[HN Gopher] Behind the design: A deep dive into Aptos
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       Behind the design: A deep dive into Aptos
        
       Author : haxfenx
       Score  : 23 points
       Date   : 2024-03-05 09:45 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (microsoft.design)
 (TXT) w3m dump (microsoft.design)
        
       | asystole wrote:
       | > ClearTypefont display technology
       | 
       | Did it get renamed? I thought it was just called ClearType?
        
         | bradrn wrote:
         | Looks like a typo for 'ClearType font display technology'.
        
       | giva wrote:
       | Is this font designed for HiDpI displays? It really looks bad on
       | my fullhd laptop and on my 32 inch 4k monitor.
        
         | waldothedog wrote:
         | In what way does it look bad? Historically, digital-focus fonts
         | have been drawn specifically to handle very lo res displays, or
         | very small print applications (optical embellishment, ink
         | traps, etc)... but given that type designers are notoriously
         | detail oriented and that font files are collections of vectors,
         | I can't see a reason why the design would lead to these
         | effects. Ironically (since this is a Microsoft post) Windows
         | often mangles type display, so can browser settings and CSS
         | defaults/resets.
        
           | waldothedog wrote:
           | For clarification, that was a "in what way?" to get more
           | information, not to dispute that it looks fugly for you.
        
             | chfalck wrote:
             | It's also possible this commenter is seeing a fallback
             | default font if Atpos is not available / didn't download
             | correctly on their system configuration
        
             | giva wrote:
             | It may as well be down to a matter of taste, but I found it
             | quite harder to read.
             | 
             | I tried to find what exactly i dislike about it, and the
             | impression I get is that the weight and the spacing
             | (kerning?) is inconsistent on the line. It reminds me a bit
             | of linux desktop before the availability of decent free
             | fonts.
        
           | Const-me wrote:
           | > In what way does it look bad?
           | 
           | For example, on my 27" 4k display with 150% DPI scaling, I
           | can't easily distinguish commas from dots.
           | 
           | I've been using displays like that for a decade now. Aptos is
           | the only font with that issue.
        
       | shrubble wrote:
       | That's a lot of words to not even show the typeface clearly at
       | different sizes...
        
         | ramraj07 wrote:
         | Isnt the entire blog in that font?
        
       | NelsonMinar wrote:
       | Is it possible to easily download the full suite of Aptos
       | variants?
       | 
       | Did they commission expanded designs for the other four like they
       | did for Aptos? Are there monospace or serif versions available?
        
         | KingMob wrote:
         | It's in the article, but tl;dr yes
        
           | NelsonMinar wrote:
           | I read the whole article before asking and just re-read it
           | again. I don't see answers to either of my questions. I'm
           | guessing from other clues in the article the answer to my
           | second question is "no".
        
         | WorldMaker wrote:
         | Office will download the full suite of variants on request.
         | 
         | For other download options (including licensing/redistribution
         | for use outside of Office/Microsoft 365), it looks like
         | Microsoft's usual deal with MonoType Foundry applies to Aptos
         | as well and that you can make purchases at Fonts.com.
         | 
         | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/font-list/aptos...
        
       | Solvency wrote:
       | It cracks me up when Microsoft posts these infinitesimally niche
       | design projects/articles, where they pretend to care about good
       | design, and then utterly fail to deliver it systematically across
       | the organization, let alone even fractionally.
       | 
       | Remember when Google paid hundreds of freelancers a lot of money
       | to come up with Material, and then how even that fizzled out?
        
         | ipsum2 wrote:
         | I can't think of a single Google interface that isn't on
         | Material, though Material is on its 2nd or 3rd design iteration
         | now.
        
       | solarkraft wrote:
       | Microsoft loves switching from one bad thing to another bad
       | thing.
        
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       (page generated 2024-03-06 23:01 UTC)