

Font Hipsters - Vexenon
http://daringfireball.net/2011/10/font_hipsters

======
Kylekramer
I am trying to figure out how it went from decent looking typeface that kind
of steals from Helvetica
(<http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/18/robotica>) to a Helvetica ripoff
([http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/19/roboto-v-
helveti...](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/19/roboto-v-helvetica))
to a ripoff of four different fonts
([http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/19/roboto-
typograph...](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/19/roboto-
typographica)) [1] to an "ungainly, homely, unharmonious" system font that
makes Daring Fireball look bad on Android (original article). I know Gruber
claims he wants Android to have an attractive font, but it certainly doesn't
feel like he does.

1: Once you are apparently incorporating four difference fonts as influences,
aren't we in the realm of originality?

~~~
Stratego
If you define originality as a clumsy patchwork of existing pieces.

~~~
vogonj
Roboto may be clumsy, but it's far from a patchwork of existing pieces. (if
you look, _really look_ , at those comparison charts, you'll notice that even
the "frankensteined" source fonts have significant differences from the Roboto
glyphs they inspired, in weight, shape, and proportion. the bar on the capital
Q looks nothing alike, for the most blatant example.)

it's not the case that Roboto is a ripoff of an existing face, or even four
existing faces (for the special case of "an existing face" == Helvetica, I
posted about this at length here at my blog, complete with ranting and bad
photoshops: [http://http204.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/all-sans-serifs-
are-...](http://http204.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/all-sans-serifs-are-not-
alike/)). it _is_ the case that it's a product of its times and took
inspiration from faces which already existed -- because if you create a font
from scratch, intentionally trying to do only things which have never been
done before, you're likely to end up with something completely unreadable.

that said, to me, it's super unrefined, chunky, and challenging to read --
it's outright broken at small sizes (and, thus, on low-DPI displays) where
letters blob out around the edges due to poor hinting.

I'd much rather they just bring back Droid Sans. :(

------
hexix
Can someone please explain daring fireball to me? Every single post appears to
be about how great Apple is. That can't seriously be the blog, can it? Why
would people read this?

~~~
bradleyland
What makes DF interesting (or at least relevant) is that John Gruber tends to
think like Apple does (as a collective). Steve Jobs even went so far as to use
Gruber's rationalization during the iOS vs Flash debacle as an example of a
well reasoned argument.

The short version is: Gruber is a good read if you want to know what Apple is
thinking.

~~~
resnamen
His columns are almost always written about Apple's actions either in
hindsight or in the very near term future, but he makes very few predictions
or longer-term insights.

------
nextparadigms
I find the Roboto font looks great.

[http://androidspin.com/2011/10/19/miui-theme-itching-for-
the...](http://androidspin.com/2011/10/19/miui-theme-itching-for-the-roboto-
font-for-miui/)

Does Gruber have an urge to pick on everything Android does to make himself
feel better about iOS? I think Android 4.0 brought a lot more improvements
than iOS 5 did, but I guess he just has to find something to pick on.

~~~
greyish_water
It's almost like people who aren't you can have different opinions than you.

