10 comments

  • Zachary Smith, 5 years ago

    Thanks for posting this here dude! I'm psyched about this article actually being read. I've learned a ton about typography through writing it and I'm loving this area of study.

    2 points
  • Tyler RenfroTyler Renfro, almost 5 years ago

    Nobody wants to use system fonts anymore :(

    1 point
    • Ed AdamsEd Adams, almost 5 years ago

      Actually, the system font stack is becoming increasingly popular, San Francisco on macOS and Segoe on Windows. GitHub uses it throughout the site. This article goes into detail. I think the reason people don't want to use the standard system fonts is because they're not really pretty enough, but (subjectively) San Francisco and Segoe are quite pretty. They've got tons of font weights too so I can do super thin weights on titles, etc. Not having to contend with the flash as the web fonts load in is also really cool.

      1 point
    • Hayden MillsHayden Mills, almost 5 years ago

      I agree. I get that sense as well. Why do you think that is? I have some thoughts as Ed has mentioned already but I'm curious on your opinion.

      0 points
      • Tyler RenfroTyler Renfro, almost 5 years ago

        Ed, I couldn't agree more. Amazing article you shared, I was actually searching for something like that the other day.

        Hayden, I think the reason why people are moving away from system fonts is influenced by a few reasons.

        1. There are entirety too many options. There is an absurd amount of of options for loading web fonts now so people are overlooking system fonts entirely. I also think this may be because there isn't a pretty catalog like typekit for the old system fonts

        2. This comes from Ed's comment. People think that system fonts are not pretty. From my experience, this is true. However, verdana and open sans are hilariously similar (aside from the amount of weights available.) Trebuchet is also gorgeous as well as Lucida

        3. People don't care or don't know. In design and development environments, something like FOUT or pixelated fonts goes unnoticed. Designers and developers have high resolution screens with fiber internet and don't understand the importance of a typeface like verdana (which was designed for low resolution screens) that doesn't require additional bloat to load.

        1 point
        • Hayden MillsHayden Mills, almost 5 years ago

          Wow. I can honestly say I've never seriously considered using system fonts for my web design projects. I bet it's because of the reasons you highlighted here.

          I'm the creator of Font Pair and I built that with the sole focus of helping people pair Google Fonts. This is interesting though. I wonder if I should extend it to also helping people pair system fonts that already exist on their computers...

          1 point