Fonts changes on moodle.org

Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Joseph Rézeau -
Number of replies: 23
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Have you noticed the change of default font on moodle.org from Trebuchet to Arial Unicode MS? Here is the new default body fonts list: font-family:"Arial Unicode MS", "Lucida Sans Regular", "Linux Libertine", Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;

Doesn't "Linux Libertine" sound sexy?cool Wish I had a Linux box.

Plus the spelling checker seems to be turned on, but I do not understand why it underlines most of my words apparently without reason. I find this rather annoying. Is it possible to turn off the underlining?

Joseph

EDIT.- Strangely, in the HTML editor the default font still is Trebuchet, and Arial Unicode MS is not available in the dropdown list (the only available unicode font there is Lucida Unicode). Which means that the text I have just typed here in Trebuchet will be displayed in Arial Unicode MS in this forum discussion (on a Windows system, you may have different fonts on different systems, of course).

Attachment image00.jpg
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In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Paul Holden -
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Joseph,

Are you sure it's not your browser that's doing the spell-checking? Firefox will underline words in the same way as you've presented in your screenshot wink From my experience, the Moodle HTML editor will only perform a spell-check once you click the spell-check.gif icon.

Paul
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In reply to Paul Holden

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Joseph Rézeau -
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Hi Paul,
You're right. It so happens that this morning I updated my FireFox and the updating process enabled the FF spell checker (without asking meangry), hence the confusionblush.
Thanks for pointing this.
Joseph
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In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by John Isner -
Yes, I noticed the font change this morning. It is a beautiful font, very pleasing to look at, but hard to read. A triumph of form over function! I'll take a good old serif font any day of the week (they're designed for speed reading), but short of that, bring back Trebuchet! It is more compact, and perhaps because of that, easier to read. There's too much negative space in Arial.

I also noticed one other 'aesthetic' change this morning. On the front page of moodle.org, the Search box has moved to the top of the left column, invalidating all of my posts in which I say it is at the top of the right column. Do you think they will be able to find it now? smile
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In reply to John Isner

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Haruhiko Okumura -
The Japanese part of this new font is ugly and unbearable. Moreover, because of the Han unification, a single Unicode font is unusable. We'll have to delete the CSS for the body, etc.
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In reply to Haruhiko Okumura

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Martin Dougiamas -
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Haruhiko, what are successful Japanese sites using for fonts?
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Haruhiko Okumura -
There is no need and much harm to force a Unicode font including CJK characters. The best solution is to delete the font-family: specifications from the style sheet and let the user choose his/her favorite font. If you are absolutely sure that the user should use sans-serif fonts, just say

* { font-family: sans-serif}

or

* { font-family: foo, bar, sans-serif}

where foo and bar don't include CJK characters (e.g. Verdana, Helvetica, Arial).

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In reply to Haruhiko Okumura

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Martin Dougiamas -
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The reason for specifying the fonts was to get these characters (★★★★★☆☆) to show up as stars in the ratings scales ... I want to be sure it's not possible first before I abandon that completely. smile

Is it possible we can specify a nice CJK font first to make sure it's used before other Unicode fonts?

btw moodleorangeTest currently has:

font-family: sans-serif;




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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Haruhiko Okumura -
> Is it possible we can specify a nice CJK font first to make sure it's used before other Unicode fonts?

No, because a nice mainland Chinese glyph and a nice Taiwan Chinese glyph and a nice Japanese glyph, all corresponding to a same Unicode point, can be very different. This is inevitable because Unicode unifies quite different glyphs into a same code point (Han Unification).

You might choose a different style sheet for each country. But a simpler solution is that you specify any Unicode font only for the <span class="ratings"> ... </span> class.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Haruhiko Okumura

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Mauno Korpelainen -

So if one theme had no default fonts (or font was defined only for some css tags like ratings) user would see browser default font and could select what ever font browser supports. It is also possible to override any font from site css by changing browser settings but then selected font would override all fonts defined in site css...

