DejaVu fonts - Not 108% - Feedback.

Tim ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au
Sat Jul 15 01:53:54 UTC 2006


On Fri, 2006-07-14 at 13:02 -0400, Tony Nelson wrote:
> oOØ0ø
>
> OK, which are which?

Small letter o, *probably* capital letter 0, non-English slashed capital
O (I do not recall its proper name), *probably* numeral 0, and the
small-case slashed o.

Though that's not with the font you're talking about, but demonstrating
that the clear lack of distinction between numeral 0 and letter O has
been an on-going problem for many years in computing.

> It's well known already that slash does not distinguish between Oh and
> Zero, because of the Slashed Oh (U+00D8 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH
> STROKE) used in Europe.

In English, it's been a well recognised trend for more years than I can
remember, since we don't have a slashed O.  Though, as you say, that's a
useless technique for anybody who uses that character for its proper
purpose.  But I've never seen a slashed 0 and an 8 that look *ANYTHING*
like each other in any character.  On the other hand, I have seen the
modern trend of using a centrally-dotted 0 (for zero) be badly
distinguishable in some fonts, particularly small sizes.

It's a real requirement that people can readily tell an O from an 0, and
without having to squint and type characters on your keyboard to
discover how your font draws the two differently (i.e. one slightly
bigger, or one slightly more rounder, or whatever), if it does.

If there's one true problem I've seen with that is fonts that give
almost no distinction between them.  The other common characters than
need good distinctions between each of them are:  1lI|  Some fonts are
appalling for that.

-- 
(Currently running FC4, occasionally trying FC5.)

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