[HN Gopher] Optician Sans - A free font based on historical eye ...
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Optician Sans - A free font based on historical eye charts and
optotypes
Author : exvi
Score : 185 points
Date : 2025-07-30 16:11 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (optician-sans.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (optician-sans.com)
| javier2 wrote:
| So its also monospace?
| MattSteelblade wrote:
| Doesn't look like it.
| https://github.com/anewtypeofinterference/Optician-Sans/issu...
| graypegg wrote:
| Huh, so I'm only just learning that the Snellen chart isn't the
| common one! I wouldn't have known the name of it, but if someone
| asked me to doodle an eye chart from memory, I would've drawn
| that blocky E with the serifs! I've most likely been tested with
| the sans-serif Sloan chart I assume, but the letter forms just
| aren't distinct enough to stick in my brain I guess. A bit of a
| shame this font doesn't have a "Optician Serif" variant to look
| like the Snellen letters.
| cbm-vic-20 wrote:
| That main image makes my astigmatic eyes very unhappy.
|
| https://optician-sans.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Comp-3....
| abtinf wrote:
| Why did they animate it to add a blur?
| GuinansEyebrows wrote:
| probably to evoke the feeling of undergoing an eye exam.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I can hear the tech asking "number 1 or number 2"
| ahazred8ta wrote:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20250730205400/https://neroca
| m.c...
| atonse wrote:
| OMG I kept thinking my glasses (progressive lenses) were
| causing that. I didn't realize it was animating.
| darkwater wrote:
| Can't you clearly see why?
| pimlottc wrote:
| That's horrible, the full page blur is less bad since it's so
| obvious. But man, you should never be intentionally gaslighting
| the user by making them second-guess their own vision.
| gadders wrote:
| Nice font. Could have done without the dude's tinder profile pic
| though.
| edwinjm wrote:
| That's how Nordic people look like <grin>
| dylan604 wrote:
| You know you swiped right.
|
| I had the same odd sentiment about the use of the images as
| well. It does nothing for me about wanting to use the font.
| m3kw9 wrote:
| upon entering, it reminds me to go to the Optometrist
| CarVac wrote:
| The round G _strongly_ resembles the Google logo.
| its-summertime wrote:
| that C is annoyingly O-ish, and the blurring... feels almost like
| its made by an anti-optician
| jamesdwilson wrote:
| it was derived from eye charts that are explicitly designed to
| find defects in your eyes - it is not a coincidence the O and C
| look similar.
| jantissler wrote:
| And there are also alternative versions of many letters as
| shown further down on the page.
| artemisart wrote:
| Yes I don't understand how they can claim it's optimized for
| legibility when the base font does the inverse.
| sandbach wrote:
| Always amusing to see spelling errors on painstakingly put
| together design websites. Unless NRK did indeed mean 'Let us all
| behave like opticians!'
| stevetron wrote:
| My default blank document Font settings in MSWord is Liberation
| Sans, Bold, 14 px.
|
| But my cataract problem is getting worse, and I may have to bump
| the size up yet again. I have yet to find another font I like as
| well.
| oxguy3 wrote:
| Liberation Sans is indeed great, but I'm so intrigued: how did
| you end up preferring a libre font but a proprietary word
| processor?
| egypturnash wrote:
| I like how one of the testimonials is someone at Adobe basically
| quoting the copy at the top of the page.
|
| "OPTICIAN SANS: A free font based on the historical eye charts
| and optotypes used by opticians world wide." - top copy
|
| "A free typeface based on opticians' eye charts" -Khoi Vinh,
| Principal designer, Adobe
| arcticfox wrote:
| I think all the testimonials are fake, if this wasn't clear to
| everyone. I thought they might be real at first but none of
| them exist. I actually thought that was kind of shitty to do,
| since they use real companies and media outlets.
|
| (I don't really follow fonts but I do know there is a
| subculture crazy about them, so I thought it could be
| theoretically possible that people would write reviews of
| them).
| Rendello wrote:
| You can click them, they link to their sources.
| piker wrote:
| > "Hmm...this page doesn't exist. Try searching for
| something else."
|
| - the link under discussion
| GranPC wrote:
| Link rot is alive and well... unlike their links. https:/
| /web.archive.org/web/20190430201350/https://twitter.c...
| jaysonelliot wrote:
| I work for Khoi. I should ask him if he really gave this quote.
| isege wrote:
| Is it just me or does it look eerily similar to the font
| Anthropic uses?
| mellonaut wrote:
| For those that now find themselves inspired to type the Snellen
| E, the internet provides an OFL typeface that scratches your itch
| here1 (this unclearly licensed modification2 even comes with some
| cute but barely readable lowercase versions of the letters)
|
| 1] https://radagast.ca/snellen/snellen.html 2]
| https://mk.bcgsc.ca/snellen-optotype-font/
| jiehong wrote:
| This reminds me of the eye chart used in some countries, because
| it isn't based on reading letters, but on a direction.
|
| For example [0], you should indicate the direction where the E
| points to.
|
| [0]: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61MRfRwHwWL._SL1235_.jpg
| mongol wrote:
| I remember this from when I was a child. Was maybe 4-5 and had
| not learned the letters yet. But I could turn my hand.
| msikora wrote:
| This is for kids.
| throwaway290 wrote:
| Fake testimonials.
| srameshc wrote:
| I am looking for a very readable font and I like it. I am not in
| anyway qualified to compare it to Source Sans Pro or Opensans
| which I believe are considered very read friendly.
| Rendello wrote:
| Previously seen on HN in 2018:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18665595
|
| They made a Medium post as well:
| https://medium.com/anewtypeofinterference/completing-a-typef...
| voxleone wrote:
| Really like this typeface. It hits that rare sweet spot between
| experimental and functional. Big thanks to the ANTI Hamar team.
| amdivia wrote:
| The loading animation made me feel in need of a visit to my
| optician
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(page generated 2025-07-30 23:00 UTC)