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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.
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Comments Showing 251-300 of 3,113 (3113 new)
message 251:
by
Kikki
(new)
Dec 15, 2015 11:07AM
My eyes hurt from trying to read this font. Its really blurry and hard to read >~< I don't mind any of the other changes but how am I supposed to be on a website that makes my eyes hurt after trying to read anything on here? Could you please change the font back? Pretty please?
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The font is truly terrible. For example, I cannot see that my "f"s and "t"s are crossed as I type this. I hope this is a prank.
This font is impossible to read. Literally, I cannot read it at all. The lowercase ts have no cross-bars. The vowels don't connect. Please change this font. It is unreadable.
MrsJoseph wrote: "HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE"I completely agree. What is this font? Why would they change a perfectly good font?
Like the new layout, not a big fan of the new font.
aaa, ok I guess :) still looks lovely, but can you make it a bit bigger? I wear glasses and I st ill have trouble reading it, it is so small :)
Spinster wrote: "Overall I like the change in general, it does make the site look a bit more fresh and modern so great job there, but I do have to complain about the font like many others. It's broken and blurry on..."Thank you for the screenshot! We are looking into this.
Rainbowheart wrote: "The Listopia lists are still not working! Impossible to add books. I've tried on three different ones, and no luck."
We're actively working on this. Thank you for reporting!
Emily May wrote: "I think the new colours are fine. The font, while ugly, I will probably get used to. But PLEASE give the borders and headings back. I think it looks awful. If I came onto the site for the first tim..."
Hey Emily - thanks for posting. Can you point to any specific places where the lack of borders is a problem? If that's "everywhere," it would be helpful to get a short list of the areas where it seems to be most problematic for you.
My home page is now blank, it no longer displays book discussions
I like everything but the font. It's a bit of a strain to read.
It probably varies a lot by browser, but the thinner stroke parts of the serif font disappear on screen, so that it looks like parts of the letters are missing or erased (e.g, I'm typing this comment right now using Firefox on a laptop and I cannot see the cross strokes on the lowercase "t"s. It makes the font look like it's fading in and out. They are more legible after posting, but the font still looks like it's faded/erased in many spots.
I'm all about supporting changes and making improvements but this is terrible! It's much harder to read. I feel like the printer just ran out of toner. Please change back immediately. I'm going to go blind trying to look at GR!#EYESTRAINISNOTCOOL
Haha, absolutely a eye killer and far from professional design.
It's bad for the eyes and having in mind we are here because er LOVE to READ I think it was I good idea gone wrong. Please go back! I don't have to get used to it!
All the letters are blurry and half-there. I can barely see them to type this. So I guess no more writing reviews.
Emily wrote: "Nikki wrote: "No. This font KILLS usability. It's impossible to read! Pieces of letters are MISSING unless I zoom in on the page. Please, please, PLEASE. For the love of all that is holy (or even j..."Just emailed. Thanks for listening, Emily!
Goodreads has been long overdue for a design overhaul, I'm so glad this is happening!
I prefer the way it was before...I think it is harder on the eyes now, rather than easier.
Don't mind the colors but the font looks really blurry to me! Sorry to be negative, but not a fan :/
Alysa wrote: "Oh no. Font is TERRIBLE. Shows up kind of blurry-ish? Hurts my eyes :(
(using Firefox on desktop & laptop)"
I'm also using Firefox (On a desktop. And the Windows 7 operating system to be more precise.) And certain letters don't even look like they're in English! Which begs the question, how are people who write in a language other than English adjusting to this?
Awful font, impossible to read, the letters have bits missing. Typing in this comment box I have to guess what I've written - a "t" looks like an "l" because it is missing the stroke across. When I use the preview to see what I've written an "e" turns into a "c".Why should we have to change internet browser to make a site legible? If that is the case.
I love goodreads but for a site for those who love reading to switch to an illegible font is beyond the pale.
I don't like the new font at all! It lacks the elegance of the original font.
This is officially the worse update ever. It looks terrible
Dorte wrote: "Sometimes these GR critics ridiculously over-reach. This is absolutely fantastic."Not being able to easily read the text is a bit of a problem to me. It's a bit better when I tried Chrome but I want to use Firefox. I can't even comment on any other changes because I rather not look at the screen at all becauce half is missing from some of the letter, like c and e look exactly the same. And H looks like l l, or A like V upside down.
