
Optician Sans – A free font based on the historical eye charts - dcschelt
https://optician-sans.com/
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nivenhuh
Is it just me, or is the gaussian blur effect on the website a bit excessive /
headache inducing?

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Angostura
Cover your right eye. Do you still have the problem? Now try the left.

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gregschlom
I don't understand why anyone would want that. I'd imagine that the eye charts
use characters that are intentionally close to each other, in order to better
measure visual acuity. Just look at how similar the C and the O are, for
example. This font seems like it would make text _harder_ to read, not easier.

~~~
fermienrico
Typography is has subjective aspects such as evoking the feeling of a
particular aspect of design. Just as old western fonts, Art Deco type, and
Baskerville; Optician Sans is a brilliant take on typography. A large number
of people have glasses and at one point or another, we’ve carefully studied
and read the letters on the eye charts, yet it’s so obscure and not something
people think about.

As far as the application is concerned, it can be used for perhaps for a
optical company branding? The recognition factor is a huge asset in branding.

Legibility argument falls apart - otherwise we wouldn't have Zapfino and
Bodoni. In certain situations, legibility takes a backseat over stylistic
intentions. In other cases, yes you're right - I wouldn't want my blood test
results to be misread. Another area where fonts can have devastating effects
is say for example lack of a slashed 0 in nuclear missile launch codes. But we
are in good hands with respect to typography and design for serious things -
the Martin Baker EJECT seat handles in fighter jets don't use comic sans and
they have bright yellow stripes for super fast visual recognition. :-)

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Waterluvian
I think it's interesting that "sans" seems more important to indicate
something is a font, than indicate it has no serifs.

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JackFr
Like US soccer teams with "United" in their names.

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dwighttk
or FC (and I'm an FC Dallas fan)

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dwighttk
Yeah, but it is just all E's!

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all2
I invite you to do a pull request here:
[https://github.com/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee/eeeeeeee...](https://github.com/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee)

with only the E characters of the font. It would be a welcome addition.

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tejtm
alas it ees archived

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amelius
Curious if somebody compressed all existing font designs into a small latent
space, using vector representation. It seems to me that fonts are quite
similar (or can be clustered that way) with a few hard choices on shapes of
characters like "a", "G", and weight, slant.

~~~
CharlesW
You may be interested in "computational typography"[1], "mathematical
typograhy"[2], and "variable fonts"[3].

[1] [http://printingcode.runemadsen.com/lecture-
typography/](http://printingcode.runemadsen.com/lecture-typography/) [2] PDF:
[http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~millerpd/docs/501_Winter08/Kn...](http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~millerpd/docs/501_Winter08/Knuth79.pdf)
[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_fonts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_fonts)

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JdeBP
I enjoyed the mistake in the Alphabet. (-:

That licence almost certainly does not count as "free".

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simens
Haha, typo is fixed! And to clarify licensing, I've updated it to SIL OPEN
FONT LICENSE.

~~~
JdeBP
Brill.

Sometimes WYXZ is a hidden clue in an alternate reality game. Sometimes it is
just an QWERTY typing error. (-:

I hope that M. Krzywinski gave you some inspiration for lowercase.

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deathanatos
Why are the last 3 letters in the alphabet ("Y X Z") out of order?

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daveFNbuck
It seems to be a mistake. The image files are named as being characters 25 and
24 correctly.

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Someone
Some background on the history of eye charts:
[https://ilovetypography.com/2015/07/12/what-are-optotypes-
ey...](https://ilovetypography.com/2015/07/12/what-are-optotypes-eye-charts-
fonts/)

(Found via [http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/snellen-optotype-
font/](http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/snellen-optotype-font/), when searching for a
Snellen font)

~~~
JdeBP
I wouldn't enjoy reading anything using the lowercase letters in M.
Krzywinski's fonts. (-:

I see that xe went back to the original "e" shape in July 2017.

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Palomides
>"LICENSING Feel free to use this typeface on your website, print, startup or
organisation. But don’t be a jerk and distribute or sell the typeface as if it
was your own. A link back to this site from your website would be really much
appreciated! And let us know if you use this typeface for a project you think
we should know about."

this is not a license, people, please just stick the CC license of your choice
on it or something.

