
Georgify: Hacker News meets beautiful typography - tuhin
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ofjfdfaleomlfanfehgblppafkijjhmi
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lwhi
I like this, but there's a lot of white space .. perhaps too much. Maybe a
more compact view would be useful?

Like others have said, the grey is too pale.

EDIT: It would be nice if the layout made use of columns .. this could provide
innovative use of wide-screen resolutions.

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quinndupont
I agree, far too much white space.

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trotsky
A bug here: <http://img852.imageshack.us/i/hngeorgify.png/#> (fixed image
link)

The parent post is being shown as a reply to a peer and not the post it
actually replied to. Seemed like normal threading until I noticed the reply
was older than the grandparent.

~~~
tuhin
Surprised since the only change I did was add padding to the top and bottom.
Wonder how that changed threading. I am not using one line of JS for this.

Any suggestions as to what could be causing this?

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rnadna
I like the idea, and there are several aspects of the georgify format that are
pleasing. My main comment is that there is far too much vertical whitespace.
The compactness of hn is pleasant to the eye, and it lets readers scan
headlines quickly. A little tweaking will prevent readers from having to
scroll so much.

~~~
dasil003
It's easy enough to add generous whitespace and make a design instantly more
elegant and viscerally appealing, but when you are trying to extract value
from information there is something to be said for information density.

This is my beef with the new Sparrow Gmail client on OS X as well. When I open
up Gmail in Chrome I can see 33 messages at once (40 once I scroll). By
contrast Sparrow shows me 13 (always utilizing the full vertical of the
screen). Now arguably it presents them in a better fashion (although the label
display is lacking, but I digress), but is it worth sacrificing 2/3rds the
visibility? Not with my email volume.

Granted, information density is less important for HN, but then so is
aesthetic appeal (the last thing I want is more people joining HN because it
has an elegant appearance).

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tuhin
This is my first every public release of such a thing! So please be gentle and
do give any feedback that can improve the extension.

~~~
edu
Congratulations, it's a really nice work.

I'd do just two small changes:

First, the comment's points are important and right now are hard to
read/notice.

Second, I'm not a designer, but I've always heard you shouldn't use black typo
on white background as it's a little bit to hard contrast, it's better to use
a (very) dark grey on the type.

~~~
edu
I just notice the vertical rhythm between paragraphs in comments is not
constant, see:
[https://img.skitch.com/20110405-q2a81di6ew4gi1fcrckna6dwft.j...](https://img.skitch.com/20110405-q2a81di6ew4gi1fcrckna6dwft.jpg)
the 1st and 2nd line and much closer than the rest.

I'm using Chrome 10.0.6.648.204 on OS X.

~~~
tuhin
Yes, that is an issue I am looking to fix. Basically has got to do with HN
markup being the ugliest thing I have seen. Tables all along with no classes
and whatsoever. So targeting is a pain in the ass.

Will see if using pseudo class for first element helps me out.

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jjcm
Some thoughts:

1.) There's a lack of contrast in the page. A visited link is the same color
as a comment that is rated < 0.

2.) The up/down vote arrows are visually far away from the name of the user.
Knowing the context of who's saying something can mean the difference between
a troll post and an insightful one.

3.) The page is no longer fluid. While this is more preference than an actual
issue, I think that a fixed width format is detrimental for those of us who
have widescreen monitors (or for those of us who like to tile our windows in
small patches).

4.) Whitespace. There's a lot of it. Without your plugin, I can see all of the
articles on the front page in ~1400px. With the stylesheet patch, it's about
3x that. I visit HN a lot, and will click on just about every story. As such,
when I'm done reading HN all of the links have changed color. When I visit it
later in the day, I can at a glance see every story that's new. Sometimes I
have it autorefresh every few minutes on a separate monitor, and keeping
everything concise allows me to do that.

Those are my thoughts. At this stage I'd say that it's pretty, but not yet
functional. Work on the functional portion and I'll keep this plugin
installed. Great work, keep it up!

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tuhin
An update has been posted that solves some of these issues (2, 4).

(3) Fluid has a deterimental effect at lengthier line span (when it exceeds
50-60 chars). Hence limited at 700 px.

(1)On HN visited links are read emails for me. Hence they are of not much use
and thus same treatment as the dead link.

Also it is funny since the reason most people gave for requesting flushing
commenter's name to left was that they upvote or downvote with help of
points/commenter's name! Atleast that was my interpretation. I had thought of
the exact opposite reason and hence put it in right earlier. Upvote should
have nothing to do with who said it or how many points it has already
received.

