iCloud Font Looks Terrible

[nikkisharif]

So... I am curious to know why I am the only one so far to notice this. Could it be a browser issue? SURE, but all others who use stock settings with browsers would have to notice this as well.

I personally don't know many people with iDevices that go to iCloud.com so that may be the reason not many people have noticed the issue.

 

[Bmichael78]

No I don't. I think that this has been going on all day long and you have felt you have finally been rubbed the wrong way because of my comments and not really knowing me. I at times like to try and get a rise from someone and It is harmless fun but not knowing me, You would not know that. I am harmless, mean nothing by it and if you feel there is something wrong that ids why I mentioned about so many different computers, browsers and fonts. i think you might be a little sensitive but I can't blame you when you want an answer so I can be big enough to say to you, Get to know me better and if you feel like you are owed an apology i have no problem in telling you that I am sorry you took my comments wrong. I have never said anything deragatory or mean spirited towards you and suppose i just think it was funny that this went on all day. That is my burden and i wish you well in trying to figure out a solution that goes well with you.

PS the last thing i will ever do it tell you or try to shut you up, No matter what the conversation is, talk is talk and better than trying to censor someone which is the last thing I would ever try to do to you.

Wow. That's it. Just...wow.


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[anon(4698833)]

I guess I'm just not seeing the problem...looking all over iCloud on my MBP, I'm not seeing any significant difference (not even seeing the differences shown in the screen caps in your original post).

 

[anon(5140585)]

Here's mine from a Windows 7 PC: FF, IE11, and Chrome
View attachment 49908
View attachment 49909
View attachment 49910

They look ok to me except that it is not a retina screen so the font looks slightly pixelated (although it is a 1080p 22" monitor).

Thank you very much for taking the time to do that. So since you used the EXACT same browsers on a Windows 7 PC, it must be how the graphics card renders the font. All font on other sites look normal and iMore font looks crisp, clear, and pleasing. Guess that is that, thanks for all the input.

 

[iN8ter]

Here are my screenshots. The font and the 'r' and 't' look ok to me here. Safari, Chrome, FF on rMBP.
View attachment 49564
View attachment 49566
View attachment 49567

The spacing between the letters is not consistent in those screen shots. The first picture almost looks like two words instead of one. The h and d have too much space between them.

I have noticed the issues the OP brings up using IE on Windows 8. I use no other browsers and am not installing any redundant apps on my PC to check. No one should have to do that.

Do not have this issue in any other web apps or sites. Maybe it has something to so with the font apple uses?

In any case it's a fairly widespread problem because I've done a little research on it a few months ago. That site has always been like that, btw.


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[iN8ter]

I personally don't know many people with iDevices that go to iCloud.com so that may be the reason not many people have noticed the issue.

Those of us without macs that want to move documents to iWork's go to iCloud web portal.

Unless there is a version of this software for windows I haven't heard of yet, in which case I'd gladly pay for it for the convenience.


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[Oskar Kubica]

Hi, you are right. Text rendering on old displays is really bad and icloud with use of Helvetica Neue type is especially eye kicking. My guess is that people with old displays will go to apple store one day and suddenly realize how beautiful the icloud looks on retina displays (say macbook pro). In such an occasion customer feel another argument why buy a new retina capable mac and why to hate his own old computer.

Just for comparison, that's what I have to face daily on my old NEC monitor (via Chrome, win 8)



The top arches from n, m, b, e and s are one pixel higher than top finish of u and r strokes. That result in „jumping“ while reading which is very unpleasant depending on one's expectation of typographic quality.

 

[pggirvin]

I have a large Apple display, but it is about 6 years old, and the fonts in iCloud randomly jump one pixel up and down too. Odd that it doesn't happen on any other site. I suppose it likely is related to the fonts perhaps being optimized for retina display, as you suggest.

 

[ivan_balajic]

Sorry for replaying to this old thread but when I saw this I just had to....... Anyway I also checked and its the same on my windows PC with chrome, with "r" being lower than the rest and "e" standing a bit higher. I think the issue here is how windows handles font rendering. Windows breaks the shape of letters to fit them into a pixel grid so they appear slightly sharper and more readable on low res screens, while OS X is sticks to original shape of the letter and doesn't follow the pixel grid which results in slightly blurrier looking text on low res screens. And someone mentioned they only see this on iCloud.com and not on other sites,that's probably because iCloud uses Helvetica Neue which is very uniform and any deformations are easily visible and Helvetica generally looks awful on sub-retina screens. And the reason you don't see this on other websites is becuase windows dosen't have Helvetica Neue so no website can use it(even tho that same website has Helvetica Neue when you look at it from OS X) and I have no idea how apple got Helvetica Neue to display on a system that doesn't actually have it but you can obviously see the side effects.