[HN Gopher] Averia: The Average Font (2011)
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Averia: The Average Font (2011)
Author : JoshTriplett
Score : 69 points
Date : 2025-11-08 19:29 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (iotic.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (iotic.com)
| JoshTriplett wrote:
| This is an experiment from 2011 in which the author produced a
| font by averaging all the fonts on their system.
|
| I'm reposting it here because I noticed that this looks a lot
| like the uncanny valley produced when an image AI tries to make
| text, which makes perfect sense: it's a statistical average of
| fonts.
| Pxtl wrote:
| Yes, I saw the exact same thing when you posted it - "oh, AI
| text looks like an averaging of fonts".
| DeathArrow wrote:
| I wonder if you can ask AI to use a particular font for text in
| generated images.
| treetalker wrote:
| Interestingly it evokes Open Dyslexic.
| ozim wrote:
| I don't get uncanny valley feel from this one. It feels kind of
| great for me as a font.
| Clamchop wrote:
| It also reminds me a bit of what text looks like after multiple
| rounds of photocopying. Like the handouts we'd get in grade
| school.
| msla wrote:
| Interesting how modern designers think readable fonts (with
| serifs, so people can reliably distinguish between Al and AI,
| for example) are "uncanny" because they don't follow the latest
| trends in ultra-minimalist "design" and other fashions.
| rebolek wrote:
| I like readable serif fonts but this one really looks like an
| uncanny AI image.
| peter-m80 wrote:
| Btw, "Averia" means "failure" in spanish
| OseArp wrote:
| "Average" comes from Arabic for "damaged goods."
| pimlottc wrote:
| This is mentioned:
|
| > I call it Averia - which is a Spanish word related to the
| root of the word 'average'. It actually means mechanical
| breakdown or damage. This seemed curiously fitting, and I was
| assured by a Spanish friend-of-a-friend that "Averia is an
| incredibly beautiful word regardless of its meaning". So that's
| nice.
| jslabovitz wrote:
| I've used Averia (Serif Libre, specifically) for at least a
| decade as my primary font for email, web pages in 'reader' mode,
| writing long-form text, etc. I find it extremely legible, and
| even calming.
|
| Ironically, I've been a typographer for decades, both for print
| and online. Averia might seem an odd choice for someone
| intimately familiar with typographic theory/history and the vast
| catalog of possible fonts. But there's a certain pleasure and
| comfort in a font that is not trying to stand out or do anything
| particularly special.
| bitwize wrote:
| It's kind of like how if you take the average of enough male or
| female human faces, the result is a very pleasing, attractive
| face.
| seabass wrote:
| I'm surprised by how good it looks. This is really cool! I do
| feel like the Q and 4 characters need a little manual tweaking
| since the blur+threshold technique leaves some artifacts in the
| corners but those are such minor issues given how readable this
| font is overall. Love it.
| moss_dog wrote:
| Very cool project, thank you for sharing! To me, it raises some
| interesting questions around attribution of sources in derived
| works, in the same way that AI training does.
| tiltowait wrote:
| I kind of dig this. It seems like it might look good on an
| ereader. Might have to upload it to my kobo!
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