[KyPainter]

I really like being able to exclude some of the subforums, how about adding some more (or all) to the list? I have no interest in film, medium format, or compact camera stuff. Ditto the forum activity and statistics at the bottom of the page. I've never looked at that stuff on any of the dozens of forums I've been a member of. Sure, I can click the arrow and slide it up and out of sight, but the info is still there and the bandwidth is still wasted.

I don't like too much white space, but even worse is a screen full of stuff I never use that slows down page loading, wastes both our bandwidths, and makes me look for what I want.

[K-9]

Well, this is the only site where I met this problem of really bad readible text.
I go back to the old lay-out until this problem is solved.
I do not have the impression that something is wrong with my settings since I have never experienced this before.

I use Windows Vista and Firefox as browser.

There's just too many of us with this problem (and the problem only occurs on this website) for it to be our settings. It's definitely a problem within the site.

[johnmflores]

I have a 25" LED 1080p monitor, and my Safari appearance is set to:

Standard Font - Times 19
Fixed Width Font - Courier 18

FWIW, I just tried the site with Safari 5.0.5/Mac 10.6.8 and these font settings and could not replicate the problem.

I also tried turning of LCD font smoothing and tried several non-native resolutions. I got some distortion of the font, but not the exact problem that you are noticing. What is the native resolution of your monitor and what resolution are you running currently?

The fact that this is not happening with other websites does suggest that it's a problem with the site, but I can't think of anything within the stylesheet that would cause this.

Adam, have you used Adobe Browser Lab? https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html#

[Adam]

This style was designed to support modern standards and browsers and has been tested in every major browser out there. While this font issue seems strange, chances are that it's not a bug on our end but rather just an incompatibility with your setup. However, if my designer finds that there's anything we can do on our end to fix the problem (apart from turning away from font embedding), then we'll certainly do that.

FYI the font used for posts is in the WOFF format, which is not yet an official standard but is widely-supported. This might cause problems on some systems, but I can't say for sure. It's supported by all the latest browsers.

You can read about it on wikipedia: Web Open Font Format - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What you can try to do is remove the 'Open Sans' font from the pn_postmessage style using a web debugger (F12). That will make posts use arial and if that looks ok, then we will know that the other font is somehow incompatible with your setup.

Adam
PentaxForums.com Webmaster (Site Usage Guide | Site Help | My Photography)



PentaxForums.com server and development costs are user-supported. You can help cover these costs by donating or purchasing one of our Pentax eBooks. Or, buy your photo gear from our affiliates, Adorama, B&H Photo, KEH, or Topaz Labs, and get FREE Marketplace access - click here to see how! Trusted Pentax retailers:

[theunartist]

Hey Adam...

FWIW - out of curiosity I tried the new site on the latest version of Internet Explorer 8 running XP+ and found the "modern" buttons in the lower left corner do not work; i.e. do not change skin at all. All the buttons for classic skin as well as the simple skin do work.

Tried this on 2 different machines running windows and latest IE...

[Adam]

Hey Adam...

FWIW - out of curiosity I tried the new site on the latest version of Internet Explorer 8 running XP+ and found the "modern" buttons in the lower left corner do not work; i.e. do not change skin at all. All the buttons for classic skin as well as the simple skin do work.

Tried this on 2 different machines running windows and latest IE...

IE 8 doesn't support our new skin- you need to be using IE 9 or later. On the old IEs, the old skin is automatically forced, so you'll have to use a different browser if you're still on xp.

[newarts]

IE 8 doesn't support our new skin- you need to be using IE 9 or later. On the old IEs, the old skin is automatically forced, so you'll have to use a different browser if you're still on xp.

FYI the font used for posts is in the WOFF format, which is not yet an official standard but is widely-supported.

I think these are great examples of why developers should purposefully avoid using new features that are not backwards compatible.

The majority of users will not be at the leading edge and many may not be able to get there due to device limitations. Hence it is wise to lag a bit in the use of features unsupported by the last generation of technology.

Fully functional websites can be developed with basic html. In the quest for communication, content delivery must take precedence over style.

