Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wuarchive!uunet!midway!msuinfo!rang From: rang@cs.wisc.edu (Anton Rang) Newsgroups: comp.org.acm Subject: Re: New Look of CACM Message-ID: Date: 7 May 91 04:17:26 GMT References: <1991May3.162751.14138@kentrox.uucp> Sender: news@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu Distribution: na Organization: UW-Madison CS department Lines: 46 In-Reply-To: peter@kentrox.uucp's message of 3 May 91 16:27:51 GMT In article <1991May3.162751.14138@kentrox.uucp> peter@kentrox.uucp (Peter Uchytil) writes: >Table of Contents: Fonts are hard to scan. Fonts in general seem to be a problem in the new format. I've noticed all of the following: * They use fonts with weird proportions--too skinny, or too stretched out--a lot. This shows up mainly in titles, though at least for a while I think the figure captions were the same. (My CACM collection's at home, I can't check right now.) * The titles in general are difficult to read, especially when they put part in great huge letters and part in small letters, and have it against a colored active background. I'd prefer to see some nice bold font, with a consistent size, if they're going to put it against a busy background. * The footnotes in the current issue are nice, except for putting the code excerpts in a very heavy font which makes them stand out incredibly much. Generally, if they'd stick with fonts which had more standard proportions, I'd be happier. Oh, and the introduction to the special section was *impossible* to read this month. (OK, so I suffered through it, but the first three times I read about a sentence and my eyes started to hurt.) >What makes it so difficult to read? Inconsistent use of fonts--that's my main complaint at the moment. (They finally seem to have gotten the use of color under control, though I'll reserve judgment for a few more issues.) A few months ago, they were even setting C-heads in a larger font than B-heads (arrrrgh).... >I'm not talking about content now, just format (that is what everyone is >complaining about, right?). Yeah. See if you can dig out a CACM from early last year, maybe, to see what the format used to be like. I'm really not sure why they decided to change it. Anton +---------------------------+------------------+-------------+----------------+ | Anton Rang (grad student) | rang@cs.wisc.edu | UW--Madison | "VMS Forever!" | +---------------------------+------------------+-------------+----------------+