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btown
In this case, though, it's likely the creators would be more than receptive to
giving you a legitimate CC-BY license if you ask. They're likely just not
familiar with the CC-BY details. Rather than shaming their work for it, let's
enjoy it with the understanding that there are humans in the loop with the
flexibility to offer bespoke licensing, and licensing will be sorted out if it
needs to be.

~~~
fermienrico
This is not excusable when you're putting out the work and claiming it to be
free to use and later some chap uses it, they get sued because the wording was
vague. There is some level of professionalism and ethics that is required to
avoid nasty situations. Criticism of their wording, lack of license and the
need for adopting existing licenses (don't roll your own license if possible)
is valid.

"Rather than shaming their work for it,.." \- No one is shaming their work. We
are talking about the licensing terms. I love the font concept and I think its
brilliant.

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mcbits
The creators are obviously not interested in suing some chap for using the
font unless he claims it's his own font. And even then, the poorly worded
license would make suing harder, not easier.

People should be able to share their work under common-sense terms without
being sucked into Kafka's swirling cesspool of legalese and bureaucracy. The
demonic inhabitants of that dimension can just... choose not to use it.

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TuringTest
Regardless, any legal department worth its salt will avoid touching this
wording of a license with a ten foot pole. Which means that only hobbyist will
use it.

It would be great if businesses worked on common sense and honor, but that's
not the world we're living in.

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mcbits
The legal department can give advice, but they can't stop the company from
using it anyway. So just ask the legal department: Realistically, how likely
are we to be sued if we use this font according to the most obvious
interpretation of the license as written? (Free to use, but don't take credit
for it.) Listen to the answer, and then apply common sense.

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gamblor956
It's policy at most companies to terminate employees who act against the
express advice of legal department on legal matters (especially where a low-
value asset like a font can trigger high-risk legal exposure). In many
companies, that would even be considered a for-cause termination, meaning no
severance.

So think about it this way: is it worth risking your career over a silly font?
Because common sense in this situation is to just do what Legal says.

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mcbits
So don't use it. Just be clear that it's a self-imposed limitation based on
irrational fantasies and there is little to no actual risk. Back on Earth, the
font's creators clearly gave permission to use it under one simple condition
that would be hard to violate. There's more risk of being sued for using GPL
software because it's easier to violate.

If the font's creators do turn out to be loonies and start filing frivolous
lawsuits, that's an ever-present (small) risk regardless of the license.

~~~
gamblor956
But they didn't give "clearly give permission" (in the original release).
Because they also said "don't be a dick about it" which is an incredibly vague
restriction. Is that limited to claiming ownership of the font? Does that
include using it in military applications? What about criminals?

At any rate, this point is moot since they re-licensed it under a real license
by the time I responded to your comment.

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mcbits
It was already just as "real" as any license, and I'm disappointed that they
caved to the ridiculous people, but it just validates my point that they were
in fact giving permission to use it. The new license is more restrictive about
sales.

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nofunsir
I like it. It would have been nice to include at least the full set of ascii
char glyphs. It seems to be missing a few basic chars such as tilde, gt and
lt.[1]

[1] [https://i.imgur.com/di6oHxV.png](https://i.imgur.com/di6oHxV.png)

~~~
simens
You're right, it's missing some basic characters. Thinking about releasing it
open source to see if anything would like to contribute.

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cgarvis
Odd that the site does not use the font they are proclaiming is better.

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stupidbird
It's better for eye charts, not running copy on websites.

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icameron
One thing I learned from this link is the traditional eye exam charts are from
a set of only 10 characters. Interesting, good to know.

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qwerty456127
Looks beautiful, I'm glad I've found this.

Nevertheless I've been actually click-baited by the post title thinking it's a
font designed for reading efficiency based on eye movement analysis.

What are some fonts actually made to help you read faster, easier and
comprehend more?

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cedex12
This one appeared on hn some time ago:

[https://sansforgetica.rmit/](https://sansforgetica.rmit/)

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tambourine_man
A typography site that breaks it's main headline on mobile is a bit too much
carelessness in my book.

[https://imgur.com/5qcmUg1](https://imgur.com/5qcmUg1)

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simens
Woops! Fixed.

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banku_brougham
After the fourth or fifth tine I’m now realizing that great fonts are the most
work-life enhancing thing I’ve interacted with on Hacker News.

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xena
The G looks exactly like the Google logo.

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simens
Geometric G = Google. Basically. You can always use the alternative G glyph
included in the font!

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purplezooey
Wish they had a monospace version. Doesn't work well as a terminator font, I
tried. heh.

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simens
Great idea! Maybe We'll make that too.

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rbanffy
Looks like a great alternative to Microgramma and its cousins.

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drannex
Finally... I can cheat on my eye exams and get a good grade

Edit: This font is pretty great imo