Young developers seem especially driven to push the envelope by purposely using new features even if there's no real value added.

What you can try to do is remove the 'Open Sans' font from the pn_postmessage style using a web debugger (F12). That will make posts use arial and if that looks ok, then we will know that the other font is somehow incompatible with your setup.

Your average user has no idea of what you are talking about here Such confusion can be easily avoided by having the developer use non-leading edge features.

PS... I like the new font & it works well for me but I sure won't be crushed if it is changed to something safe for all users; in fact I'd prefer you change it if that'd prevent losing users.

---

Last edited by newarts; 07-26-2011 at 08:34 AM.

[v5planet]

PS... I like the new font & it works well for me but I sure won't be crushed if it is changed to something safe for all users; in fact I'd prefer you change it if that'd prevent losing users.

Progressive enhancement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

:-)

[newarts]

Progressive enhancement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

:-)

Whoa! That's great - Years ago I was a developer who deplored the replacement of semantic tags with layout tricks and tags. I retired about the same time style sheets came along.

Thanks for the link....It is good to see there is hope!

[theunartist]

The majority of users will not be at the leading edge and many may not be able to get there due to device limitations. Hence it is wise to lag a bit in the use of features unsupported by the last generation of technology.

Fully functional websites can be developed with basic html. In the quest for communication, content delivery must take precedence over style.

I agree!

Conservatively speaking, stats show at least 1 in 2 users are still using some version of Windows XP or older... more people surf the internet using Google Chrome than IE 9+... of all IE versions being used today only @ 3% use IE 9+. More people still surf the internet using IE, of all IE version IE 8 is far and away the most used and second in total users percentage is Google Chrome...

We all don't want to be using some version of Firefox if that's the case...

[Adam]

Ie8 users are about 40% of all ie users, and less than 10% of all users. This majority doesn't change that fact that it's a broken browser, though.

[theunartist]

Ie8 users are about 40% of all ie users, and less than 10% of all users. This majority doesn't change that fact that it's a broken browser, though.

Same kinda broken like... say Google Chrome... right?

[Kammerer]

I agree!

Conservatively speaking, stats show at least 1 in 2 users are still using some version of Windows XP or older... more people surf the internet using Google Chrome than IE 9+... of all IE versions being used today only @ 3% use IE 9+. More people still surf the internet using IE, of all IE version IE 8 is far and away the most used and second in total users percentage is Google Chrome...

We all don't want to be using some version of Firefox if that's the case...

We can still use older browsers, it's just that the site may not look best in them. It is designed to look best in modern browsers. This is a common trend, modern web applications need modern browser support. See for example Gmail help:

Beginning August 1, 2011, we’ll support the current and previous major releases of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis. Each time a new version is released, we’ll begin supporting that version and stop supporting the third-oldest version.

I do not see what is the big problem here. It takes few minutes to upgrade from IE8 to IE9, for instance. I'd prefer the forum team focus on improving the forum interface and content, rather than spending time on supporting obsolete browsers.

[oliver939]

personnality , i dont like this new look at all.
the light color of the green over white page is difficult to read
the fonts use do not show up nicely

i dont mind a new look but this need some improvement IMHO. it would be interesting to see the forum visit statistics since it has been implemented (i was so disturbed that spend less time here recently).

now i understood there's a way to switch back to old display, i'll try and hope it works

[v5planet]

Ie8 users are about 40% of all ie users, and less than 10% of all users. This majority doesn't change that fact that it's a broken browser, though.

Is that based on stats specific to the pentaxforums.com domain? Because I have never seen such a generously low estimation of internet users on outdated versions of IE.

This is information collected by the W3Counter, aggregated from nearly 50 thousand websites:
W3Counter - Global Web Stats

In June 2011 the number one browser was IE8, constituting 20.42% of ALL users. IE7 made up 7.96%. The newest version, IE9, the only version of IE that is compatible with this forum update, claims just 5.07%, barely edging out the 10-year old IE6 (itself at 2.88%)...