The slogan font looks ugly to me. I would try to make something better, but I don't have the skills (or the tools). Here is an attempt to demonstrate what I have in mind:



I think this looks somewhat better, but I'm not certain it is more legible...

Actually, the only tool I know how to use, IrfanView, could not insert text that small, so I played with the css font properties on an html page, took a screenshot with Firefox and pasted it on the logo. :-P

The text is black, which I think is better than dark blue for such a size. Also, I use a proper apostrophe, but maybe this cannot render well at this size...

Can someone with the proper skills make something better than what we have now? Is it possible at this resolution?

Thanks for reading.

PS. The border is for better delineation on the coloured background. I'm not suggesting we use a border for the actual logo. :-)

Um. I see nothing wrong with the slogan. In fact I rather like it as it is. Maybe I have a bad taste though...

Edit: Demetris: I didn't see your version yet, the image doesn't load from here. So please don't think I think it's bad.

I think Demetris' version is a little more legible to my old eyes.

Thanks for the responses, MedO and pdq.

To explain myself a bit better, I don't like the slogan font because it does not seem to be anti-aliased. Here is another attempt to show what I have in mind. This time I use DejaVu Serif Condensed



Again, this does not look more legible to me, but I like it better.

Now, I won't try your eyes any longer -- I leave it to the pros (if the pros think it is indeed an issue).

I like it for exactly the opposite of the reasons you listed. It's a small font, tightly packed. Having it aliased makes it clearer, especially at its size.

I would prefer a sans serif in this case, but as long as it is readable I have no complaints.

I like it how it is.

So, it is not possible to have an equally clear anti-aliased font at this size. :-(

It is just that, to my eyes, it looks out of place when everything else on the screen is anti-aliased (Firefox 2.0 RC1 on Win XP SP2 with ClearType):

ABX these



IMHO make the image slightly wider.

But we are sound techies, we should know that aliasing is bad.

Demetris: Your graphic would be good if everyone had a laptop I guess, because I think you took the screenshot with ClearType enabled. This makes it look good on LCDs (of the right color alignment), but worse than normal antialiasing on CRTs and even worse on LCDs with different color alignment.

IIRC, this issue was discussed when we were selecting the new logo.

You do: The new Hydrogenaudio logo. Some people ask for anti-aliasing, and others reply that it makes the font blurry.


Here's one from Ubuntu 6.06 -- same hardware, almost the same browser (Fx 1.5.0.7 instead of 2.0 RC 1), different font, anti-aliasing on:



About ClearType: I have tried it on several CRTs and it never looked good. Even on LCDs, it is not always good , but sometimes it is very good.

ClearType discussion split here.