Did You Notice Something a Little Different?

Nenia wrote: "I haven't been getting notifications for some of the likes and comments I've been getting on my status updates. And I, and some of my friends, are not seeing our friends' reviews showing up in our ..."

I believe this is due to the outage that we just experienced and is not related to the design update. If you are still experiencing notification issues, please let us know!


Athena wrote: "Perhaps a rollback is in order until the issues can be fixed from the GR side? It's nice there's a fix for Chrome users: what about the rest of us? "

We've fixed font rendering issues across the platforms we identified. Are there any other bugs you're experiencing that we should look into?

Fiordiligii wrote: "I am still blinded by the background and really don't like the blurry font. Is there a proper explanation anywhere for this userstyle fix? I tried to open the homepage userstyles.com which is a dom..."

I feel the same way. Part of the reason I liked this site was the readability.

Sonya wrote: "I applied the Stylish Chrome extension with the "goodreads fix" layout and it is now a better user experience. The body text is returned to Georgia, and the title font isn't as murky. It's annoying..."

Thanks for posting this. I just applied it too and it's much easier to look and read GR on Chrome now. There's also one in Black that's very cool looking.

EDIT: This is great, I can even play with the background color :)

Emily wrote: "Nenia wrote: "I haven't been getting notifications for some of the likes and comments I've been getting on my status updates. And I, and some of my friends, are not seeing our friends' reviews show..."

So according to you everything is "fixed?"

The thinness and lightness of the font will be a problem for me ALWAYS. Print companies are using these skinny, unreadable fonts to save on ink costs, which is why I mostly read on an ereader thse days. What printing costs is Goodreads trying to save?

The background is also still way toobright, but this could be because the skinny letters block out less of the brightness.

Truly a case of "fixing" something that wasn't broken. I won't be wasting any more of my time writing free reviews for Goodreads as long as I'm having to squint at thescreen like this--both on my PC and my tablet.

Fiordiligii wrote: "I am still blinded by the background and really don't like the blurry font. Is there a proper explanation anywhere for this userstyle fix? I tried to open the homepage userstyles.com which is a dom..."

You can get to stylish from here:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/de...

(note: even though it says "webstore" in the URL, it's free.)

J.D. wrote: "Karitas wrote: "it's a sort of eye stabing color"

LOL!

Design List
Background color: eye stab white
Font size: subatomic
Font width for sans-serifs: thin enough to blow away in a strong wind
Let..."

Haha! I so hope you're a writer :D

Nancy wrote: "Fiordiligii wrote: "I am still blinded by the background and really don't like the blurry font. Is there a proper explanation anywhere for this userstyle fix? I tried to open the homepage userstyle..."

Thank you Nancy. I figured it out - I am still miffed however that it's MY job to fix something that was perfectly fine. The first thing I did was changing the background colour and font.

Fiordiligii wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Fiordiligii wrote: "I am still blinded by the background and really don't like the blurry font. Is there a proper explanation anywhere for this userstyle fix? I tried to open the home..."

You're very welcome. Those were the first things I did too.

Fiordiligii wrote: "I am still blinded by the background and really don't like the blurry font. Is there a proper explanation anywhere for this userstyle fix? I tried to open the homepage userstyles.com which is a dom..."

I am a total clueless when it comes to things like this and I have chrome. Not sure what browser you use. But I went to the chrome menu-more tools- extensions. On the bottom it says get more extensions and from there i searched for stylish and hit install on the one that says goodreads fix with yesterday's date. Then there is an icon in the top menu bar in the browser. I just opened that and checkmarked where it says goodreads. You can uncheck it easy again.

I am pretty sure that was how I did it, but like I said I am not really good with this stuff.

eta: never mind, you got the answer already. Somehow my posts seem to lag behind, or I type really really slow. :)

I found a Windows setting that may help those who are seeing the font as jagged and blurry. I was only having the issue in Firefox on my Windows 7 machine (IE was clear as a bell and my Mac was also fine, even in Firefox).

I enabled ClearType on my computer and made sure font smoothing was enabled, and it is significantly improved. I can actually read the site now.

This link is helpful: How to disable font smoothing in Windows 7 / 8 -- Note, you want to do the opposite of what the instructions here say, and ENABLE ClearType and font smoothing.

Atunah wrote: "Fiordiligii wrote: "I am still blinded by the background and really don't like the blurry font. Is there a proper explanation anywhere for this userstyle fix? I tried to open the homepage userstyle..."
Hey, I figured it out thanx.:-) and isn't it tragic that we have to do so.

I have long names for my bookshelves, and I think prior to the change you could see some of the name and the amount of books in that shelf, they are sooooooo squished together you can't see all the numbers any more. There is so much wasted space in the margins too.

I'm having a very difficult time reading. It's not blurry, no letters are missing, but the new font is really killing my eyes. Is there any way to choose to go back to the old version?

