XYplorer Beta Club

Hello
What are the favorite fonts and size (ctrl) spacing (ctrl + shift) that others find easy to read using XYplorer?
Any preference for fonts found online? Any preference for background color?
For the background I am currently using a very light gray E1E1E1
Plus can you use an image for a background?

I have used Tacoma, Segoe UI, Verdana, Calibri. I want the font to be just a bit darker then what I can find with the fonts listed.
What I am using for the moment is: open-sans semi-bold which is pretty good for me.

Here is a site for fonts I am looking at: http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/list/recent
So many......


David

davidhelp wrote:Hello
What are the favorite fonts and size (ctrl) spacing (ctrl + shift) that others find easy to read using XYplorer?
Any preference for fonts found online? Any preference for background color?

I have long been a proponent of serif fonts, after reading a footnote in Tufte's Visual Display of Quantitative Information about serif fonts being generally easier to read because the eye catches on to the little serifs while reading. The one serif font I have been using for decades is CENTURY.TTF, which is a Century Schoolbook font with a little more narrow spacing than the traditional one. This my global font everywhere throughout Windows. Windows 10 made it harder to configure a global font, but there are hacks one can do to make it happen.

For colors, I've long been using only shades of grey, so that the only color on the screen comes from icons, application content, etc. Once again, Windows 10 has really screwed this up and removed total control over system colors. You can get the old settings to work via registry keys but they don't stick. One color that doesn't stick, is the background color for menu and toolbars. I have always found that icons looks best on a light grey background, not white. So it would be great if XYplorer provided it's own custom color control for those UI elements.

I prefer Serif fonts, too: I find them more clear and enjoyable to look at. Usually I need to enlarge fonts because in modern monitors they are always too small for comfortable reading (at least for my eyes).
In XY I've set Palatino Linotype 11.25 bold black (and 14.25 in Text boxes, so I can read full pages with ease).
With these values, I've no need to change size and spacing via Ctrl+mouse weel.
Before, I had a simple white background, but since Win 10 started to blind me with all its white glow, I had to tone it down a little, so now the active panel background is F2F3F7, while the inactive panel background is CBD6D6.
I saw other File managers with photos as folders background, but I think they are really annoying: how can you see clearly your files (and the color filters!!!) with a colorful image behind them? I don't think I could work that way.

Well I'd better preface this with my patented Semicodin Disclaimer™ . . .

I am a Font Snob. I cringe at the thought of using anything other than an Adobe Type1 Postscript font. There is simply no equal, and I'm sorry — OTF, TTF, EOT, WOFF, Son-of-WOFF, Grandson-of-WOFF — they are all inferior to a Type1 font no matter how many times an attempt is made to replicate them in any format not postscript. When you see display options in Windows (even Browsers) prompting you to "Smooth Fonts" you're looking at just one of many workarounds that programs use for displaying a non-postscript font that's readable. The closest you'll get in True Type/Open Font Type is LUCIDA CONSOLE. Its reputation is legendary: If you can't afford a postscript font, this and old standby ARIAL (HELVETICA, the original postscript font it was modeled after) will get you about as close to readability as you can get in non-postscript. Coders in particular are grateful Microsoft managed to cough up at least one Monospace font that (more or less) can be read.

My absolute favorite font is Bitstream's Letter Gothic 12 Pitch. This is a Monospace (Fixed-Pitch) Postscript (Type1) font with the traditional 100% Scalability that only a T1 can provide. Render this baby in the smallest size imaginable and you will be able to read it. I've popped her in at 4 PTS — Standard (Regular), not bolded! — and still she can be read.

She's beaten many contenders down through the years: Monospace 821 and Prestige 12 Pitch Roman (both Bitstream and Monospace/Fixed Pitch) and Bitstream's Swiss 721 for all of its numerous variations (hollow, fat, condensed, extra condensed, extra extra condensed, etc.) — an astounding 33 variations! are installed on my computer. Like Arial (and better even than Helvetica) but far superior. Hope this helps.