Did You Notice Something a Little Different?

I compared how it looks in Chrome against Internet Explorer. The appearance is far worse in Chrome. The font is smaller, and fainter, as so many people are saying in the comments here.

Chrome doesn't like this update, guys!

I shouldn't have to change browsers or my computer settings for one site. Get it working properly for them all. I refuse to use that POS IE and Firefox doesn't work on my computer. Chrome is all I use and I'm quite happy with it. Well, until Goodreads decided to change their font. It sucks. It's gray, tiny, fuzzy and hard to read. It gives me a migraine.

Not sure what was supposedly updated, but still looks darn bad to me in terms of fonts. Plus lack of section header backgrounds or borders so it's much harder to scan, some links in regular text color making it unclear they're links, lack of a tabbed look so it feels that it takes just a little bit more attention to click in the right place and so on. Gah!

I looooooooove it. Everything looks so much cleaner now! I may be biased though - I have a thing for small fonts. Feel so bad for everyone that doesn't like it - maybe having more personal customization, like fonts and font size would be a future improvement?

Please return to the previous layout. Why not let the users customize their individual views?

ņ - http://i.imgur.com/yb5i6p7.png

LOVE the new change!!!

I don't really like it right now, but that's probably just because I was really used to the previous look & fonts. Let's see how used to it I get in a few weeks.

These changes give the site all the layout design and readability of a newspaper page from 1887.

Can I ask why is the font and size different when typing? That is still giving me a headache. And I asked this yesterday too, why is the font size different depending on where we are in Goodreads?

HATE IT!!! If it's not broken don't fix it. Prefer the old look

I'm not sure why everyone else says the font is too small - I find it too large.

But thanks for the update Goodreads. You guys are great. :)

Lisa wrote: "Update on my Stylish fix. On reading the comments, I've changed the main font back to Georgia, which I believe was the original body font Goodreads was using. You can get the fix here: https://user..."

Thanks so much! I just did and my headache is now gone! I think it was that white and the font together that made it so awful. Is there a fix for the comment/review boxes now?

The dialog boxes are too light and it's harder to read for me. I don't like it. Is there a way to adjust the contrast and font?

Radu wrote: "I don't really like it right now, but that's probably just because I was really used to the previous look & fonts. Let's see how used to it I get in a few weeks."

I'll be blind by then...

I'm not technically minded but maybe it's because I'm a chrome user that I'm finding this hard to see. I don't know. There is nothing technically wrong - blurring etc - but I really have to squint after a tiny while of reading. It is much harder to read than before. :( Sorry

I am just guessing here, but I would be willing to bet that most of the Readers that are in love with the new changes are *very* active on other social media sites - this is just more of what they're used to.

As for the vast majority of complaints, simply toning down/changing the background color would go a long way in improving the sites readability and usability. That one change would be the most useful right now, and has been being asked for since the first hour this change has been available.

I know that GoodReads (and Emily in particular) has been working hard on improving this update for all of the users, and I want to give a huge Thank You for working so hard over the holiday season for us.

But if I could request (again) one thing to focus on, it is this background. It is painful, and inconducive to reading. Thank you again, and hope to see this soon!

I love the new look; nothing is blurry and the type seems a bit larger, and thus easier to read. (I use microsoft's internet explorer). My print is black (not blue).

It's even blurrier now, with font that makes some letters look splotchy. I do not like it. It doesn't look like Merriweather at ALL.

This font hurts my eyes. Please add an option to revert back to old theme.

You have to take into consideration all this complaint about this change.

New fonts gives me a different story on each display:

60" plasma fullHD - fantastic readability improvement, stunning
27" LCD monitor by LG - a little better then before
27" LCD monitor by AOC - visibly worse then before, thin, jagged letters - ugly and hard to read
19" LCD monitor by Siemens - acceptable, like before

but code page 1250 accented letters are horrible, different sized, looks like bold is even worse - very badly designed font for international usage - sometimes cheap (free) things simply worth as priced (nothing).
Forgotting how many non-english stuff lays here is irresponsible from GR.

Generally I will give 5 stars to intention and one to realisation.

And yes, it is much, much more important to return me back to exact spot from whom I clicked on the hyperlink instead to a home page after 124 pages of scrolling then to change font.

Wasn't there a typography rule "never use sans-serif font for a main text" ??

I like the change in theory, but I do find the font harder to read. Even when it is sharp and clear, it still seems blurry, and trying to force something to focus when it already is makes my eyes hurt and gives me a headache. It is a pretty font, just not particularly user-friendly.

Looks great! Thanks!

Love a lot of the new changes, but the font being used for comments and quotes (possibly more, I haven't done extensive exploring yet) is really much harder to read!

I just posted how I hate this but just opened up Goodreads in Internet Explorer-totally different, looks good. Terrible in Chrome though.

E.L. wrote: "I like the change in theory, but I do find the font harder to read. Even when it is sharp and clear, it still seems blurry, and trying to force something to focus when it already is makes my eyes h..."

Exactly this!

I think it looks really nice now! I definitely like it

A lot of people who use Chrome have complained that this font is hard to read. Well I use firefox, not Chrome, and I have to squint, too. Not because the font is too small, the size is fine, but the glow of the white background is glaring at my face. Now please don't change the background, just undo whatever change makes it more noticable. It's really too straining to read now!

