Alright, so... you have multifocal glasses and you still can't read this book comfortably? Hey, is anyone from CB paying attention here? The problem is *real*. @Bostria @Koni and the rest of CB staff - any comment on this? So far, the lack on reaction suggests nobody cares about having created this typographical monster and the problem it caused for some players... The text in N3 books was fine in the main two books, but it got smaller in HSN3 and onwards. I can't read these books comfortably, either. But what was done with N4 is the worst... A free e-book, maybe? For anyone who shows that they already have the printed N4 book...
My book arrived and I am lucky that I can (still) read it. I got the feeling of a slight headache after a reading for a bit, though. I don't call it a real problem for myself, but I can easily imagine that other people will have a problem with it. I understand that CB wants to fill as few pages as possible, but the end product should be able to be read and enjoyed by anyone. Which is obviously not the case, so cb should question their choices.
I guess I can use my reading glasses and it is still not comfortable to read. I don't want to read a novel in this font size. It IS tiny. That would be sweet.
OK, saw it in person... not just small font, also blocky, in huge paragraphs (some columns have only 2, found one page with 3/4 single paragraph and 1/4 picture) with long twisted phrases (the Pío Baroja channeling continues) and Comma Machine Gun in full auto, on a bit transparent glossy paper (so you get noise from the other side, and the random flash of glare). Blocks of text are separated by a blank line (each paragraph as one section), and sometimes leave big zones at bottom of page, but they look painfully heavy by themselves, the white looks wasted. Flush left / ragged right (all spaces are the same as they are not used to adjust edges) could even be a problem, we are used to wide columns to be justified. The "as said by Captain Small Print" lines are even worse, smaller, thinner, italic, sometimes over peach backgrounds. Performed some extra measurements in Mutants & Masterminds 3E core rulebook: line spacing is smaller (~3.2 vs 3.7 mm) and fonts slightly bigger (~2.5 mm); someone check the numbers because they are hard to believe. It means wider glyphs too, but as the lines are a bit more compact, page number is not going to be affected 1:1. Stroke thickness seems same or a touch less (without reaching Captain Small Print levels). The M&M looks easier on the eyes. Damn, I was expecting a bigger difference than 0.2 mm for that visual change. It's interesting how multiple tiny touches accumulate to hurt readability. Yes, I can read it, but not "flow" like with many other books, it requires effort. I understand why some can get headaches. (Yeah, me practicing with the CMG and some a-n-d grenades. I am not writing a book here.)
My copy arrived today, and I had a chance to compare it side by side with the mini-rulebook for GW's latest edition. I think the Infinity text is slightly easier to read than the GW text, partially because the GW text is all black text on a grey background. The font is unusually small, but I don't think it's unfit for purpose. Disclaimer: I'm just entering the age where I'm losing the elasticity in my eyes. I can read text at arm's length on my monitor that becomes blurry and difficult to read when I put on my "driving" glasses.
All I can say at this point is that I'm getting a renew appreciation for the amount of skill that goes into being a typesetter as profession.
I have the books and luckily the text isn't too small for my eyes. But I wouldn't mind if the text was bigger. The criticism is justified. with bad eyes it can be difficult.
I'm still waiting on my copy, but one of the things that turned me off a little with Kaldstorm's book was that "two paragraphs per page" thing. The hardcover books were well done I thought, so it was a little disappointing that Kaldstrom went that way.
I don't have the print copies yet so I can't comment on the core fluff book. But I did take a look at the rules in acrobat to check font sizes. The smallest font used is 7 points in the index, credits and weapon profiles. The bulk of the rules are in Alegreya 8. I've annotated a couple of screenshots from the pdf below indicating the various fonts used.
8 points? Interesting... It looks smaller. @Mob of Blondes mentioned the rulebook for Mutants & Masterminds 3E. I have this book, too and I can confirm MoB's observations. The fonts in MnM 3E is larger only by 0.2 - 0.3 mm, but it's much more readable. Here's a comparison photo I took yesterday: Seriously, this is only 0.3 mm difference! And yet, the font in MnM 3E looks much bigger. I have no problem with reading it, personally. Maybe Alegreya is simply a bad font..?
The other font is much "taller". The proportions are different, the kerning is much cleaner and less "tight". Yes, the MnM3E font is much better, regardless of size. And then it's larger.
I've been going through my core book - doesn't really look too unusual to me. only thing out of the ordinary or tougher to read are some of the call out boxes, which feature lighter text on a light background. I design pharmaceutical pieces for medicare/part D patients for a living, I know how small text can get. for body copy this seems just a tad bit small but no where near the 5 or 4.5 size for footnotes and legal lines.
I don't see that much difference between the fonts. I think this is mostly a question of size. I chopped Varsovian's image to lay the same word next to each other. Then I cropped it and made a new image in PowerPoint show proportions. The font I used here is calibri at the sizes shown for comparison.I didn't want to shrink the captured image down to get 8 point text to match. So I just increased the fonts to match the image. The 28 point calibri is almost a perfect fit on the larger M&M text.The C has a slightly different shape. The 20 point letters are a tad too small for but close enough to see the ratio between the two sizes. 28 is two size jumps from 20. Two jumps from 8 gets you 10 for the actual M&M rulebook text. So it appears to me that the larger font in the M&M book is 10 points and that is enough to greatly improve readability.
Here's a comparison I made between the same words from N4 and MnM3: The MnM3 font is similar, but the size is bigger, the kerning isn't as tight and the font stroke is thinner. Really? I admit I didn't even try reading it after what I experienced after reading the rulebook. I looked at it now and the font there seems to be minimally smaller, indeed... Seriously, CB?
So here's an image showing what happens if you bump the alegreya font from 8 to 10. I only did it for 1 bullet point.
I'd still adjust the overly tight kerning and choose a thinner variant of the font but yeah, that's noticeably better on its own.
Kerning is generally a function of the font chosen. On a related note, use of a serif font, instead of a sans serif font, also improves readability. There is a reason that Times New Roman or its variants are used with such frequency. The use of 2 column pages too, which CB does. So, there's that.
