Serif vs. Sans-Serif

  • My only criticism of WordPress thus far (and I plan on converting my blog from MT to WP as soon as 1.2 comes out), is that the UI (and this web site) is very Serif font oriented. Usability, education experts, and instructional designers all concur (in research and in practice) that sans-serif fonts are preferrable on the web because of the limitations of monitors. It is easier to quickly read and understand materials displayed in Verdana or Arial than a Times or Georgia font. Serif fonts are fine in graphics where they are more accurately displayed but in electronically displayed running text most people find them harder to read. This is the only major limitation I have seen with WP thus far. Is there any plan on switching over to a sans font or having a font switcher in the UI to allow it to be converted to a sans font for people who have difficulties reading serif fonts on the Web? This, as far as I can tell is the only real usability issue that I have noticed thus far.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 16 total)

  • I agree with you, therefore I modified the wp-admin.css file in the wp-admin folder to use verdana. ??

    Thread Starter elise

    (@elise)

    I know it’s changeable, but I don’t think it should ship displaying serif fonts for accessibility reasons.

    You could easily add a font switcher yourself. (if you wanted one)

    Maybe there could be some kind of styleswitcher specifically for the admin area. It would be neat if it was possible to change styles in the options window… ??
    Maybe a style for each day of the week… ??

    I would normally tend to ignore such debates. But as I am sitting here on my couch, reading this on my TV, I can strongly attest to the general difficulty of reading serif fonts as compared to sans.
    But as I use the wp-admin panel it seems easy enough to bump up the font size to make it clear.

    so much from nothing… open css, edit to your likeness, save, enjoy… geez…

    I see this thread going nowhere but south fast (and why is south bad by the way?) so maybe we should end it here. Elise’s point about “shipping” with sans-serif is well taken. See ya’ll in another thread…
    Southern (Good ol’) Boy

    Newspapers and books are printed in a serif font because it is easier and thus less fatiguing to read. The LCD monitors of the present day have excellent resolution, and are inexpensive.

    According to a study I read somewhere (can’t find the link right now), Georgia is actually more readable than Verdana.

    Most studies show that serif is more readable on paper and sans-serif is more readable on screen, at least in smaller and normal font sizes. Once you use big font sizes, serif becomes more readable again on screen as well.

    Another vote from me for WP shipping with a sans-serif for the default admin UI.

    Here’s a discussion on Blogdorf about serifs vs. sans serifs:
    https:// rosendorf.us/blogdorf/archive/2006/01/18/1456.aspx

    [Moderated – copy/paste will work]

    Gotta love that old move of resurrecting long dead threads to hawk ones site…

    Yeah?

    Is the topic long dead too…?

    1. You obviously just registered on this site.
    2. You obviously registered just to reply to this thread.
    3. You obviously replied just to link to your site.

    Whether the topic is dead or not is obviously irrelevent.

    1. Yes
    2. Yes
    3. Yes

    I’d say the topic being dead or not is relevant to our conversation, since you mentioned the thread was long dead.
    I’d say the thread may be useful for someone doing research. Just because no one has posted to it in 3 months (ancient) doesn’t mean it’s not useful for someone doing research on subjects it touches on.
    This thread is being read by more people than myself since it came up on the first page in Google when I searched for “serif vs. sans serif”.

    Good talking with you.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 16 total)
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