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Did You Notice Something a Little Different?
UPDATE: Thanks for all the feedback! For those of you who were having issues with blurriness, we have good news: we pushed out an update this afternoon that improves the sharpness of the font for users who were affected. We’re monitoring all the comments and will keep you posted on any further updates.
If you’re a frequent visitor to Goodreads, you've probably noticed a few tweaks we’ve made to the fonts and colors on the desktop site today. Our goal with these small-but-important changes was to consolidate and refresh our visual styles and lay the groundwork for some design improvements that we’re planning in the future.
What’s different?
To enhance the readability of text on Goodreads, we’ve adopted two new open-source fonts. Lato, our sans-serif font, was designed by Warsaw-based designer Łukasz Dziedzic (“Lato” means “Summer” in Polish). Merriweather, our serif font, was created by Eben Sorkin and was designed to be pleasant to read on screens.
To make it easier to scan the page for information you need, we’ve touched up and modernized the design of common page layout elements like section headers, tabs and links.
To simplify and modernize our visual design, we’ve reduced the number of link colors we use, removed gradients from buttons and the site navigation, and applied a more harmonious color palette to interactive elements such as buttons, stars, and links.
Before:
Comments Showing 901-950 of 3,113 (3113 new)
Please change it back. I have great eyesight and I'm struggling with this font - I have a headache from the first couple of minutes of using it. This green is a really poor colour choice for visibility
No one can read this without zooming in. Therefore, change it back and consider scolding whomever thought this was a good idea. First rule of the internet: function over form.
Harder to read. Makes using the site more of a challenge for a senior citizen.
I'm so happy the Ugly Green Button is less hideous that I don't mind anything else at all.
I miss the header bars, I have to say. It was easier to differentiate sections of a page at a glance that way.
Iseult wrote: "....not eye friendly at all... not that it was before ... it's a good thing I use Stylish and turned the entire site dark..."Would love to do the same. Which userscript do you use? (Going over to try to find such now to apply.)
The white hurts my eyes during the daytime especially.
Thank goodness I use f.lux to filter out the blue/green light at night, making it better at night.
I'm trying to reserve judgement but the serif font is TERRIBLE! Very difficult to read and the spacing is so mushed together in the reviews. Are you trying to make it difficult for us to read reviews?I'm fine with the sans serif font and the new color though.
Emily wrote: "Allison Ann wrote: "I could care less about the font but the add author button hasn't worked since you made the change."We have a fix for this issue that will go out later this afternoon! Apologi..."
Good to know, thanks.
I find this harder to read. There's not enough contrast, so things seem to run together on the page. There especially needs to be more differentiation between the link color and the text color. It's hard to tell at a glance which words are links. It's also slightly smaller size, which I don't think is a great choice.
Everything looks blurry now on my screen. Definitely not a good change for someone who's a regular user of the site.
I like the serif, the blue links, the cleaner buttons, but the sans serif is not as easy to read as the old one. It's not as clean, seems cluttered, fatter, smooshed together. The round profile pic is more "like everybody else" rather than new and different.
Overall- ok...ish
Dina wrote: "I liked most of the changes, except the way book titles are shown in the home page:They're "too heavy" on the eyes. A smaller or grayer font would look better, IMHO."
Totally true
Love the new fonts but I wish everything was just a little bigger.
This is not an improvement—it is a step backward. PLEASE reinstate what you had before.
Wow, this is... not good for me. My eyes are killing me. I don't want to be impudent or anything - but could those of us who have a very hard time reading here now, somehow get another option? Or at least the possibility to return to the olf font? Or do something with the colors? Or something? Please? Because this makes me scrunch up my face and my eyes water. I'm having a really really hard time reading anything now,
I have to agree that the font is not a good change. It's hard to define, but I do find it harder on my eyes than the previous one. Also, I would prefer a more standout color (with high contrast) for links such as titles of blog posts and comments and so on. Or maybe underline them? Headers need to have much larger (and bolder, probably) print or colored bars to properly differentiate them from the rest of the page; they currently look smaller than the rest of the print. However, the new set up for comments looks nice--one click to read them instead of the old two clicks.
Finally! I've been waiting for these changes!!! A big thank you, from a Graphic Design student.
I hate it. It hurts my eyes and makes it hard for me to focus on what I am reading. Please can we make it so that we can chose how we want to view it? Please?
I hate it. It looks like a really really old fashioned basic 90's website. The text is so horrible to read that it actually puts me off using GR. It physically hurts my eyes trying to read it. Please go back to the way it was or change it to something different. This was a bad move guys.