Does anyone know the name of the old font? Was it Calibre?

Whoever approved these changes deserves a demotion. So, everyone who has used a PC is now a design expert, yeah?

It's just another example of needless change for the sake of change.

Nancy wrote: "Fiordiligii wrote: "I am still blinded by the background and really don't like the blurry font. Is there a proper explanation anywhere for this userstyle fix? I tried to open the homepage userstyle...

You're very welcome. Those were the first things I did too.

"

Nancy, would you happen to know how to add the code to change the sans-serif font to something else in the stylesheet? I don't know enough to do anything but change the color.

Or maybe someone with knowledge can create another version with more options to change? Even better would be the original writer of the userstyle adding more options for us :) Whoever created the nice goodreads themes fix seems more interested in righting what's wrong with the GR issues than the people in charge.

Umm, my rating stars changed to rating squares. Why? T___T

Oh, and I want to add that it's still hard to read on Chrome and Opera. However, when using Internet Explorer the font looks completely different, more readable.

I'm using font changer and stylish I didn't like georgia either.

So I'm having more problems now. I can't seem to post new status updates for the books I'm reading.

Edit: okay, it looked like it did show up after all- but it took 2 minutes.

I'm just blocking the font loader script URL, this way the site reverts to default system fonts - this may be a solution for those who cannot install extensions in their browser (computers at work, etc.) - just block, or ask your system administrator to block any URL that begins with:

https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/resour...-

Hm, the system here crops the URL when displaying it, make sure you copy the link itself, not the address that ends in "..."

I love it so much, it looks so much better and more organised. Also, is it less yellow, or is that just me? Anyway, I can read this without glasses and I still don't get a headache now. It's great :) But maybe add the option to switch back to the old version for those who don't like it?

Just a note: the fonts look fine on a Chromebook, for whatever reason. But on a regular PC, it's still hideously unreadable, especially on the Firefox browser.

I broke down and loaded the Chrome extension and that helped the brightness considerably. Still don't love it but it's soooo much better. At least I can read without my eyes hurting.

Penumbra wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Fiordiligii wrote: "I am still blinded by the background and really don't like the blurry font. Is there a proper explanation anywhere for this userstyle fix? I tried to open the home..."

Yes. Pull down the stylish menu, and you'll see something that says find more styles for this site. Click there, go to "Goodreads Sans-serif." I used that, and I was happy as a clam.

That should help. Now I will warn you that on some things on the gr pages like where it says "you are following this discussion," etc., the font isn't going to change. But you will see a huge difference.

For those trying to go to userstyles.com it's userstyles.org, search for Goodreads and voilà.

I like the font changes for the forum pages / book pages but is there any way that the font can be the same for all pages? It's far too small on profile pages and the updates feed.

Anyone having problems when sending invitations or trying to change your personal settings? I cannot change screen in either app.

Penumbra wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Fiordiligii wrote: "I am still blinded by the background and really don't like the blurry font. Is there a proper explanation anywhere for this userstyle fix? I tried to open the home..."

Apologies. I totally misread your post. I just used goodreads fix and goodreads sans-serif, and I'm very happy.

Thank you for trying, but current fonts are difficult to read (now, I have to focus my eyes so much).

Besides, the font doesn't have Polish letters and reveiews/messages written in the language look funny and even more unreadable.

Holly wrote: "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?..."

...if you haven't already found it I use the one called "goodreads dark theme". It's at the top of the list...my eyes love it!

Iseult wrote: "Holly wrote: "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 userscri..."

How do I get this? ^^

Nancy wrote: "I totally misread your post. I just used goodreads fix and goodreads sans-serif, and I'm very happy.
..."

Thanks Nancy. Fixing the font and color has helped a lot :)

I'm one of the people who's been complaining about how much I hate the new font, but they must have done some work to fix how it appears, because I turned off my Firefox overrides to check and I now see a pretty san-serif font in a lot of places, including the home page feed, and not the jagged, eye-twisting horror I saw for the first 24 hours. It looks to me like the Lato font (see the links in the original post at the beginning of this discussion) is fine for body text but Merriweather is the disaster, it's just should never, ever be use for anything other than titles or headers, it's the eye-twister for anything more than a few words at a time. But as I'm typing this in what appears to be Lato it's kind of a nice san-serif font, which is what I prefer. I have my default font size set quite large and it looks good at that size, I don't know what size it's supposed to be on most pages, probably too small for me.

Stephen wrote: "ATTENTION: I took another screenshot of how broken the font is for some of us. This is what a book's page looks like.

http://postimg.org/image/5wnyrkrad/

Seriously, I cannot read any of the links..."

Just to pass on my sympathies! That is just a mess. Can you change the font for your device and maybe supersede this monstrosity?

