Text Editing: Some Things I've Noticed

The biggest thing I'm really frustrated with is how the Italics are hardly distinguishable from the non-italicized text in this font. This is also true in the blog post format. In larger blocks of text the italicized virtually disappears so I've had to go and use bold instead, even if it is too heavy handed. I really don't know if there is a way to fix this or not but I did want to mention it if there was something that could be tweaked.

Similarly, is there a way to add HTML editing to the blog posts? It would be hugely appreciated if this would be something simple to add. I did not see any options for it. Again if it is not possible I'll learn to deal with it. I'm just used to writing in a word processor where I can indent and justify text to make it easier to read without having to be so aggressive with the hard returns.

 

There are 12 italicized words in the above text. Did you easily see them all from just reading through? I added a spoiler below (hopefully it works) that underlines all the italicized words.

Spoiler

The biggest thing I'm really frustrated with is how the Italics are hardly distinguishable from the non-italicized text in this font. This is also true in the blog post format. In larger blocks of text the italicized virtually disappears so I've had to go and use bold instead, even if it is too heavy handed. I really don't know if there is a way to fix this or not but I did want to mention it if there was something that could be tweaked.

Similarly, is there a way to add HTML editing to the blog posts? It would be hugely appreciated if this would be something simple to add. I did not see any options for it. Again if it is not possible I'll learn to deal with it. I'm just used to writing in a word processor where I can indent and justify text to make it easier to read without having to be so aggressive with the hard returns.

I'm sorry if these seem like unimportant complaints. Being dyslexic these become big stumbling blocks in the speed and level of comprehension that I can read. Even if just adding in the HTML editing options would help because it gives me more editing options like paragraph formatting and possibly could allow me to do some inline CSS editing, opening up a ton of options including changing the font to Times New Roman (the most easy to read font) and adding justified formatting to my DD story blog posts.

With all of that being said, I'm really delighted with the blog option. So thank you hugely for that. 😁

~Sister Kyoya

I too have noticed the italics are practically invisble; I assume it's just a characteristic of the font used. Even the bold barely stands out.

I added the ability to change fonts in the editor and use blockquotes (indents) on desktop only.

I don't think times roman would fit the style of the site. Here is a list of some other fonts we could use. Maybe something here is more appealing.

 

I've also made the observation about italics being hard to distinguish from the rest of the text, and like I mentioned in the other thread, somehow the font is kinda hard for me to read in general. The longer time I spend on the forum reading posts, the letters kinda start blurring together (and especially with the dark theme because the contrast of bright white text on the dark page is very... intense). 

From the font options, "Open Sans" and good old "Helvetica" look the cleanest to me. I'd appreciate it if there was the possibility of going to your user settings and changing the default font of the whole forum. There's the possibility of the forum getting bit messy if different people use different fonts in their posts.

Also, I must say thank you for bringing back the possibility to indent the text! ^^ Just yesterday I struggled with the formatting on my WTB thread because on the old forum I could have indents without the forum making it into a list

• like this
• with the little dots

but I wasn't able to find a setting to get rid of the dots while keeping my text indented. But now with the newly added feature the problem is solved. :3 I like how you can indent multiple times with it, too!

Edited March 25, 2019 by mizya
typos again...

3 hours ago, Averis said:

I added the ability to change fonts in the editor and use blockquotes (indents) on desktop only.

I don't think times roman would fit the style of the site. Here is a list of some other fonts we could use. Maybe something here is more appealing.

I know that it's a very basic font, but I have heard that Arial is actually a dyslexic-friendly font from what I have heard. I can't speak from experience though.

I like Helvetica, Arial, Poppins and Open Sans. I think they are much easier to read and I'm glad you guys brought this up because I was wondering if it was just the screen on the old cintiq i recently got set up being blurry or something. (I'm also on Dark theme) But I think the opinions of those with dyslexia are probably better for choosing which font.

I also just really want to thank you for your patience in general, Averis, you really have been going above and beyond to listen to everything we bring up.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Monty

Verdana or Helvetica please.

I think I like Assistant, Noto Sans, and Arimo best. They seem closest to the current font, but the italicization is easier to see.

I like the current fonts look, the lines really fit the overall look of the site, but I do agree that it's easy to overlook the italics. 

Edited March 25, 2019 by BeyondTime

50 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

I think I like Assistant, Noto Sans, and Arimo best.

Of those three I'd vote Noto Sans. The other two are smaller and hard for me to read because of it. Arimo may be good for an eye test because for me it has that effect where certain letters are bolder than others (I have a lot of astigmatism in one eye).

Verdana and Helvetica are still the easiest for me to read though.

Thanks for setting up the poll!
I find the current default font is harder to read- maybe it's the tighter spacing? Switching to dark theme helps a bit, but I'd love to see Verdana return.

Thank you Averis for giving us some options. I know choosing a font for a site is more challenging than it seems, wanting to balance readability with making everything looking updated. The original font was not bad, I just couldn't figure out why the font creator would design the italics to be so wimpy. 😆

I'm glad someone can use the blockquote, but the type of indent I was talking about is just the first line indent in a paragraph like it is formatted in books.

If it's not possible that's fine. It's just one of my biggest complaint about any blog design. I don't understand why that type of formatting is being eliminated in online publications/publishing along with justified text. I just find it harder to read extensive text without them. Most likely because I used paperback novels to learn how to read larger blocks of text in my fight learning to read before I knew I was dyslexic. So I can learn to deal with the current formatting options but I thought I'd ask just in case it was possible to change them.

I was being a bit of a stinker and there are actually 13 italicized words (not including the spoiler) in my original post. I thought I'd point it out if someone felt like playing hide and seek. 😁

~Sister Kyoya

10 hours ago, Sister Kyoya said:

I'm glad someone can use the blockquote, but the type of indent I was talking about is just the first line indent in a paragraph like it is formatted in books.

After some searching and digging (and fighting with the zip file that wasn't made correctly) I added that function for you. 

Oh my goodness! THANK YOU! 😍 I knew HTML/CSS wise it was totally possible but I had yet to find it in online text editors, even Gmail doesn't have this. 🤬 

Also, thank you for adding the font options. 👍 Thank you so much for all the hard work.

~SK

I didn't know where to put this but I just wanted to say, speaking of the text editor, whoever decided to make common acronyms show up as tool tips is a genius. I absolutely love that. I just noticed it today, excellent feature and I wish every site had it. Thank you hard working staff and mods!

2 hours ago, sunlightandtea said:

I didn't know where to put this but I just wanted to say, speaking of the text editor, whoever decided to make common acronyms show up as tool tips is a genius. I absolutely love that. I just noticed it today, excellent feature and I wish every site had it. Thank you hard working staff and mods!

Pretty sure it was @Averis who gets credit for that.