~~~
jjcm
_"Upvote should have nothing to do with who said it or how many points it has
already received"_

Not necessarily. While I'll agree with that the current score of the comment
should have little to do with your vote, who said it is necessary for context.
Consider this hypothetical comment:

"The backend code behind the current search functionality at google is
absolutely horrible. The search ranking algorithm is pathetic to say the
least."

Had this been said by an SEO guy or an employee of yahoo/bing, I'd have
downvoted the comment. However, if it were a comment by Matt Cutts
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Matt_Cutts>), it presents itself in a
whole different context. It's no longer a flamewar comment, but rather an
admittance of areas where someone/something needs to improve.

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ck2
Could you make just a stylesheet for Stylish users?

<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/stylish/>

[https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/fjnbnpbmkenffdnn...](https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/fjnbnpbmkenffdnngjfgmeleoegfcffe)

~~~
tuhin
Yes, will be putting the CSS on Github later in the day.

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ck2
Note that stylish has a repository too, so people can easily find it by site.

<http://userstyles.org/styles/browse/all/news.ycombinator.com>

So be sure to submit it there too, I will definitely try it.

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nyellin
The grey color for a:visited is too light. I have to strain my eyes to see it.

edit: Also, the extra space in comment-headers is wonky. And even with my
nitpicking, great job!

~~~
tuhin
Normally you would not want to see that. I do not want to see it atleast.

Also that makes the URLs work as an Inbox/Unread badge for me. With what I can
see as the unread ones I need to read before the end of day.

Will tweak it a bit though. Also different screens with different color gamut
make it troublesome in corner cases.

edit: The comments whitespace treatment is next in line on by issue list.

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tomlin
I like it. A little off topic, but the Google Chrome Extensions that override
CSS get my brain thinking about something like this on a different scale. For
instance, could someone build complete Facebook or Twitter face-lifts? If it's
possible, the consequences of that permutation would be interesting.
Especially now that the modern browsers are moving towards auto-update, which
encourages a higher likelihood of something like this taking off.

If marketers starting picking up the idea, I see "shoot here to win the
prize", phone number, email address collecting type of ads promising to "bring
facebook back the way it was", "just enter your email address and we'll send
you the link!" If you don't think this could work, just remember that a few
years back people were installing emoticon packs and CometCursor just so they
could have a customized, albeit terrible, experience.

~~~
Diabeetus
Aren't there chrome plugins that remove facebook ads? I'm not sure if it's
done through CSS or some other way, but it seems like something you're
describing.

~~~
hammock
Adblock Plus for Firefox removes every ad you could ever think of, even the
ads inside of youtube videos.

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nddrylliog
You should've used csspivot.com for a quick preview link :)

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logic
From the screenshots, it reminds me a bit of Comfy Helvetica, which we
discussed here a while back:

<https://comfy-helvetica.jottit.com/>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2098340>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2106056>

(Not passing judgement on this theme, which seems quite nice; just thought I'd
throw in a recommendation for a theme I've been using on HN since it was
originally posted.)

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abeh
Very nice to look at, well done.

A couple of points for me are that:

1\. While it is easier to read, the combination of the larger size of the text
and the vertical spacing makes it harder to scan all the topics quickly, as
was possible without this style.

2\. as already mentioned, the info sub-text is a bit soft in contrast and hard
to read quickly, even though it looks nice. Suggestion: make the important
info such as the numbers and username a bit more darker, but leave the
repeated info such as 'points by' and 'comments' as they are.

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sunsai
I have tried to tweak the layout without any browser extensions. This will
work on any browser but it's a 'lite version' so you can only use these to
read HN. Have a look:

Non AJAX version: <http://www.skillendar.com/hackernews/noajax.aspx>

AJAX version: <http://www.skillendar.com/hackernews/>

~~~
tuhin
Good work. You might want to reduce the width since long lines are bad
readability wise.

Golden rule of 40-60 chars each line.

~~~
sunsai
Thanks mate; but I actually did this to make it easy for me to read HN posts
on my netbook (1024x600). Reducing the width would mean lots of scrolling :(

~~~
tuhin
Use a fluid width with min and max width so that the reading span does not
grow too big or small. No matter what screen you have, anything longer than
70-80 chars in a single line is a pain to read.

That is the reason readability and Safari Reader are designed the way they
are. Use em/% to go screen size free.

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vladocar
I suggested similar thing one year ago:
[http://www.vcarrer.com/2010/03/hacker-news-mini-redesign-
uno...](http://www.vcarrer.com/2010/03/hacker-news-mini-redesign-
unofficial.html) and the bookmarklet <http://www.allapis.com/HN/HN-
bookmarlet.html>

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unwind
Can someone please fix the typo in the title? It hurts!