Add author functionality should be fixed, as well as font rendering on different browsers. Please add a comment if you're experiencing issues.
meh...it's not a great improvement but I don't hate it either. It will take a bit to get use to it.
no serif-font is good for screen-reading that's why it's cardinal rule not to use any on sites where you read much. Serif fonts are good for books, not for screens.
Note: I'm going to takes a screenshot of this message, I'll upload it in a forthcoming message. I don't know if the screenshot will "capture" the blotchy text and then upload it in picture form, or if your monitors will fill in the gaps the same way it is doing for you as you read this. I guess we'll see.As you can hopefully see, this text is very difficult to read. It is blotchy and "hole-y" on some monitors, and makes the site terribly unpleasant to view. I hope everyone realizes that those of us who are complaining about the font aren't doing so because we don't LIKE it, we are complaining because the font is literally broken and unreadable. Can you read this? The a's look like s's.
asasasasasasas. Also, how many characters do I have left in this message? The numbers are broken!
Decided not to post until I had the image uploaded. This is what it looks like for me. For those of you who are seeing the text fine, please click and tell me if it still looks fine in my screenshot.
http://postimg.org/image/oj9brz1dh/
The Lato font reads much more easily than Merriweather. Ditch the serifs.
message 929:
by
Karlyflower *The Vampire Ninja, Luminescent Monster & Wendigo Nerd Goddess of Canada (according to The Hulk)*
(new)
What is the purpose of turning our photos into circles?! Is this a gear up for facebook app style messaging. I find this new font highly illegible and worry about reading it on smaller devices. It's not as bold on the screen which makes me squint and the words sort of blend together.
The serif font looks better - you did something to get it unfuzzy on my screen! Whoot!
Stephen wrote: "Note: I'm going to takes a screenshot of this message, I'll upload it in a forthcoming message. I don't know if the screenshot will "capture" the blotchy text and then upload it in picture form, or..."It looks horrible Stephen!
I am a little surprised that people find the new font harder to read - on my computer it is a subtle improvement. I like the changes
How are people having problems reading the new font, I'm not, I really like it
Kimberly: Look at my screenshot above in message 978 to see why we are complaining.
The serif found is really hard to read, particularly when it is smaller (like in the sidebars). The font needs to be darker and thicker.The sans serif font is easier to read but still difficult when the font is small.
Also, I really miss the colored header bars in the sidebars because they really helped the eye distinguished the different sections. There really needs to be more contrast.
I miss the old color scheme.
The font isn't more readable, it's too thin, becomes blurry and hurts my eyes (too much effort to focus and distinguish all the lines).
Can you work on the contrast between the comments and reviews? The color difference is really subtle and it is difficult to read. Either a color difference or a line around the review/comments to differentiate them on the main page.
Stephen wrote: "Note: I'm going to takes a screenshot of this message, I'll upload it in a forthcoming message. I don't know if the screenshot will "capture" the blotchy text and then upload it in picture form, or..."Stephen, your screenshot was how I was seeing the site - but in the last few minutes, the serif font seems larger and clear - no fuzz or missing parts of letters. I hope whatever fix Goodreads did works for you, too!
I hte the change. Pls, stop f--ing around.
Heather K (dentist in my spare time) wrote: "Can you work on the contrast between the comments and reviews? The color difference is really subtle and it is difficult to read. Either a color difference or a line around the review/comments to d..."And also contrast between people's names and their comments... like in this message thread...
I think it is great, keep up the great work, I see nothing wrong with it at all. Keep up the great work :D
I wish there was an option for us to choose which ever one we liked better...(I miss some of the contrasts between the background and the subheadings... (8=8)...and the new font is kind of harder to read...)
Linda wrote: "I miss the header bars, I have to say. It was easier to differentiate sections of a page at a glance that way."YES!
I hadn't really noticed, but I like it. Although it doesn't really matter does it? No matter how many people hate it GR isn't going to change it back.
Mine used to look like the one in Stephen's message but now it's better, clearer. But I'm not still sure if it's an improvement, the background is too white and the font while typing too small.
Stephen wrote: "Note: I'm going to takes a screenshot of this message, I'll upload it in a forthcoming message. I don't know if the screenshot will "capture" the blotchy text and then upload it in picture form, or..."Oh no! What browser are you using? Are you still seeing this issue?
Definitely harder to read. Font size looks much smaller and not so clear. As you get older reading small print is that bit harder. I does have a nice appearance -- but too small
The white background and font combo is making my eyes hurt and is giving me a headache...The font itself doesn't bother me but why so small?
And the font seems slightly blurry, off-focus - like I should need the glasses when I don't.