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Rant

New font is terrible

Oct 10, 2011 6:22AM PDT

The new font is so hard to read in Chrome and IE. What was CNET thinking? Now I know what 80 year olds must feel like when they try to read with their failing eyesights.

Discussion is locked

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New site sucks
Oct 10, 2011 7:39AM PDT

I agree.. I find the new site really hard to read! I am using Firefox. I like the color scheme, but I just find the text hard to read. It also seems that I have to scroll more to read the stories (font is much bigger now?). Please fix it!

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Thanks for the feedback on the font.
Oct 11, 2011 3:22AM PDT

I will pass this feedback to the appropriate CNET team.

Thanks again,
-Lee

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Just to provide a different perspective.
Oct 11, 2011 4:15AM PDT

I like the changes to the fonts compared to the old ones.

But I do realise this is a matter of personal preference.

Mark

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Are you kidding me?
Oct 11, 2011 9:15AM PDT

Who would enjoy reading a font like this? Only a sadist!

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Cleartype font
Oct 11, 2011 2:30PM PDT

Looking at your screenshot, it appears you have Cleartype turned off. I'm going to guess the new font is cleartype optimized, which means it looks horrible when you have Cleartype off. I resisted turning on Cleartype for years, but finally had to do so when I updated to Office 2010.

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You are exactly right...
Oct 11, 2011 9:48PM PDT

Most modern operating systems have ClearType support enabled by default, but some, particularly Windows XP users, may need to manually enable it. If you do not, fonts in increasingly more programs and websites will look poor.

Hopefully CNET can easily offer an alternative font, but realize that the current font looks MUCH better to most users.

John

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Not related to Cleartype
Oct 12, 2011 1:33AM PDT

Thanks, but this has nothing to do with cleartype. I know how to enable cleartype and have had no readability issues with any other site than CNET (after the redesign).

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Yes, it is...
Oct 12, 2011 8:17AM PDT

CNET is using a ClearType font and several people have reproduced the screenshot by disabling ClearType at the OS level, then opening a new window and loading the same page.

And not having readability issues on other websites does not, by itself, mean that the issues on CNET are not ClearType-related. Few sites use ClearType fonts without fallback in case ClearType isn't supported, so I would expect it to be a fairly uncommon issue.

John

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Um, no.
Oct 13, 2011 5:26AM PDT

As I stated below, I have cleartype installed. It also looks crap on my macbook, do you want to tell me that's related to cleartype as well???

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Strange,
Oct 13, 2011 9:56PM PDT

I'm on an iMac, 10.7.2 and Safari 5.1.1, and it looks good.

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Ouch, no ClearType
Oct 11, 2011 10:16PM PDT

That was the first thing I turned on when I got my XP system.

How to enable ClearType.

I don't know why you haven't done that already.

Mark

Note: This post was edited by a forum moderator to fix link on 10/12/2011 at 9:44 AM PT

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Mark, your link is bad
Oct 11, 2011 10:47PM PDT
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Darn it !
Oct 11, 2011 10:59PM PDT
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Re: link
Oct 11, 2011 11:06PM PDT

If I click it it says it's a " borked link or something". You wonder why the software produces borked links. I'll alert this so Lee can file a bug.

I didn't even know the word. Neither does Random House dictionary, by the way: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bork?qsrc=2446
But "borked link" seems to be quite common if I google it.

Kees

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It's a political reference
Oct 12, 2011 12:45AM PDT

Supporters of Robert Bork felt he was railroaded out of his Supreme Court nomination:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bork

Scroll down to the "bork as a verb" section.

Since it's a partisan political reference, perhaps Cnet should choose another word to use on that page (?)

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I second Josh
Oct 14, 2011 11:12AM PDT

A poor choice of word usage on a CNET 404 page.

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Josh and James...
Oct 17, 2011 9:12AM PDT

I've submitted your feedback to the team who manages that page.

Thanks!
-Lee

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(NT) and thank you Lee!
Oct 21, 2011 12:59AM PDT
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This has nothing to do with cleartype
Oct 12, 2011 1:35AM PDT

Try using Windows remote desktop connection and this is how fonts look regardless of whether you have cleartype turned on or not. Please don't make assumptions.

Note: This post was edited by a forum moderator to remove offensive word on 10/12/2011 at 3:04 PM PT

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You use Remote Desktop to view CNET
Oct 12, 2011 2:22AM PDT

or are you saying that when connected to a remote workstation via RDP, the fonts always look like your picture?

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Clarification.
Oct 12, 2011 6:17AM PDT

I'm just stating a way to duplicate this problem (at least according to my own testing). However, my font looks like crap regardless of whether I am using RDP or not, even with cleartype enabled.

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Assumptions
Oct 12, 2011 3:54AM PDT

I will ignore the 'asinine'.

You say not to make assumptions. This is your 4th post here, and only now you tell some of the circumstances. I fail to see how anyone could make anything but assumptions with such lack of detail.

And of course, we still do not know the full details. You might want to provide more, but as for me, I will leave you to it.

Mark

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..
Oct 13, 2011 3:20AM PDT

Sorry, I'm just really frustrated with this issue. I want my old font back!

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I understand your frustration...
Oct 13, 2011 8:11AM PDT

And as I've said previously I will and have forwarded your feedback to the team.

Thanks,
-Lee

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Mark I fixed your link
Oct 12, 2011 2:54AM PDT
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Thanks Lee
Oct 12, 2011 3:56AM PDT
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The equal sign has always been required.
Oct 12, 2011 6:03AM PDT
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Thanks
Oct 12, 2011 6:20AM PDT

I appreciate the link. As a long time computer nerd, I found out about cleartype ages ago and enabled it as soon as it was available as it made the transition from CRT to LCD less painful. The issue that I'm currently experiencing is not related to cleartype, however thanks for the suggestion.

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I agree
Oct 12, 2011 7:44AM PDT

I agree with loose_screw.
Regardless of needing a tutorial on a workaround just to be able to read this site, I'm slowly going blind with this font. On my (older) work computer which still uses XP and (even older) 1280x1024 monitors the font is faint and very hard to read.

Oh, and thanks for the link for turning on cleartype, I turned it on and it does help. However, I have other applications (Microstation and AutoCAD) that don't play well with cleartype and I'll have to see if there are any problems using them now that I've turned it on.

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(NT) I read that! :-D
Oct 12, 2011 8:19AM PDT