~~~
tuhin
Could you share a screenshot? What OS, Browser?

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sandipc
I think the reference is to the HN submission title ("typogrpahy")

~~~
tuhin
Corrected now.

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muitocomplicado
Works great with the Collapsible Comments extension.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hockhafcdegocajmjh...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hockhafcdegocajmjhafgjncjpodihkd)

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csomar
I think the next thing is to provide customization. That is, you can change
colors and some settings (like padding and margin) to control white space. You
may want also to change the font. I actually like the white space. Just the
grey is a little bit pale, but this helps for concentration on the text that
matters. Taste differs, not good to argue about it.

It's still a good move from the Author. I was thinking of something similar,
but time was a constraint. I might look to help improving that one. Any
Github?

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tomkarlo
I like it, but I have to agree it's about 25% larger than I'd want, including
both the input field for adding a comment (which takes up 1/5 of my screen
height on a large monitor) and the comments, which end up being way too long.

Just reducing the font sizes a little would help - having the default font so
large kind of apes apps like readability, it's much bigger than is necessary.

(Just zooming out on my browser isn't enough, since it also reduces the width
of the lines.)

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bonaldi
Love everything apart from the fixed-width main column. Leaves me with huge
margins at either side with my usual window width.

~~~
djacobs
This is, of course, a personal preference, but I would much rather have a
column with a fixed width based on how many characters we can expect in that
column. Lines stretching across the screen at 120+ characters can be unwieldy.

That's the reason i don't maximize windows. Sites like HN let lines of text go
way too far for a window that's 1000+ px wide.

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emp_
I still think this suffers from the same issue on the Stylish option, when you
are way down on the comments you have a hard time knowing if the comment is an
answer to the OP or to another comment, the increased indent helped but a left
align or vertical line all the way from the OP post would help a ton.

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jbuzbee
It may not be perfect, but it's a much-needed improvement that improves
readability. Thanks!

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tuhin
New update solves most of the issues raised by you guys. Thanks a lot for all
the feedback.

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bradhe
I thought this was gimicky at first but then installed it and went back to the
HN homepage and...I'm blown away. This is really REALLY great and solves a
problem people have been rehashing for a long, long time -- kudos!

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marcomonteiro
I just download Chrome specifically to use this. It looks great! Thank you.

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vnchr
I could feel myself stop squinting....is this what usability feels like?

~~~
justinchen
I sat back in the my chair instead of hunching forward.

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gizzlon
lol.. the chrome store does not support my browser "just yet"

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statictype
I bet it's possible to write a Firefox extension that allows you to 'apply'
Google Chrome extensions.

They are, after all, just html pages and javascript with access to certain
APIs that may already be available in Firefox in some form or other.

~~~
jackolas
I think Firefox's JetPack labs initiative might be close to that.
<https://jetpack.mozillalabs.com/>

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gregparadee
Not perfect but nothing ever is the first time. Installed and love it so far
can't wait to see some of the suggestions mentioned put into use in the
future!

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estel
I've had to stop using this now because the indents seem completely broken and
all over the place. Replies appear threaded in a completely incorrect order.

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grannyg00se
I don't see how the legibility is improved. It's different, but I think the
current look is just fine. Maybe I'm just lacking an eye for typography.

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balakk
Here's a darker version of this, aka Metrofy.

<http://www.csspivot.com/33z8z>

LCARSish too!

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antirez
Thanks, I'm loving it. It is a bit biased for aesthetic but well still an
improvement over the default HN css.

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jarin
I'm not 100% on some the details (like whitespace and contrast), but
definitely A++ for effort.

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cptvideo
nice try, but its way better to see 20 items at a glance than to mouse around
a acre of white space. readability isn't everything, workability matters too.
"<ctrl> +" is a good compromise if your eyes are going!

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tuancao
I really really like this extension. Make my reading on HN much more
enjoyable.

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l0c0b0x
We need the option of fixing the margins ourselves, other than that great job!

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Nanofied
Still could use a little touching up, but I love it none the less :)

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mjac
I like this a lot. Could we make it the default theme?

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KarlFreeman
I'd second that. Its damn nice.

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Void_
I would very much like a Safari extension.

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tommoor
Very nice, i'll be keeping this installed

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gunmetal
Too much space, going back to old way.

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ile
Using the CSS in Stylebot now. TY.

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oemera
This is awesome! Thank you

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Indyan
An Opera port please.