Your new Font lacks sharpness.
It's not unreadable... but headache inducing.

For the rest, don't like, don't dislike.

HATE IT!!! Restore Goodreads back to the original way it was. I have bad eyesight.

Actually, when I go to My Books, the titles for books and shelf names are super tiny. This can't be intentional?

Please bring back the old font, the new one is very hard to read - too thin and blurry! None of the changes actually improve anything, they just make it worse.

Sorry, but for something that's meant to be an improvement this is really a step backwards. The font is thin and small and much more difficult to read. Combined with the lack of grey and the all-caps in the headers it's made the layout a lot less readable because it's a lot harder to distinguish the different sections from each other.

Because of the smaller font and the lack of grey there also appears to be a lot more white on each page, and the combination of all the white and the tiny, thin font is kind of giving me a headache, like it apparently is some other people. My eyes tend not to behave at the best of times, and they're really not liking this. (For another example of how going in this direction might not be a good idea, see the LiveJournal redesign debacle of 2012-2014.)

The choice of blue/dark teal over green for links is also not a good one, because this colour it's a lot harder to distinguish from the non-linked text. With the green it was immediately obvious when there was a link. I understand wanting to choose only one colour, but please stick with the green in this case.

Love it!!

I'm using Firefox, and I'm having no trouble with missing letters, or with being able to tell the difference between an "f" and a "t", but then again, I haven't updated it. It also doesn't hurt my eyes, and it isn't hard to read. I just don't really like this new font, or the new teal color. I'm using a Macbook, by the way.

Haters gonna hate. :-)

Me, I think this is the perfect revamp. It doesn't break the previous layout in any significant way so it serves the transition very well. Good font choice as well. All in all, the breather of fresh air the website needed.

Keep up the great work!

Love the new font. Looks clean, modern, and brighter!

It looks beautiful! People just don't like it because it is new and they have to adjust. But, it's lovely to me. Keep it up Goodreads!!

*sigh*
I miss some of the things from the old Goodreads...(-_-)

After last night's update, the Marriweather font does look marginally better, but I'm still finding it hard to read on Firefox; it's not as jagged, but still blurry around the edges. I can already feel a headache developing, and I've only skimmed one paragraph.

The Lato font looks okay, except that wherever it appears, it's usually much smaller than that rest of the text (and thus difficult to read, to the point of eyestrain). I can zoom in to 150%, but that makes everything else ginormous in comparison. Please consider reducing the gap between the smallest and largest sized fonts.

Also, the font on the "currently reading" section of the main page is very thin and faint.

I won't threaten to quit Goodreads entirely over these changes (though I certainly don't blame those who have), but I'll be forced to keep it to the bare minimum if I have to down a bottle of Excedrin every time I visit. Yesterday I found myself trying to pop onto Goodreads multiple times, only to remember that I'd closed the tab to prevent myself doing just that. It's a shame, because I find the site immensely helpful. Simple design changes I can handle, but the new fonts have made it unusable for me.

Lauren wrote: "It looks beautiful! People just don't like it because it is new and they have to adjust. But, it's lovely to me. Keep it up Goodreads!!"

No. It has been said millions of times that some have trouble with their eyesight, and the new font also gives several people a headache. It's not a matter of adjusting for everyone, when they can't even read the site without getting sick!

Is it possible to make the font a little bolder? I think that would help a lot.

To all they people that are loving the change, please stop saying that the rest of us don't like it because we don't like change. It's a legitimate problem especially for those with bad eyesight. And it appears that the problem is the type of browser each person is using. So it's not all in our heads and we're not protesting just because it's different.

Karen wrote: "Is it possible to make the font a little bolder? I think that would help a lot."

Yeah, by going like this.
Joking, yeah, I agree, that would be helpful.

Hi! The new style in general looks great, but the problem with the fonts is because of Chrome (and Chromium based browsers) on Windows, where it renders too thin and blurry. I guess OSX/Linux users are not having this problem. On this screenshot you can see Firefox on the left (looks good) and Chrome on the right (blurry, washed and harder to read), both on Windows 8.1. This is a known problem with Chrome and similar on Windows, some sites are just impossible to read because of the awful rendering, but there's probably similar fonts that look nice everywhere or maybe some specific CSS property to solve this.

The font combined with the extremely white background hurts my eyes and makes my head hurt. I think if the background was less.... bright, it may make things a bit easier on people's eyes/head. Just a thought.

Ruben wrote: "Hi! The new style in general looks great, but the problem with the fonts is because of Chrome (and Chromium based browsers) on Windows, where it renders too thin and blurry. I guess OSX/Linux users..."

Oh, now I understand what everyone is talking about. That is bad.

I like the change. Much easier for me to read!

This seems to be the pattern for comments:


"Horrible"
"Hate it!"
"Boo!"
"MY EYES!"
"Love it! Way to go, Goodreads!"
"Here is some helpful information regarding the change, completely describing the problems in a clear manner, also including a screenshot so you can further see what I mean."
"GAH HEADACHE! CHANGE IT BACK!"

I agree that it is difficult to read. It makes me feel like I need glasses, which I don't currently need. The letters appear blurry and I feel the need to squint as I look at the site.

I appreciate the push toward modernization and change, but unfortunately this font is difficult. :(