Amazon's Thin Helvetica Syndrome: Font Anorexia vs. Kindle Readability (teleread.com)

Posted by timothy on Friday February 5, 2016 @06:26AM from the hey-tell-that-to-the-highway-sign-folks dept.

David Rothman writes: The Thin Helvetica Syndrome arises from the latest Kindle upgrade and has made e-books less readable for some. In the past, e-book-lovers who needed more perceived-contrast between text and background could find at least partial relief in Helvetica because the font was heavy by Kindle standards. But now some users complain that the 5.7.2 upgrade actually made Helvetica thinner. Of course, the real cure would be an all-text bold option for people who need it, or even a way to adjust font weight, a feature of Kobo devices. But Amazon stubbornly keeps ignoring user pleas even though the cost of adding either feature would be minimal. Isn't this supposed to be a customer-centric company?

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Re:"customer-centric" by MightyMartian · 2016-02-05 06:59 · Score: 4, Informative

You simply need to pick a different route. Epubee and FBReader do the job for me. Even better, I actually have an unencrypted copy of the epub, just in case there is some sort of "licensing" issue.

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The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Re:Trend towards illegibility by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-05 07:12 · Score: 5, Informative

Join the fight!
http://contrastrebellion.com
Re:Trend towards illegibility by jeffb+(2.718) · 2016-02-05 08:13 · Score: 4, Informative

My kingdom for mod points.
Seriously, everybody go look at this website, now linkified for your convenience.
http://contrastrebellion.com
It's concise; it won't take much of your time. And if you're too cool to cope with high-contrast text, well, feel free to smear some Vaseline on your horn-rimmed glasses before following the link.