My experience is primarily back-end development, so I'm a complete UI design dummy. I have a stupid question that I always mean to look into "when I have time" - - given topic, perhaps someone on this thread can answer.
Why does the font in the input box on the bootstrappingdesign lander look so screwy and hard to read, relative to the rest of the page? (I'm running Chrome on a vanilla Windows 7 box.)
As mentioned it is a problem Windows has rendering fonts. More accurately, it is a problem all non-IE Windows browsers have rendering fonts. Open the site in IE9 and you'll be able to enjoy it as intended.
I would also advise you not to fiddle with the ClearType tuner, in my experience it will not help you with this problem.
So what is the solution here? I'm sure its not that I should be running IE9 :-)
I'm experiencing the same problem rendering the site on Chrome in Windows 7. I tried running through the ClearType tuning thing - with no success.
However, it appears that Chrome on Windows is the problem here, as it also renders fine in Windows Firefox. Chrome and Firefox in Ubuntu works fine as well.
Here is a Windows 7 comparison of Chrome vs Firefox rendering:
This is getting interesting. For me on Windows 7 Firefox (both 7.0.1 and the current Beta version), Chrome, Safari and Opera all have this issue while IE9 does not. Which version of Firefox are you running?
Edit: Additionally, if I use the so-called "F12 Developer Tools" in IE9 to switch the browser mode to IE8 the font will have the same problem.
Edit 2: I found this article http://www.owlfolio.org/htmletc/legibility-of-embedded-web-f... - I also found a few references to being able to activate hinting for the fonts used in the embedding process. Not sure what the options are from TypeKit (the service used on this site) and I can't check on my own TypeKit account as their website is currently down for maintenance.
The version in the screenshot is 7.0.1. Now I am realizing that Chrome is rendering lots of sites without anti-aliasing, not just bootstrappingdesign.com. Just something about that site made me notice it.
I only see the issue in Chrome and IE < 9. (Fresh install of Windows 7 via boot camp. No ClearType tweaks.)
Typekit does provide samples of how the fonts render in various browser/OS combinations: https://typekit.com/fonts/calluna
(Click "Browser Samples" tab.)
It's definitely a limitation of @font-face and something I should have accounted for in the design. Apologies for poor legibility.
This is an issue with how Windows renders fonts. I believe Windows 7 has a ClearType tuner that could help you. (@font-face via Typekit can exacerbate this too compared with locally installed fonts.)
I'll look into a fallback font for that input box. Sorry it's hard to read.
Why does the font in the input box on the bootstrappingdesign lander look so screwy and hard to read, relative to the rest of the page? (I'm running Chrome on a vanilla Windows 7 box.)
http://i.imgur.com/TgQjV.gif