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Comment by systemvoltage | Hacker News Reader

"Why do programmers go out of their way to put bugs in software?"

I wish for once people on Hacker News didn't make sweeping statements about a profession that isn't theirs? Most good designers will recognize those are bad design choices.

I think this is an endemic problem in design circles, not an exception. Also, it is not a bug but rather a deliberate intent and decision. We need more criticism, not pushback.

> "Why do programmers go out of their way to put bugs in software?"

We have no problem mocking programmers when AWS goes down, log4j or FB messes up. I expect designers from a company as big as Amazon to not fumble about the fundamentals of what makes legible text.

Designers have no problem mocking designers doing bad typography. Maybe we don't hang around the same "design circles."

It is interesting that you assume I am not a designer. Regardless, design is not some mysterious profession that requires one to be a designer to criticize it.

I've done it before and many agree (72 upvotes): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24965346

a) I'd never heard of book-weight font before, but https://gist.github.com/lukaszgrolik/5849599 lists it as either 300 or 350, and the weight of this font is indeed 300

b) It looks pretty close to black to me.

It is actually the opposite despite of the W3 standards.

In typography, book weight for print fonts is usually lighter (congruent to W3 standards). This is because of the slight blotting effect when printed on paper. But for screen use, it is actually slightly bolder (450-ish). Here is an example from Lineto foundry: https://lineto.com/typefaces/moderne

Book weight is between Regular and Medium.

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