.html)
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[second,](https://practicaltypography.com/effluents-influence-affluence.html)
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and [third](https://practicaltypography.com/to-pay-or-not-to-pay.html)
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year summaries, more people bought his fonts for a higher price than
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simply paid him directly:
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> What’s most interesting to me, however, is that so many more readers
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> were willing to buy a font license (at $59–299) than to make a direct
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> payment (at $5–10). Don’t get me wrong—I’m utterly grateful. But it’s
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> counterintuitive: I never expected that the cheaper option would be so
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> much less popular. Economists, I invite your explanations.
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>
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> — *[The Economics of a Web-based Book: Year
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> One](https://practicaltypography.com/economics-year-one.html)*
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I won't speculate as to why but it is thought-provoking. Regardless, his
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approach is very similar to that of any developer who creates open
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source software. They pour their time and energy into projects they
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might get no compensation for and rely on the community to fund their
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efforts. I have a *great* deal of respect for these people and try to
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support them whenever I'm able. $200 is a small price for two incredible
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fonts in addition to *Practical Typography*!
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[^1]: Small caps are a font style where the letters that would otherwise
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be lower case are a shorter version of the upper case form. Many
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people simulate small caps by reducing the font size of regular
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capital letters to that of lower case characters but the results are
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too tall and their vertical lines too thin; they've only been scaled
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down. *Proper* small caps are an additional set of letters added to
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a font file as [OpenType
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features.](https://practicaltypography.com/opentype-features.html)
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For a comparison, see the related page on *[Practical
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Typography.](https://practicaltypography.com/small-caps.html)*
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[^2]: I took mental note when reading an article about it but have since
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forgotten what it was and can't find it again. There are, however,
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various other sources, such as *[The Elements of Typographic Style
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Applied to the Web](http://webtypography.net/2.1.2)* and
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*[Readability: the Optimal Line
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Length.](https://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability)*
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[^3]: A [rather short
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study](https://web.archive.org/web/20170918212943/http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/72/LineLength.asp)
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from Wichita State University found that increased line length
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resulted in greater reading efficiency. However, there were no
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significant effects on comprehension and the preference for longer
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or shorter lines was fairly evenly distributed.
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