Re: Gosh, the ghostview interface sucks

On Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:21:38 +0200, Mark Madsen wrote:

On Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:00:55 +0000, jpd wrote:

OK, we are now waaaaay off-topic, so apologies.

On 15 Jun 2008 16:08:16 +0200,
Mark Madsen <mark.s.madsen+news@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:03:09 +0000, jpd wrote:

Serifs are known to aid readability on the printed page. Whether they
help or hinder on a display is a more complicated question, depending
on things like colour combination, aliasing, and resolution. (Serifs
make fonts less legible on many displays.)

The VGA font isn't completely serif'ed. Courier is IME not
particularly legible on a computer screen, even though it is fixed
width. I

If you can't read Courier on your screen there is something badly
wrong. It may be ugly as hell but it can't be faulted on legibility.

As you say, on paper, yes, but on the screen, less so. Especially with
not entirely accurate CRT beams or just mere white-on-black projection
(or both) the little thin lines easily become an unreadable jumble.

I have mostly retired my CRTs, retaining only my 17" dual-input Iiyama
trinitron, which has clarity nearly as good as an LCD and way better
colour contrast than nearly anything.

Yes, Courier suffers from a bad display, but doesn't everything else?

``So ugly I can't bear to look at it.''

Even though I'm looking at a (cheap, refurbished) 15" TFT right now,
I'm lazily sitting about a meter away. Using courier, even at a
suitably large font, discerning what is what would be more effort than
using a nice regular sans serif font. With a nasty habit of using
computers all day long, that sort of optimisation is worth it.

One of the reasons why I hate the latest[1] in webdesign so much, where
it is in vogue to take whatever the user says he prefers for a font,
then cut it in half or less, and use that instead. Sheesh!

I am very quick to hit Ctl-+ in Firefox to increase web page font size,
and do it often. I hardly ever need to hit Ctl-- to decrease the font.

Add the following stanza into file:
~/.mozilla/firefox/********.default/chrome/userContent.css
(where ******** is a character string unique to each user)

===== Code Begins after this line =====
/*
* Reference: http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html
*/

/*
* Obviate need to zoom on many sites
*/
body {
font-size: 100% !important;
line-height: normal !important;
}
===== Code Ends before this line =====

If file userContent.css does not exist on your system, you will have to
create it with the above contents.


[1] Alright, the second latest. The very latest fad is to use flash
everywhere for no reason. But I skip those sites right away, and
probably would even if there was a viable flash player, which there
isn't for FreeBSD without also installing a linux distribution.
Yes, webmonkeys, fscked-up design *does* limit your willing
audience.

Heh, flash is nothing in annoyance when compared to the latest web site
design fad of using light-grey text on a white background. Over time,
the trend seems to be moving towards using a lighter and lighter shade
of light-grey for text. Either that, or I am going blind. For the
latest example, have a peek at: http://www.opensolaris.com/ If you don't
have your monitor calibrated perfectly, you might not even see the text.

The web site, actually, is not too bad when viewed on my ancient 12" CRT
monitor that is long past its "Best Before" date, running at 640x480
resolution on which a "white" background appears beige, the light-grey
text appears black, and the out of focus electron guns bring new meaning
to the word "fuzzy"...er...BOLD font. :)

However, on my late model 21" LCD monitor, running at 1680x1050 resolution
with gamma set at 1.8, colors calibrated to a standard color chart, and
brightness/contrast calibrated to a standard grey chart, the white
background is snow white, and the light-grey text, well, almost
white. If you value your eyesight, you don't want to spend too much
time there looking at it. Maybe that's the whole idea behind the web site
design, to encourage one to go elsewhere. :)

For anyone interested, the following web site gives excellent details
on how to adjust the gamma on your monitor:
http://www.photoscientia.co.uk/Gamma.htm

Getting the color balance, greyscale, and gamma set correctly on your
monitor does make a world of difference for relieving eye strain. Even
bad fonts will look crisp and your eyes will thank you. Unfortunately,
it doesn't do much to compensate for bad web site design.


Even on Linux boxes I install NoScript and FlashBlock by reflex. Enough
Flash on a page brings even a decent box to its knees.

.

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