[Gllug] Font choice

[Nix]

On Wed, 17 Jul 2002, tet at accucard.com yowled:
> 
>>I know this is a personal preference,
>>but I'm looking for good font settings for x-term.
>>Something to give my eyes a rest - maybe 14 point.
> 
> I've found 10x20 to be a good large size font. I switch to it from
> my default 8x14 when I want to show things to others, for example,
> who for some inexplicable reason complain about my fonts being too
> small :-)

Equally, I use

-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-70-iso8859-1

and sometimes the jmk fonts --- but they're hardly meant for *easy*
reading, rather for people with microscopes for eyes :)

>>Anyway, what fonts do people normally use?
> 
> 8x14 and 10x24 for normal use, 5x8 and occasionally nil2 for log
> viewing, etc.

Biggist. ;) I tend to sit in the smallest available on the scale of rxvt
font sizes, but sometimes ratchet up one.

(My font in this Emacs is
`-*-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-75-75-*-*-iso8859-*'... again, not
exactly large: at work I use an even smaller jmk font but I haven't got
around to switching to that here.

>>Also anyone know what the accepted wisdom on restful colour
>>combinations is?
> 
> Yep, accepted wisdom is wrong. Various people have done research
> that supposedly proves dark text on a light background is easier
> on the eyes. All I can say is that from personal experience, that's
> not true for me.

I can't understand how it's true for anyone. That is, it's *correct* ---
if and only if you're reading off something like paper (a
light-reflecting surface; and for that matter a surface with vastly
better contrast than any computer display) --- but when you're looking
at a white screen, you're staring into what amounts to a low-intensity
light bulb. I can't *imagine* how anyone can find that restful.

(Perhaps they just don't know what restful *is* --- but that doesn't
make any sense unless they never look away from the screen. Perhaps they
just have cast-iron eyes.)

I know I can't look at a white display for more than half an hour before
my eyes start to ache.

>>I tend to go for the traditional green-on-black
> 
> A man after my own heart. As all should know, it's the one true way :-)

I did that, but then I discovered powderblue. I don't use anything else
anymore. (Well, that's not *quite* true; my XEmacs is rather colourful;
but the default face is powderblue.)

I don't know about other people (most of whom can't get past my tiny
font sizes and the *black* background *gasp* to complain about the
foreground colours), but I find powderblue more restful than green. I
was probably spoiled by the lovely clear Hercules MDA displays... these
days, the only things in green are part of my Emacs modeline and the
procmeters down the side of the screen (LawnGreen on Black, with
SlateGrey gridlines).

> 	XTerm*background:        gray20

What's grey20? [taptap]

... hmm, a bit too bright a background for me.

> At first glance it just looks like you've got the brightness turned up
> too high, but once I got used to it, I find it must less stressful on

My thoughts exactly.

> the eyes than #00ff00 on #000000.

This is one area where everyone's M definitely does V :)

-- 
`There's something satisfying about killing JWZ over and over again.'
                                        -- 1i, personal communication


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