Which font to use?

John_P

Hi everyone,I am interested in the note box system and would like to know which fonts are particularly suitable for the design of the notes.

Are there any recommendations for fonts that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional?
To what extent does font choice affect how our brains process information?

I studied art and wonder if, for example, a tree in Helvetica creates a different mental stimulus than the same tree in Roboto.

Are there any studies or personal experiences on this?

I look forward to your answers!

John

GeoEng51

@John_P I don't know if this fits your question, but I looked long and hard for a legible font that my mother and others with poor vision could read without too much eye strain. I settled on Atkinson Hyperlegible (although there are others). I suppose minimizing eye strain could be one aspect of finding a font that is "aesthetically pleasing and functional".

Loni

@John_P said:
Hi everyone,I am interested in the note box system and would like to know which fonts are particularly suitable for the design of the notes.

Are there any recommendations for fonts that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional?
To what extent does font choice affect how our brains process information?

I studied art and wonder if, for example, a tree in Helvetica creates a different mental stimulus than the same tree in Roboto.

Are there any studies or personal experiences on this?

I look forward to your answers!

Hi,

I use to work on PC. As a person who regularly suffers from strong migraine attacks, legible font was my top priority.

I used Monspaced font for writing. Here you can see the tree with Roboto Mono, and the text with JetBrains Mono, on Obsidian.

As you can see, every characters have the same width. The tree is quicker to explore.

And here, Roboto Mono with Fira Mono combo on Sublime Text :

I use ST for long form writing, like my novels. Softer constrats, Monospaced characters. Developpers used this type of characters while staying in front of their screen for hours. I can relate to them.

ctietze

@John_P Maybe you can find some inspiration here: https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/2266/jakob-nielsen-best-font-for-online-reading-no-single-answer

Sascha and I have been using Lato in The Archive since then for legibility testing. Well it works alright!

macosxguru

I have been using Lexend — Change the way the world reads..

macosxguru

Sascha

I use Lato and came to it with a simple method: I just searched for the fonts that were the quickest to read. I liked Lato.

The note list is a mono space font and I use a monospace font for the comments I use comments for example for TOC-like structures and tables, so they look more tidy.

Like this, I can combine monospace and Lato.

mrcmrc

@Loni said:

@John_P said:
Hi everyone,I am interested in the note box system and would like to know which fonts are particularly suitable for the design of the notes.

Are there any recommendations for fonts that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional?
To what extent does font choice affect how our brains process information?

I studied art and wonder if, for example, a tree in Helvetica creates a different mental stimulus than the same tree in Roboto.

Are there any studies or personal experiences on this?

I look forward to your answers!

Hi,

I use to work on PC. As a person who regularly suffers from strong migraine attacks, legible font was my top priority.

I used Monspaced font for writing. Here you can see the tree with Roboto Mono, and the text with JetBrains Mono, on Obsidian.

As you can see, every characters have the same width. The tree is quicker to explore.

And here, Roboto Mono with Fira Mono combo on Sublime Text :

I use ST for long form writing, like my novels. Softer constrats, Monospaced characters. Developpers used this type of characters while staying in front of their screen for hours. I can relate to them.

Just curious, but I cannot see the images...

• m.

Loni

My bad, I thought you already saw them :

KillerWhale

@Loni I absolutely need to know what is the "Syndrome de la chouquette."

No matter where I am, I'm writing my notes in Bear Sans (Bear's font, lifted off the app package) because I really like their design and trust their taste. And it prevents me from falling into the rabbit hole of fonts. I also really like iA's fonts, which are free to download and use.

John_P

Thank you for sharing important and personal information with me. i really appreciate a direct and honest exchange.

Loni

@KillerWhale said:
@Loni I absolutely need to know what is the "Syndrome de la chouquette."

Of course, dear!

You know what is a chouquette : a typical french "viennoiserie". It is really, really appetizing when you see this small ball of sweet pastry.

Then, you drool, you anticipate such a pleasure when you'll crunch this insolent delicous thing. So, you take one and put it into your mouth, happy as hell… Only to find a ridiculous and disappointing amount of air inside it. The ratio air/paste is so, so much unfavourable and you're here, quickly ending the life of this empty thing, looking for an other one hoping for more.

But, hell no. Every single chouquette is empty. You have a lot of chouquettes, but none of them are consistant, never having a well built inside with enough body to feed you.

So, this is the chouquette syndrom. When you find a fictionnal creation, bringing you into many worlds, or presenting you characters, or anything, which seems so, so fine, so great, interesting. You can feel your "discovery need" neurons droolings inside your brain and, well, as you and me are kind of alike for our need of novelty and taking a lot of pleasure when exploring things, I know you understand me there.

Here you are, drooling for such interesting things, worlds, characters, to discover.

But they are empty.

Like a chouquette.

50 characters, but all of them a unidimensionnal and "mono-troped". A lot of fancy exotic names of extraterrestes worlds, but only RPG-type of biome, like "the desertic only planet" "the planet where people live into jungle" "the world where anyone is cute and all".

Fully, stupidely empty.

I know that creation is hardwork and takes a lot of time, I know that first hand. I know that you can't detail every single things inside a story, in a videogames and all of that. It's normal.

But sometimes, it's like a broken promise.

Just like a chouquette. It catches me everyimes I eat one.

KillerWhale

Thanks for sharing, @Loni ! I LOVE that – and perfectly see what you mean.
I submit to you in exchange that the reverse might exist – something that seems very generic and uninteresting from the general looks of it but, once you delve into it, is actually very rich and wonderfully developed (Avatar the Last Airbender fits in that category for me – such a generic world from the external looks of it, and yet one of the most delightful works of fiction).

I submit to you: Syndrome de la tartiflette. (Doesn't look appetising and quite bland even but, gosh! so tasty.)

Loni

@KillerWhale said:
Thanks for sharing, @Loni ! I LOVE that – and perfectly see what you mean.
I submit to you in exchange that the reverse might exist – something that seems very generic and uninteresting from the general looks of it but, once you delve into it, is actually very rich and wonderfully developed (Avatar the Last Airbender fits in that category for me – such a generic world from the external looks of it, and yet one of the most delightful works of fiction).

I submit to you: Syndrome de la tartiflette. (Doesn't look appetising and quite bland even but, gosh! so tasty.)

Avatar the Last Airbender is a Tartiflette.

It's a 'pure merveille'. I LOVE it a lot!

Thank you for sharing this insight, I'll keep it, the Tartiflette will look the Chouquette with disdain.