Fonts in 1.3 apply Open Sans to article text?

EDIT: The title should say "Fonts in 1. 3—apply Open Sans to article text?" My dash disappeared.

I posted a version of this in the main 1.3 thread. Didn't get much of a response, so I thought I'd float it out here.

I'd like to discuss the font choices in the redesign. Currently, nearly everything besides body text uses Open Sans, which appears to be pulled straight from Google's servers with every page load. This includes article and forum titles, the headers, the sidebar, and the index bars. Body text, including article text and everything in a forum post, uses the browser's sans-serif default, which for me is Helvetica. According to UsefulNotes.Fonts, the default is typically Helvetica on Mac and its Suspiciously Similar Substitute, Arial, on Windows.

On the Query pages (Ask The Tropers, etc.) this is opposite—the title and introductory text use the browser default, while posts use Open Sans.

The editing window also uses Open Sans, though there have been multiple calls to return to Courier or another monospaced font for editing. The monospace markup, which previously used Courier (or the browser's monospace default), now renders according to this code:

 font-family: Menlo,Monaco,Consolas,"Courier New",monospace; 

This essentially means that nearly all Macs will show Menlo in the above box, while most Windows machines will show Consolas. We could use this same string for the edit boxes; both fonts match up well with Open Sans.

Other than for editing, I like the choice of Open Sans, and I wish it had been applied to article text as well. Helvetica is seen as the typeface to use for anything (and Arial as the one you use when you can't get Helvetica), and while versatile, it's also overused and boring. While I could change my browser default to anything I want, that would affect non–TV Tropes pages as well, and I'd rather see TV Tropes expand on its own style. Open Sans is readable and friendly-looking, and has a true italic style type, as opposed to Helvetica's oblique. (Oblique type compared to italics.) We use italics for emphasis, especially of work names, frequently on the wiki and it'd be nice to see real italic text.

This is the Open Sans source page, with examples of its styles. Note the softer look of the a, e, and f letters in italic vs. roman (upright).

If Open Sans is applied to body text, article titles might need another font for contrast (though in the previous design they did not); perhaps a complimentary serif design from Google Fonts, as Open Sans is. Google recommends Merriweather.

On another note, after some complaints, the curly script used for titles on Sugar Wiki pages was changed to a simpler Comic Sans–esque font. I liked the previous one and wish the devs hadn't caved on that point. I haven't been able to identify either of those, but the Darth Wiki font is Special Elite.

I'm thinking of making a Query Wishlist post along these lines. Other thoughts?

edited 22nd Feb '16 3:04:47 PM by HeraldAlberich

For context, the first pic uses standard Arial, and the second uses Open Sans.

There's definitely an appeal to it...

Why, thank you, that does look nice.

The font used in the titles of Sugar Wiki, Awesome, and Heartwarming pages is Delius. I still prefer the previous curlicue font; wish I knew what it was. If we're to go with Delius, we could at least use the swash caps variation.

Edit: The typewriter font on WMG pages is Lekton.

edited 28th Feb '16 8:40:08 PM by HeraldAlberich

I just now realized (since I don't go there very often) that there's a perfect example of how articles would look in Open Sans: YKTTW uses it. They're put together in an interesting typeface, then they get published and revert to a boring browser default.