Improved Readability

This, I think, is the blog theme (page style) I’ve been looking for since I started using WordPress. It seems more readable than what I’ve been using for the past few months. I hope you like it; if not, please feel free to leave a note.

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12 Responses

  1. SteveK says:

    Looks good. Easy to read.

  2. SteveK says:

    Can’t get the Google search feature to work.

  3. Tom Gilson says:

    Good point. I’ll try to fix it.

  4. Bonnie says:

    I think it’s nice and readable, but there’s a funny little gap after every apostrophe. (I’m looking at it with Firefox 2.0.0.16.)

  5. SteveK says:

    I’m using Firefox 2.0.0.16 and I ==> don’t <== see this funny little gap in the word ‘don’t’.

  6. Tom Gilson says:

    Thank you for letting me know about this. I’ll be interested to hear if it’s happening to others.

    One of you is using XP and the other is using Vista. You’re using the same size monitor. (Did you know that websites logged that much detail?) I don’t know if Vista has anything to do with it, and I don’t have a Vista machine nearby I can test it on. I’ve been able to test with various Mac and Windows configurations, but not that one.

    The page will render differently depending on what fonts you have installed. The font family on this page is Lucida Grande, Microsoft Yahei, Bitstream Vera Sans, Tahoma, Verdana, Arial; meaning that it will load the first font on that list if you have it installed on your computer, otherwise it will go to the next, or the next…

    Also, the preferences/options you’ve set for your browser will made a difference. You’ve probably already set this the way you want it, but in case you haven’t, you might check your default fonts and character encoding. Go to Tools—>Options—>Content and choose “Advanced” under “Fonts and Colors.” Check the box that says “Allow pages to choose their own fonts…” and make sure you’re using Western character encoding. (That navigation is from FF 3. I hope its the same in version 2.)

    Being a Mac user primarily, though, I know that Windows machines will still fight you and do what they want to do. But as I said, I’ll be very interested to hear if this is happening to anyone else, or if these steps make a difference to you, Bonnie.

  7. I have Windows Vista and using Windows Internet Explorer and I’m seeing the extra space as well. Just adding my 1/2 a cent. :o)

  8. SteveK says:

    Did you know that websites logged that much detail?

    Do you know what color shirt am I wearing 😉

    It must be a Vista problem since I’m the XP user and don’t see this.

  9. Tom Gilson says:

    Just out of curiosity, Bonnie and/or Kevin, can you tell whether that extra space is actually a space (the spacebar character), or if it’s just an extra wide distance between the characters?

  10. Bonnie says:

    It’s an extra-wide space after each apostrophe, more than would come from hitting the space bar. It’s almost a tab-width between the apostrophe and the next letter.

  11. Tom Gilson says:

    Wow. That’s weird. When you first posted on this I was thinking millimeters, not a tab-space.

    I’m doing some experimenting with fonts now. I want you to know I appreciate your help tracking this down, since I don’t know where to find a computer with Vista on it. Would you mind letting me know if it’s any different now?

    By the way, I made a mistake in my earlier advice to you. I said there to set your default character encoding to Western. It should be UTF-8 instead. That’s not just for this blog—it has become the standard for most web pages, and it should work wherever you browse.

    I don’t know if that setting would affect the way this page shows up on your computer, but it’s another thing to check. I’ll be interested to hear the outcomes.

  12. Tom Gilson says:

    SOLVED!

    I downloaded Microsoft YaHei font onto a Windows machine here, and when I viewed the page with that font, I saw exactly what you’re talking about. So I have removed it from this page’s font family. You may have to empty your cache to see the change, but it should be better now.

    Thanks again for the reports, and please let me know if this really does solve it for you.