Re: [PATCH RFC] Documentation: typography refresh

[Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@gmail.com>]

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On Thu, Jun 19, 2025 at 12:12:38AM -0700, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> Hi Bagas,
> 
> On 6/18/25 9:23 PM, Bagas Sanjaya wrote:
> > The reason why serif fonts is used for headings in complement to sans
> > serif in text body is to break up visual monotony of docs page by
> > creating contrast between headings (as entry point to docs information)
> > and text body, which is important considering that kernel docs are
> > quite lengthy with many sections.
> 
> It's interesting that mediawiki chose to split the serif and sans serif
> usage this way. Newspapers essentially do the opposite: use sans serif
> for headlines (mostly, not consistently) and use serif for body text.

IMO I found that sans-serif is more pleasant to eye (i.e. lesser strain)
than Times New Roman on screen. My htmldocs build now uses Google Sans
Display and Roboto Mono, though (as web fonts).

> 
> 
> Have you read "The Psychology of Computer Programming"?
> [https://geraldmweinberg.com/Site/Programming_Psychology.html]
> The content is very good but (at least in early editions) it was printed
> completely using a sans serif font (probably Helvetica). It's not a
> long book and I found the subject very interesting, but it took me
> forever to read it because it's (or was, don't know about the later
> editions) in sans serif typeface. I hated that part of it.

I didn't read it, unfortunately, due to financial constraints.
(Oh, and in Indonesia where I live people usually shop things online
at Shopee, Tokopedia, and Lazada [my go-to marketplace] instead
of Amazon.)

> 
> So I applied this patch and tested it. It works as far as I can tell.
> I got tons of sans serif font text instead of serif font text that I
> don't care for. (I don't mind that the sidebar text is sans serif.)

I keep the headings on sidebar in sans-serif. Also, the body text is
darkened (but not completely black) to give contrast between docs
body and sidebar.

Thanks.

-- 
An old man doll... just what I always wanted! - Clara

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