Posted by todsacerdoti 7 hours ago
Yet, the optical margin correction looks mechanistic and only concerned with symbols, not with characters: The "Y" at the start of the first line doesn't move a bit, even though it's clearly optically too light on the left. The next three lines all start optically pretty heavy with a bar. So I'd nudge to "Y" to the left.
I think it's just a pity that LaTeX with microtype is still the pinnacle of automatic typesetting, after all these years. I really enjoy good typography, but the Web, App and even Desktop world seems not to care about such details, apart from a few programs like Ableton.
Maybe this might help people with dyslexia but don't proper dyslexia focused fonts and aids exist already?
Most people who have made a website with CSS before would at best change the font size, the line spacing and the font face and tweak it to a point that feels easily readable and call it a day. Introducing variable widths between the characters of the font, digraphs and so on feels like more like exercising artisanship that only the experts would see value in rather than solving a technical problem.
Perhaps advanced web design/typesetting is the main application of this and it has a chance of inducing a better subconscious effect on the viewer. Sort of how magazines and books were designed back in the day I suppose.
Same as linting and refactoring, then.
No one wakes up in the morning, looks in the mirror, and says, "I want to use an application build with React, has no tech debt, and has great commit msgs...".
I'm not suggesting the tech and stack don't matter. They do. But they are a means, not the ends. The sad fact is, the ends aren't - from the users' POV - noticeably better. More bloated? More buggy? Probably.
Besides, I think this is cool. Someone saw a problem and solved it. I think it looks better too. Now, if only italics were properly spaced from normal text... but that's available in CSS.
It's better today (both for the above issue and also for usability) to disable the ligature substitution and let browser engines manage ligature replacement.
You can easily tell some sites are unresponsive or Chrome-only.