I had not heard of ink traps. Basically, they are characters that try to account for ink bleeding. By putting more negative space in corners, for example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_trap
But that gives me the impression it would have nothing to do with displays. And makes it a pretty curious choice.
Set font size slider to 300px and you will notice them. I'd love to see the study that decided this was the right move. For a digital display its just noise and won't even render correctly at small sizes without a high dpi display. I doubt they would do this just for stylistic purposes. Seems like a very odd decision to me.
It seems far too deliberate not to be so. Wonder about the reason too. Maybe dual-use with printouts?
Edit: I found their reasoning:
"Moreover, activity analysis has highlighted possible impairment in
reading context: variations of light and viewing angle, high cognitive load for the pilot etc�
So, B612 has created a concept of increased legibility of shape for
less ideal situations and associated methods of mark corrections,
to optimise the final rendering of the text and on-screen reading,
particularly with the use of incises and ‘light-traps’ .
An incise is a small serif which interrupts the regularity of the
vertical line: here it allows to accentuate the clarity of the leading
stroke (top part) of the vertical stem 8 to avoid it being rounded
off when antialiasing.
The principle of ‘ink traps’ has existed as long as typography has: it
is a small indentation at the junction of letter strokes which ‘traps’
the ink on small characters, so that it doesn't block the junction and
affect the legibility. In the case of B612, the ‘light traps’ accentuate
the counterforms 7, particularly for the sharp angles� The indenta-
tions are always well distinguished, even at a small size, and the
contrast between the different strokes of the character is reinforced."
I didn’t know about ink traps, but I did notice them right away in the sample images. I was guessing that it would help increase legibility when it was embossed or in raised printing on a physical button.
If the font is used primarily as light on black, then light bleeds analogously to how ink does, albeit via a different mechanism. Whether on the screen itself (like CRT) or on our retina.
Ooh, great question. I guess “ink” traps would actually make sense for CRT displays due to phosphor bleed. (See the design of the VT100 font.) However, according to Wikipedia Airbus started using LCDs well before this font was made.
That stood out to me as well. Bell Centennial† used that for phonebooks; here I suspect the light-on-dark display has some visual bleeding that this compensates for, especially for tired pilots.
Seems like Page 8 in the PDF/leaflet from the repository talks about it:
> The principle of ‘ink traps’ has existed as long as typography has: it is a small indentation at the junction of letter strokes which ‘traps’ the ink on small characters, so that it doesn't block the junction and affect the legibility. In the case of B612, the ‘light traps’ accentuate the counterforms 7, particularly for the sharp angles� The indentations are always well distinguished, even at a small size, and the contrast between the different strokes of the character is reinforced.
> An incise is a small serif which interrupts the regularity of the vertical line: here it allows to accentuate the clarity of the leading stroke (top part) of the vertical stem 8 to avoid it being rounded off when antialiasing.
Excellent starting point but they are sooo scratchy. It made me doubt if fountain pens were for me, but I bought some cheap pens that were less fine and it was a dream.
Interesting! My first thought looking at the scribble chart was "isn't this Monte Carlo simulation?" but reading further it seems more aligned with the "third way" that William Briggs describes in his book Uncertainty[1]. He argues we should focus on direct probability statements about observables over getting lost in parameter estimation or hypothesis testing.
Certainly both, but in your question, I'm suspecting your unaware of how much of this music you're familiar with it since it lives rent-free in the general zeitgeist. For example, I suspect you'd recognize Satie's work Gymnopedie no. 1[1] and perhaps putting a name to it will give you some appreciation for why his work is valued
Talk about living rent free…the number of modern songs which are (generally obliviously) derivative of Pachelbel's Canon in D is mind boggling, which itself was surely built upon even earlier, similar chord progressions.
> I find it fascinating how some music from 100 years ago still holds value today.
Some of the world's most cherished music is much older than that. Is it your general expectation that musical compositions, regardless of merit, will inevitably lose their appeal over time?
Right, and that's kind of the point. A small group still finds immense value in it, but for the majority, the appeal has faded or been replaced by other forms of music. It doesn't mean the compositions aren't brilliant, it just shows how cultural relevance shifts over time (regardless of quality).
Music has an interesting relationship with time and human appreciation. At any particular time, there's a lot of music being produced. It's filtered at the source by things like the Billboard 100 and DJ preference, but a lot of music survives the immediate filter.
Older music is filtered by the brains of the people who experienced it when it was new. A consensus forms on what music was good and should be remembered. There's a nostalgia bump in popularity that lags about 20-30 years behind as middle-aged folk (the people with money and influence) replay the songs from their younger days. That's where "classic rock" and the like come from.
After that, the music is filtered again by people who encounter the previously filtered music for the first time. Music that survives this filter becomes essentially a permanent part of the culture. Here you find pieces like Scott Joplin's The Entertainer and Benny Goodman's version of Sing, Sing, Sing.
So if you're encountering century-plus old music, it's generally the stuff the stuff that our culture has flagged as being the best of its time (by one of several measures, not necessarily the most enjoyable) and still worthy of appreciation. Or it's music nerds doing their thing.
He is primarily remembered for his music. Most people know some of his compositions but don't even know who wrote it. Gymnopédie is still used all over the place today in ads, remixes, and everywhere else - but few know who composed it, and even fewer know about his eccentric personality.
But apparently hackernews loves to point out how "weird" he was.
Sole prop registrations (for individuals/non-corporations) are not _too_ onerous anymore and generally have a faster time to approval, provided you submit the right docs. Totally agree it's a money grab though. Twilio et al. have so much power to keep bad actors at bay but keep pushing responsibility to the consumers of their API. I feel like setting up push notifications is easier though, which is saying something.
Everything old is new again: I came across a demo for Telescript [1] the other day that would not look out of place in a pitch deck today, save the references to AT&T. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtrs3jtY96k
