New Look YM.... the FONT of all trouble

[Capt Popeye]

Affectation?? I'm sure they'd say they were ensuring the correct style and consistency, both visually and typographically, to deliver the right pace, visual hierarchy and continuity throughout each issue.

Humm yes BLKS speak for sure

 

[JumbleDuck]

Interestingly the example you selected has a serif text font. Elsewhere in the same magazine (eg the Cruising section) it is mostly sans-serif.

Good point. I'm on the boat - when I get home I may get out the microscope again.

To be fair Theo has already said it was too late to fix for this “February” edition, so presumably still a work in progress.

We shall see. Possibly. With powerful lenses.

 

[ex-Gladys]

It's interesting that there are internationally recognised guidelines for websites as far as legibility is concerned (W3C - WorldWideWeb Consortium) which recommends Sans Serif fonts and (IIRC) 11 point. Shame print is still confined to the luvvies

 

[jac]

No, not saving money, it's a style thing, created by creative people, who are managed by creative people, and they just love creating artistic-looking page spreads, regardless of how functional they are. In a former life, I ran an outfit which included a design studio, and I can assure you that many of these creative types are the most precious, impractical and stubborn people on the planet!

That was my fear when it happened two months in a row.

I'm 50 - had laser surgery a few years ago and don't need glasses to read anything.

I struggle to read YM. My wife who has jut bought some reading glasses picked it up - put her glasses on and exclaimed "How the **** do you read this?"

I'm hoping that Theo is right and that they will get this right next month as it's the only thing that they have got wrong in the whole magazine.

I'm assuming that the arty idiots are running the show - if so and if any feedback will help then more than happy to provide it.

Ignore the arty idiots. This isn't art and design pretentiousness weekly - it's YM. we want good quality written material to read. That's what I buy it for. We have no issue with you arty fartys making it look pretty and putting in huge pictures but not at the expense of the content. If I want a coffee table book, I'll buy one. So make the font size bigger - back to the size it was a few months ago. if you need to lose other content to keep the page count the same then reduce the phot size or the amount of white space. Your art department might lose points in the annual whose got the prettiest magazine competition but i'm sure that the grownups would prefer a magazine that looked traditional ( i.e. legible) and sold rather than winner of ponciest magazine 2018 and lost 1/2 it's sales.

 

[pvb]

That was my fear when it happened two months in a row.

I'm 50 - had laser surgery a few years ago and don't need glasses to read anything.

I struggle to read YM. My wife who has jut bought some reading glasses picked it up - put her glasses on and exclaimed "How the **** do you read this?"

I'm hoping that Theo is right and that they will get this right next month as it's the only thing that they have got wrong in the whole magazine.

I'm assuming that the arty idiots are running the show - if so and if any feedback will help then more than happy to provide it.

Ignore the arty idiots. This isn't art and design pretentiousness weekly - it's YM. we want good quality written material to read. That's what I buy it for. We have no issue with you arty fartys making it look pretty and putting in huge pictures but not at the expense of the content. If I want a coffee table book, I'll buy one. So make the font size bigger - back to the size it was a few months ago. if you need to lose other content to keep the page count the same then reduce the phot size or the amount of white space. Your art department might lose points in the annual whose got the prettiest magazine competition but i'm sure that the grownups would prefer a magazine that looked traditional ( i.e. legible) and sold rather than winner of ponciest magazine 2018 and lost 1/2 it's sales.

Valid comments, but the art director will point out that the font size has already been increased, as JumbleDuck demonstrated. These arty people work on massive high-definition screens, which bear little relation to the finished printed page.

 

[Fox Morgan]

I've yet to pick up a copy of the latest magazine.
Younger readers are more tolerant of small type.
the average age of YM readers currently though...
55 ish. though the stats show it's read 3/5s male there's more female readers than they take account for in their blurb.



With the circulation slipping in to the 18000 area, this is make or break time for the magazine. getting something like the font size wrong is really quite a bad move.

 

[jac]

Valid comments, but the art director will point out that the font size has already been increased, as JumbleDuck demonstrated. These arty people work on massive high-definition screens, which bear little relation to the finished printed page.

Which would prove that art director was an out of touch idiot

I would then expect one of the grownups to ask how many readers read the mag on large HD screens and how many read it on paper. I might also expect them to ask if the font size suggested by the arty fartys had been checked for readability in the target audience or in the local hipster cafes.

 

[dunedin]

Interestingly I was reading an Autocar in the dentist waiting room today. It’s readability was way WORSE than the current edition of Yachting Monthly. It had similar small size type face, but a lot of it was printed black on colour or white on colour.
Perhaps it’s target readership is younger .... but not by much as most of the cars were probably unaffordable to most

 

[JumbleDuck]

Interestingly I was reading an Autocar in the dentist waiting room today. It’s readability was way WORSE than the current edition of Yachting Monthly. It had similar small size type face, but a lot of it was printed black on colour or white on colour.
Perhaps it’s target readership is younger .... but not by much as most of the cars were probably unaffordable to most

I expect most Autocar "readers" only look at the pictures, very much (very, very much) like Playboy "readers".