[Python-Dev] Playing with a new theme for the docs, iteration 2 (original) (raw)

Greg Ewing greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz
Mon Mar 26 07:00:34 CEST 2012

Steven D'Aprano wrote:

While I sympathize with the ideal of making the docs readable, particular for those of us who don't have 20-20 vision, "must be readable from halfway across the room" is setting the bar too high.

The point is that reducing contrast never makes anything more readable, and under some conditions it makes things less readable. So the only reason for using less than the maximum available contrast is aesthetics, and whether grey-on-white looks any nicer than black-on-white is very much a matter of opinion.

In any case, the aesthetic difference is a very minor one, and you have to ask whether it's really worth compromising on contrast.

If I'm reading the CSS correctly, the standard font used in the new docs is Lucinda Grande, with a fallback of Arial. Unfortunately, Lucinda Grande is normally only available on the Apple Mac, and Arial is a notoriously poor choice for on-screen text

This seems to be another case of the designer over-specifying things. The page should just specify a sans-serif font and let the browser choose the best one available. Or not specify a font at all and leave it up to the user whether he wants serif or sans-serif for the body text -- some people have already said here that they prefer serif.

-- Greg

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