Board Thread:The Drax Cave/@comment-188432-20130108231223/@comment-188432-20130128215920

Just to answer one question there, I wouldn't count on the fonts being consistent in the two design. I don't consider it to be a "mistake" in any regard.

It's my current theory that sans-serif fonts will be used on the LOD design. This is because sans-serif fonts are easier to read on computer screens against dark backgrounds. It's also because some people really liked having a serif font, since it reminded them of reading a book. Setting that serif font against a not-exactly-white background maximises its readability, and I'd be loathe to get rid of that unless I found another font that dramatically improved legibility.

So, the DOL design will retain the previous site design's ethic: serif for articles in ns:0 and sans-serif elsewhere. This is a subtle visual cue to let you know when you're reading an in-universe article and when you aren't.

I might change my mind on this, as I'm actively looking for a different font altogether from the ones we currently use. But this will require importation of the font, something we don't currently do. It should also be pointed out that there was a forum question asked early last year specifically about the sans-serif font, with most respondents supporting the serif.

That said, I'm "shopping" new fonts a lot these days so you will find different fonts in different parts of the site. Currently, for instance, the sans serif on offer in the user namespace is quite different to the one you'll find here in the forums. And certainly in the template namespace, we use monospaced fonts for clarity.

My intent is to return to a situation where we have a single font family for each of the major types — monospaced, serif and sans-serif, and for each of these types to have a meaningful use.

But you shouldn't expect for DOL to work like LOD. It would be extremely illogical to have taken about a month making sure that we have the colour change option and then not bother using it.

You'll note, for instance, that plenty of things are different between them, already, and not just the fonts. The color of the search area, the color of the message alerts, the color of the menus, the color of tophat templates — lots of things are different.