Danielle (Danniegurl) wrote: "I have long names for my bookshelves, and I think prior to the change you could see some of the name and the amount of books in that shelf, they are sooooooo squished together you can't see all the..."

Hey Danielle - we pushed a fix for this earlier today. Are you still seeing shelf names squished together? If so, could you send us a screenshot at support at goodreads dot com?

I also don't want to be a hater, as I LOVE Goodreads, but ... I am not hard of sight and this font thing is killing me.

Very small on the profile page, very hard to read in general. Not a fan, sadly.

I do like the new headings, capitalized and without that gradient button background. I really don't see the point of losing the awesome green font color (I loved it) or the circle vs. square profile photos, but I can live with those. The font thing, not so much.

Also, P.S. What happened to the shelves for my currently reading books (on my profile)?

That doesn't seem to be in line with the whole cosmetic change you've promoted this as....

Would like to vote for those back please.

Sebastian wrote: "I'm just blocking the font loader script URL, this way the site reverts to default system fonts - this may be a solution for those who cannot install extensions in their browser (computers at work,..."

Alternatively, if you are using Firefox, enter about:config and set the value for gfx.downloadable_fonts.enabled to false.

This will prevent all sites (not only GR) from forcing their fonts on you. The fallbacks (Georgia and Helvetica in this case) will practically always work.

My initial reaction was that the changes were sleek. I especially like the single colour used for links throughout the page.
BUT now that I am on a different computer, with a monitor of less resolution, the website is almost unusable. The font looks like something from a dot-matrix printer. I now see why so many are very disappointed with the change in font.
An option for font style would be the best solution.

...sight for sore eyes...

I have to view the site at 110-120% zoom to read anything. I'm using Firefox and without the zoom, at 100%, it looks terrible! Thin, faded, skinny fonts that are hard to read. Whatever update there was, it didn't help. This issue is with the serif and non-serif fonts. Before the update, I could get away with putting the site at 80-90% Zoom (so zoomed out and smaller than now) and I could read everything just fine, Not so now!

In Firefox, this usercontent.css can be used as a starting point for repairing at least some of the most obvious problems (no add-on required):

@-moz-document domain(goodreads.com){ 
	a {
		color: #7D6600 !important;
	}
	.mainContentContainer {
		background-color: #FAF8F5 !important;
	}
	#book_description_defaulted {
		font-size: 100% !important;
		color: black !important;
	}
}

Savannah [ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ᴏғ ʜᴀʀᴅsʜɪᴘ ᴄᴏᴍᴇs ʜᴀᴘᴘɪɴᴇss ] wrote: "Iseult wrote: "Holly wrote: "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...."

if you're usin' Firefox or Maxthon, install the Stylish addon, click on the "S" icon and choose "find styles for this site" while being on goodreads

Iseult wrote: "Savannah [ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ᴏғ ʜᴀʀᴅsʜɪᴘ ᴄᴏᴍᴇs ʜᴀᴘᴘɪɴᴇss ] wrote: "Iseult wrote: "Holly wrote: "Iseult wrote: "....not eye friendly at all... not that it was before ... it's a good thing I use Stylish and..."

Thank you very much!

Savannah [ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ᴏғ ʜᴀʀᴅsʜɪᴘ ᴄᴏᴍᴇs ʜᴀᴘᴘɪɴᴇss ] wrote: "Iseult wrote: "Savannah [ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ᴏғ ʜᴀʀᴅsʜɪᴘ ᴄᴏᴍᴇs ʜᴀᴘᴘɪɴᴇss ] wrote: "Iseult wrote: "Holly wrote: "Iseult wrote: "....not eye friendly at all... not that it was before ... it's a good thing I ..."

you're welcome :)

Thanks to all who shared the hint about using the Stylish extension in Chrome; it has made a world of difference! I am using "Goodreads Fix" to reduce the blinding glare and "Goodreads San Serif" to increase the font size a little more. Unfortunately, as some have mentioned, the fix doesn't carry through to the comments box - I'll have to compose in something sleek and trendy like Notepad, then copy it over.

I do hope the Goodreads web designers get this fixed soon; I don't like having to load an extension to fix display issues for a single web site.

Penumbra wrote: "Nancy wrote: "I totally misread your post. I just used goodreads fix and goodreads sans-serif, and I'm very happy.
..."

Thanks Nancy. Fixing the font and color has helped a lot :)"

That's just awesome. You're welcome.

I suppose I'll get used to it, but so far not a fan :(

Dobby0390 wrote: "Thanks to all who shared the hint about using the Stylish extension in Chrome; it has made a world of difference! I am using "Goodreads Fix" to reduce the blinding glare and "Goodreads San Serif" t..."

I love community involvement!

Zadignose wrote: "I now recognize that the redesign was aimed mainly at improving the experience of mobile users. "

Bingo

would be nice if GR would just be honest and admit this upfront.