Discuss Scratch

16Skittles
Scratcher
500+ posts

Typography

This is kind of a mixed topic about typography as well as a question about fonts. OnSchedule is supposed to launch on September 1st, and I'm working on UI improvements and consistency. The official font for the classic UI is Oxygen. It's a nice overall font but it really doesn't fit with the style I'm trying to achieve.

That picture shows the difference between Oxygen (left) and Code, the current font for 1.1. It's pretty easy to see that for this application, Code is a better choice. It is lighter, and has really attractive numbers. There are just a few problems:
  • It is a caps-only font. That's okay for headers and such, but trying to read large amounts of text in it would be bad UX
  • The font doesn't appear to scale down well. At small sizes, the readability is negatively impacted.

There is also a bold version that is more readable, but it is a bit too heavy for my taste and has bad kerning.
Is there either a way that I can make it more readable, or could someone recommend a similar font without the scaling issues? I could switch fonts, but I'd rather be consistent.

Also, you can discuss general typography here.
scratchisthebest
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Typography

browsed through dafont.com for a bit, here's what I got:

Quicksand by Andrew Paglinawan
Roboto by Google Android Design
Acid by Acid Type
Cabin by Pablo Impallari

Last edited by scratchisthebest (Aug. 13, 2013 22:13:59)

3DSfan12345
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Typography

Last edited by 3DSfan12345 (Aug. 14, 2013 00:51:02)

mythbusteranimator
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Typography

I like Raleway. It's decent enough to look well in a book, actually.

http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Raleway
16Skittles
Scratcher
500+ posts

Typography

I think I've found a solution by using one font on the opening numbers and another on everything else. We can still discuss typography a bit though, if anyone wants.
Laternenpfahl
Scratcher
500+ posts

Typography

Check out the other fonts at http://www.impallari.com/
scratchisthebest
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Typography

Roboto is my favorite, to the point where my computer and my iPod (!) also use it.
3DSfan12345
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Typography

scratchisthebest
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Typography

3DSfan12345 wrote:

16Skittles wrote:

I think I've found a solution by using one font on the opening numbers and another on everything else. We can still discuss typography a bit though, if anyone wants.
You should just use Helvetica.
Which costs money, in all the places I've seen to download it.

Lots of people say “oh use coolvetica instead” but coolvetica is the ugliest thing I've ever seen aside from Comic Sans.
ClayChips
Scratcher
500+ posts

Typography

scratchisthebest wrote:

3DSfan12345 wrote:

16Skittles wrote:

I think I've found a solution by using one font on the opening numbers and another on everything else. We can still discuss typography a bit though, if anyone wants.
You should just use Helvetica.
Which costs money, in all the places I've seen to download it.

Lots of people say “oh use coolvetica instead” but coolvetica is the ugliest thing I've ever seen aside from Comic Sans.
This looks pretty nice:
http://cooltext.com/Download-Font-Sansumi
NeilWest
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Typography

My favourite font is Century Gothic, as shown in my signature.

And it has nothing to do with Goths btw.
16Skittles
Scratcher
500+ posts

Typography

NeilWest wrote:

My favourite font is Century Gothic, as shown in my signature.

And it has nothing to do with Goths btw.
I wouldn't say that I have a favorite, but for most applications I dislike serif fonts. They're good when maximum clarity is needed (books, for example) but a big design trend now is leaning towards minimalism, and the extra additions of serif fonts aren't really compatible with the minimal design philosophy.
scratchisthebest
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Typography

I don't like serif fonts anyway. I find sans to be more readable, honestly (I set the font on the family nook to “Gill Sans”, and it's beautiful and functional)
dontbombiraq
Scratcher
500+ posts

Typography

oh my gosh I love typography!!!!
now that that's over

generally in the way of serifs my go-tos are Dubiel, Bodoni (of course), Musket, Old Standard, and Playfair (but only for display)
I have a lot more sans & scripts though so I'll just list a few of my favorites:
Avenir, Barrci (> helvetica imo, except for the uppercase r) aaaaand lost interest in compiling this list. I have about 30 minutes of free time a day sooo

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