When we launched the redesign, some of you complained that the new font, Segoe UI, looked like crap.

Unfortunately, while it’s a beautiful font when displayed right, it looks bad on many Windows XP systems. That’s because Windows XP uses different “font smoothing” systems depending on your settings, and some of them don’t play well with Segoe.

XP didn’t come with Segoe, but if you installed a newer version of MS Office or another MS product, it installed Segoe. You’d think Microsoft wouldn’t release a font without ensuring it looks good on their own operating systems, but no such luck.

Therefore, I’ve modified the site to recommend different fonts based on your operating system. If you’re using Windows Vista or Windows 7, you should see Segoe. If you’re using anything else, you should now see Trebuchet MS, the font we used for the old site.

Here’s a comparison:

  1. (This should be an image of Segoe UI but you aren't seeing it for some reason.)
  2. This is Segoe UI if your system has it, otherwise fixed-width Courier.
  3. (This should be an image of Trebuchet MS but you aren't seeing it for some reason.)
  4. This is the font chosen for your system.

If you use Vista or Windows 7, then the font chosen (#4) should match the picture of Segoe (#1), which should be identical to #2, your computer’s Segoe.

If you have a different operating system, then the chosen font (#4) should match Trebuchet MS (#3) instead.

All this shouldn’t matter at all on computers without Segoe, including Macs. Web pages can specify a series of fonts, and if the system lacks the first font, it just moves on down the line. Trebuchet was always the backup to Segoe, so if you don’t have Segoe, your font has never changed.

You can help tune this by providing some information in the comments if you have Segoe installed (line #2 looks just like or somewhat like line #1), but the site is rendering in Trebuchet (like #4 looks like line #3). If that’s true, please post this information:

  1. Does line #2 look good or bad?
  2. Does line #2 look just like line #1, similar but different, or totally different?
  3. What operating system are you using?

Most importantly, if the site is still rendering in Segoe but the site still looks bad, please email me a screen shot and tell me your operating system and browser version so that I can try to improve it.

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Tagged: about ggwash, meta

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.