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

Mon Mar 26 06:22:30 CEST 2012

On 3/25/2012 8:37 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> For what it's worth, it wouldn't surprise me if the problem is the
> fallback font. 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
> (particularly in smaller text sizes).

Testing in LibreOffice, I think Ariel may be easier as it has a 
consistent stroke width, whereas Lucida has thin horizontals. It does 
look a bit more elegant, though. In any case, Ariel seems to be the 
basic text font I see in Firefox and Windows help and I have no problem 
with it.
The particular entries I have discussed are class="reference internal"
There have light serifs. Testing in LibreOffice, it seems to be Courier 
New. It was previously Courier New 'bold'. I put that in quotes because 
Courier New is a 'light' font, so that the 'bold' is normal relative to 
Ariel. In other words, Courier bold matches normal Ariel in stroke 
weight, so that is looks right mixed in with Ariel, whereas the Courier 
light is jarring.
In a sentence like "this returns False; otherwise it returns True. bool 
is also a class, which is a subclass of int" False, True (which use 
light-weight black rather than light-weight blue Courier), bool, and int 
all stand out (or stand in) because they have a lighter stroke weight as 
well as a different (serif versus non-serif) font. These are important 
words and should not be made to recede into the background as if they 
were unimportant and optionally skipped. To me, this is backwards and 
poor design.
False,false are marked up like this:
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>
bool,in are like so:
<a class="reference internal" href="#int" title="int">
Does the css specify Courier New or is this an unfortunate fallback that 
might be improved? Perhaps things look better on max/*nix?
-- 
Terry Jan Reedy