Thread:Talk:Wikimedia Foundation Design/Typography/Notes for any potential font stack deployment

Hi. I'd like to offer some feedback, for the hypothetical/potential future case where a default font stack is deployed cross-Wikimedia. Particularly given the font-agnostic position that the communities are used to.

I'd recommend/suggest:


 * 1) Document everything. Preemptively answer every possible objection and concern, and acknowledge every possible drawback.
 * 2) Preview preview preview. Give the communities a preview, with a clickable personal-test link, so that they can find problems, before full deployment. Ala https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Skin&useskin=cologneblue
 * 3) Build in an opt-out.

To elaborate, here are some notes:

I [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User%3AQuiddity%2Fvector.css&diff=568871977&oldid=567768363 changed my vector.css] to use a few of the changes in [//git.wikimedia.org/commitdiff/mediawiki%2Fcore.git/e96f6e56034ebd3776e83add68c4540e1f286758 the experimental diff from jrobson] (more details in [//lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/design/2013-August/000815.html this design-l post]). I realize what I saw (and screenshot) isn't close to what the final result would be (as I only used a subset, and the other stylesheets were still interfering, and it's experimental-code to begin with, (plus I'm on Ubuntu...)); However, this is something-like what I would see, if the change happened without any notification:
 * http://imgur.com/a/gYlgU#0


 * 1 = my usual
 * 2 = new font-stack
 * 3 = my usual (popups)
 * 4 = new font-stack (popups)

I've seen "my usual" for 8 years. I'm very used to it. Therefore this change would aggravate the heck out of me. The changes in my watchlist are even more pronounced. Increased density, increased squinting.

If this happened, I (both personally, and as a representative-editor) would go looking for an explanation, and I'd want/hope/expect to find 2 things:
 * 1) A clear page describing the benefits and testing that was done, across all languages/projects, across all browsers/platforms, and across all licencing options.
 * 2) A preferences switch, so that if I'm still not satisfied (after reading the explanatory page, and being implored to try it out for 48 hours to give acclimatization a chance), I can switch back to my browser/OS defaults.

(Possibly the work on LESS, will make it less-complicated to offer an opt-out? Hopefully a detailed page explaining the benefits, including closeups of specific problems that a consistent/specific typeface choice will fix, will make the vast majority of editors like me, choose not to opt-out. (Though I should be a pushover - I read typography blogs for fun, and really ought to update my browser default...)

Hope that helps.