Reading About Readability

One thing that I’m very interested in (but generally not too good at) is typography, and only today did I start to try and get really serious about it. Personally, I haven’t been a fan of the content layout of TextFugu. The text? eh, kind of hard to read. The images? Just don’t look right if you ask me. Everything in general? Not quite spaced out properly.

Now, I don’t think it’s perfect yet, but you can see some of the changes being made by looking at the first two chapters.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed reading about typography and implementing some of the (very basic) things I’ve learned, I’ll probably making similar updates to all the articles over the next month. It’ll be a slow process because I want to make sure it doesn’t interfere with new content, so you’ll see the new layout in all of the new lessons as they come out, and the old lessons will get the face lift at a slow but steady pace. Want to know exactly what’s changing?

1. Main headers are now smaller: Instead of being gigantic and taking up too much space, I’ve made them smaller. There’s also more space above and below the headers, which makes things easier to read, I think.

2. The width of the page is skinnier now. If a page is too wide, it makes it hard to read. I still think it might be a little too wide, but I’m pretty happy about where it’s at right now.

3. Quotes are a bigger and get better screen real estate. I think they look pretty nice, though maybe some tweaking will be done on their size and spacing. They’re pretty close, though.

4. Images are not longer (for the most part) going to be centered. I’m aligning them to the sides to create some variety in the line lengths, making it easier to read for longer periods of time.

5. Even More focus on the content. It’s all about the content (most important thing!), so I think 99% of the attention should be paid to it. Everything should make the content better, more readable, and easier to access. It should be easier to zero in and focus now with the new layout. What do you think?

Like I said, it’s not perfect, though I think it’s 20 or 30 very tiny changes away from getting there. It’ll happen over time, but I just wanted to preview my thoughts (and very amateurish skills) in typography and how I’m making TextFugu even more usable and readable for you! Any typography experts out there? I’d love to here where I can improve!

http://gakuranman.com Gakuranman

Good to know you're flexing your typography skills! I've always been interested in it and love playing around with my blog layout, as you no doubt know :p
Gabriela

I personally liked more the way it was… Sorry. But, I'm one of those people that hate changes when I'm used to something. So I guess, because of that, my opinion doesn't count much.
But there is one thing that I love and think you shouldn't change no matter what: the line of images in the beginning of each chapter.
:)
eisbehr

I like the new layout very much. I think it's really easier to read. But I also have to agree with Gabriela. The pics at the beginning of a chapter are like a trademark for Textfugu, you should keep a little difference to other sites and not just completely switch to this newspaper style, although it's really great for the rest of the text.
http://www.tofugu.com koichi

I do know very well, haha. But, I have the same addiction as well, so I can't talk :P
http://www.tofugu.com koichi

I hear ya re: changes… though for some reason I don't like anyone else's changes (but love making changes myself). Let me know if you still feel the same way in a few weeks, it will be interesting to know!

So, the line of top images is that important? I had no idea. How about a compromise-ish sort of thing? http://www.textfugu.com/season-3/transitive-int…
http://www.tofugu.com koichi

ahh! More support for the line of images. Hmm, we'll have to see on that one. I might be willing to compromise a bit, what do you think of this?

http://www.textfugu.com/season-3/transitive-int…

Another thing I need to think more about is printing and figuring out a way to give people the option to print w/o images. Ink is expensive, I've found out lately :(
eisbehr

What can I say… It's awesome :D
Gabriela

It gives pretty much the same feeling, I like it :)
shyrofox

I like most of it, but I miss the three images lined up at the top of the screen. I don't know why, but it always got me psyched to start studying. I was stuck on the Passions lesson for a while, since you have to look up all those words, but every time I went to the page to try to do some those images encouraged me. ;;

Everything else certainly does read better now, though.
sumi

It would be great to have a print friendly version of Textfugu. It would eliminate the pictures (which use a lot of ink) and also save paper.
Jay

I like the changes, but I don't like the font. I'm not an expert on fonts, but I once read that serif fonts are better for printed media, while sans-serif fonts are better on screens. I don't know if this is scientific approved, but for me it's working this way.
(changed my font in firefox for better readability)

MfG
Jay
http://www.facebook.com/people/Juiles-Nevada/100000261694077 Juiles Nevada

funny thing, that i liked the first layout (january) the most ^^
because it was very simple and without too much pictures, colored marked textboxes etc…
but i understand the sense behind those, so its ok.

but i apreciate(?)/honor your work, and i am sure, everything will be good, or from time to time better.
nothing is perfect as it is at some moment. always there will be someone with complains. and also there will be all the time more or less changes. *spiritual talk* ^ ^

but, its okay, as it is, more or less. so don stuck to much at the design. ;)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Juiles-Nevada/100000261694077 Juiles Nevada

and it is a little bit small ;p
no big problem for arabic letters, but while reading the small kanji, it makes me often erhm… well, i have to scroll the size up sometimes in firefox.