> I wonder if some fonts that look fine on paper don't translate well to computers.
I don't have factual data, but this seems obvious to me. Especially on lower DPI screens. For example, a serif font looks just too busy on a screen, whereas I really love them in a book.
I've noticed that on non high-DPI screens and at "reasonable" sizes (say between 10-14), whenever a font has an elaborate design it tends to be unpleasant on the screen, because everything that doesn't line up with the grid tends to get blurry or have random colors at the edges.
I'm somewhat surprised that bitmap fonts have fallen out of favor. While we may get somewhat used to seeing not perfectly sharp fonts and after a while they don't seem blurry anymore, comparing them side by side with a bitmap font is striking. Especially on dark backgrounds, all the different hues are much more subtle, yet better defined.
I'm running terminus[0] on a computer I sometimes use with a 24" FullHD screen and I find the absolute sharpness of it is very, very pleasant to look at. It is both thin AND without blurriness or color fringes, even on dark backgrounds.
I don't have factual data, but this seems obvious to me. Especially on lower DPI screens. For example, a serif font looks just too busy on a screen, whereas I really love them in a book.
I've noticed that on non high-DPI screens and at "reasonable" sizes (say between 10-14), whenever a font has an elaborate design it tends to be unpleasant on the screen, because everything that doesn't line up with the grid tends to get blurry or have random colors at the edges.
I'm somewhat surprised that bitmap fonts have fallen out of favor. While we may get somewhat used to seeing not perfectly sharp fonts and after a while they don't seem blurry anymore, comparing them side by side with a bitmap font is striking. Especially on dark backgrounds, all the different hues are much more subtle, yet better defined.
I'm running terminus[0] on a computer I sometimes use with a 24" FullHD screen and I find the absolute sharpness of it is very, very pleasant to look at. It is both thin AND without blurriness or color fringes, even on dark backgrounds.
---
[0] http://terminus-font.sourceforge.net/