One exceptional solution could even be to let users to select default font (family) from user profile using php (one text field - if "user default font" did not exist site or browser default font would be used). The idea of selecting different theme and different default fonts or font family according to selected language is not bad at all.

Anyway it is good to have unicode fonts in editor font list - no matter what the site default font is.

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In reply to Haruhiko Okumura

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Martin Dougiamas -
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/me smacks head: "Of course". approve

I'll switch to straight sans-serif and set fonts only where necessary. Thanks Haruhiko!
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Samuli Karevaara -
Sweet stars!
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In reply to Samuli Karevaara

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Matt Gibson -
I've just made similar stars for my site, but could find no way of adding them using the editor, so I copy/pasted them from the source of this page, reducing them to 5 and changing 'usefulness' to 'quality'. Now, with the summative grading option on forums, I can set students the task of achieving 15 stars in the debate forum instead of doing an essay. How cool!

I vote for adding a stars scale to moodle core.
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In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Martin Dougiamas -
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Ah, sorry about that! I was experimenting with new Unicode fonts to try and get the stars to show up for everyone (in the ratings menu).

My font changes actually resulted in no change whatsoever in my browsers probably because I don't actually have those new fonts tongueout and thus I wasn't reminded to reset the fonts again (it's done now).

I'd really appreciate some advice about better font choices for this site to support all languages. We're just starting a revamp the entire look of the site anyway (I'll move this discussion to the new "moodle.org design" forum soon)

P.S. Note there is a choice of themes in your profile, moodleorangeArial was put there a long time ago to help those using Asian characters. I've added moodleorangeTest to try out some new ideas.
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Martin Dougiamas -
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Should I just make the default site fonts follow the recommendations here: MDLSITE-237 ?

"Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, Arial Unicode MS, san-serif"
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Ger Tielemans -
Moodle.org default font is very ugly under Firefox (and Flock) under windows. The font has anorexia.
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In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Mauno Korpelainen -

What version of Firefox and Windows? My Firefox/2.0.0.12 has no anorexia...

Browsers

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In reply to Mauno Korpelainen

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Ger Tielemans -

It is more then bad: now I try to upload a picture and the file-attach box is gone, also in IE. When I try to upload using the picture icon, the upload fields are missing. When I try to edit my profile I get an empty page..

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In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Mauno Korpelainen -

I can confirm that file-attachment box missing from this forum (other forums seem to have it) - my previous image is on my server. Also that editing profile problem is present - maybe it is some temporary upgrading issue.

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In reply to Mauno Korpelainen

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Mauno Korpelainen -

Works OK now.

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In reply to Mauno Korpelainen

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Ger Tielemans -
Ok this the anorexia I see with:

- opera
- firefox
- flock

and not with
- IE7
- Tablane
Attachment logo015.png
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In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Mauno Korpelainen -

I thought first that it is only a problem of resolution etc but it is not. http://www.ampsoft.net/webdesign-l/WindowsMacFonts.html is a nice page to check how some fonts look in different systems and browsers.

Ger, if you force your Firefox to use some of fonts in font family Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, sans serif does it look better? Moodle.org uses now font family "Trebuchet MS", Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif.

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In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Mauno Korpelainen -

Ger,

if you have Windows XP try this:

  1. Right click your wallpaper and click "Properties".
  2. Choose the "Appearance" tab and click the "Effects" button.
  3. Check the box to the left of "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:".
  4. Underneath that checkbox, choose "Standard" if you have a CRT monitor or "Clear Type" if you have a flat panel monitor or a laptop screen.
  5. Click OK on the "Effects" window.
  6. Click OK on the "Display Properties" window.
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In reply to Mauno Korpelainen

Re: Fonts changes on moodle.org

by Ger Tielemans -

My hero! That did it. I wil carry this message on my heart!

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