The font is very difficult to read (on Chrome). It looks blurry to me and the links are not that easy to distinguish any more.
For the people who think it looks good, what browser are you using and what type of device?I've tried on both desktop and laptop on IE, Firefox, and Google Chrome.
this is pretty terrible....everything is difficult to read now. certain portions of text are appearing smaller than they used to, the regular body font is too thin to make reading very comfortable (text appears too light and weirdly blurred on the screen).just awful. please make it so we can switch back to classic view.
This font is not the best choice, it is very difficult to read. The letters seem like they are smooshed together and I can't read anything.
The changes in design are hard to judge (probably something I'll get used to), but as others pointed out the font is very hard to read: fuzzy, and some parts of letters (for example the top of letters "e, a") simply disappear, making reading a lot of guesswork.
The "t's" in your new font don't look like t's at all, they lack the horizontal line. Actually, it's very hard to read. ¬¬Besides, I'd would think that goodreads would have lots of other areas to improve before the font. Do you think you could maybe allow half stars in this century?
Emily wrote: "Hey Nici - can you send us a screenshot at support at goodreads dot com, along with the information on what browser you're using?"I just did that. I sent you two emails because I forgot to add that I use Google Chrome. But I won't be writing any more comments because I can't read what I write. t, f and l look just the same to me so sorry for any spelling mistakes.
I feel dizzy just from reading a few comments. This font is not working for me at all. I also don't like blue but getting a headache from reading 2min on this site is the more pressing issue right now.
The layout is much smoother, with the blocks with text in them. But the text does come off as a bit fuzzy. In all, I like it.
the more i read this new font, the harder it gets. so frustrating. -.-very not easy on the eyes
Sarah wrote: "Awful font, impossible to read, the letters have bits missing. Typing in this comment box I have to guess what I've written - a "t" looks like an "l" because it is missing the stroke across. When I..."If you're seeing parts of letters missing, would it be possible for you to send us a screenshot to support at goodreads dot com and include the browser that you're using? We'd really like to look into this.
Hate it.Green is a terrible color for display like this.
And why is it so blurry?
Please change it. You can do better if you try.
I agree with the people who said that this font is dreadful. Certain parts of the letters are so thin it's confusing for my eyes to read anything now. I just don' see why this would help with making things more legible, to me it is the exact opposite.
I like the coloring changes, makes me want to actually read what's written. the problem is???? I can't because it's blurry and hurts my eyesight. change the policy back. PLZ
The layout is okay but the font is actually more difficult to read. It looks kind of... faded? Hard to focus on. Sorry, not a fan.
Yeah, the more I look at it, the worse the eye strain. The layout and colors are fine -- no problem -- except for the super-bright white background. Also causing eye-strain.
But the font situation is truly dire. I won't be able to use the site anymore if this is not resolved, and I'm a pretty heavy daily user.
message 295:
by
✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans)
(new)
HATE HATE HATE!!!! Blurry, can't read anything, can't see what I'm typing. What were you thinking?????!!!!
Emily wrote: "... Nesrin wrote: "Maybe it's Chrome, but the font looks broken on GR now!The Lato font is okay it seems, but the main font, Merriweather, is BS!"
What do you mean by "broken?" Would it be possible for you to add a screenshot? ..."
Well, the small T's look like L's for example... as do the small F's!
Not to mention the small E's, which look like small C's...
http://s48.photobucket.com/user/PinkP...
or better yet here...
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f22...
I would like it if it made it easier to read. But honestly, this is by far the worst font I've ever had to read. It makes my eyes strain, and it's all blurry.
Font is too small and faint. Very difficult to read. Clearly the people who designed this have much younger eyes than I do.
Emily wrote: "Spinster wrote: "Overall I like the change in general, it does make the site look a bit more fresh and modern so great job there, but I do have to complain about the font like many others. It's bro..."There is no border around the review on the individual review page and it looks very strange.
On the profile page, there is no different colour heading and border around each section. I think it was supposed to make it look neater, but in my browser (Firefox), the sections aren't clearly marked so they all blend into one.
The review page looks horrible. I liked the box. Now it's just floating there in a sea of white. You need to put borders back in. That space needed an anchor. It's floating. I hate it. I wouldn't have a problem with the fonts if not for the lack of defined space between comments and the background is just too white. It hurts the eyes.
