Feedback Why do tildes display as dashes?

  • 🔧 At about Midnight EST I am going to completely fuck up the site trying to fix something.
Absolutego

Absolutego

It keeps the rain off my head
Retired Staff
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kiwifarms.net
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Apr 30, 2016
A common way to write a figure as approximate is to put a tilde in front of it, like the third line in this image:

7CPQL.png


When displayed in the post writing window, that character displays properly, but when posted it turns into a dash. Below I wrote (tilde)25% is not equal to (negative)25%:

~25% != -25%

As you can see it's displaying two dashes instead of a tilde and a dash. Any idea what might be causing the issue?
 
Our primary font for all user-generated content (UGC) is Quattrocento. And yes, my biggest gripe as someone moderately interested in typography and fonts is that the tilde is indistinguishable from the dash. It is an inexcusable oversight for an otherwise fantastic font.

Quattrocento
xkdQ2Jp.png


Okay, I'm going to try out a bunch of different fonts.

Alegreya, not a fan. Too dense!
rDKbGX5.png


Lora. Pretty good ~ !
o9OF7Rc.png


I think #TeamLora is a winner. Very close to Quattrocento, but a bit thicker and with a better tilde. Wew.

https://fonts.google.com/selection?selection.family=Lato|Lora|Open+Sans

We use Open Sans for most forum text (including chat), Lato for titles specifically, and Lora for message bodies.


Round 2

Merriweather
nTebRT6.png


Georgia
yFiT1NH.png

Libre Caslon Text
UQcC18d.png


Libre Baskerville
GFuT9UI.png


Gentium Basic
76cwRRw.png
 
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Null said:
Our primary font for all user-generated content (UGC) is Quattrocento. And yes, my biggest gripe as someone moderately interested in typography and fonts is that the tilde is indistinguishable from the dash. It is an inexcusable oversight for an otherwise fantastic font.

Quattrocento
xkdQ2Jp.png


Okay, I'm going to try out a bunch of different fonts.
Click to expand...

So that's the name of this forum's font, eh? It looks pretty 80s to me, and that's good a thing.
 
CanofSoda said:
So that's the name of this forum's font, eh? It looks pretty 80s to me, and that's good a thing.
Click to expand...
It's been pointed out to me before that we are pretty weird for using a serif font in message bodies when the en vogue thing is to use serif exclusively for titles.

We originally used Open Sans everywhere but several people complained about sans serif fonts being harder to read, so my design changed accordingly. More people complained about Open Sans being harder to read than serif fonts being harder to read... as no one has complained to me about serif fonts being hard to read, they just point out it's "backwards". I'm tempted to say those studies claiming serif fonts are only easier to read in print are wrong.
 
People often have a hang-up on serif fonts feeling too formal for message boards, but I've never had an issue with it. There's a reason they caught on as much as they have over the centuries.

In any case, thanks for the new font! A bunch of my posts now make actual sense rather than looking like I'm complaining about negative percentages.
 
Null said:
as no one has complained to me about serif fonts being hard to read, they just point out it's "backwards". I'm tempted to say those studies claiming serif fonts are only easier to read in print are wrong.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm a bit "backwards" myself so I'm not complaining. lol and the serif fonts have always been pretty easy for me to read on here at least. Yet again, I've always been told that I have very good eyesight so maybe Im not exactly the best judge.
 
Absolutego said:
People often have a hang-up on serif fonts feeling too formal for message boards
Click to expand...
That works in our favor. I like the term "ironic professionalism" describing things like Kiwi Farms and Cock.li
 
Hmm, it seems kinda meh to me. Might be cause it's a bit larger — god forbid having to scroll through one of @Jaimas's textwalls with this.
 
I don't like any of them compared to glorious Quattrocento...

I've asked @copypaste to edit the Quattrocento font files to have a real tilde. He's way better at fonts than me.
https://twitter.com/ItsJoshProbably/status/870685552743333895

@Absolutego apologies but I've switched it back to Quattrocento for the time being. I'd advise using the font selector in the editor to make your tildes Courier New or Georgia in the time being.
 
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Anyone who even pretends like they can tell the difference between 75% of fonts is a lying piece of shit.
 
Null said:
It's been pointed out to me before that we are pretty weird for using a serif font in message bodies when the en vogue thing is to use serif exclusively for titles.
Click to expand...

It lends a certain dignity to our shitposting forum.

Gym Leader Elesa said:
Anyone who even pretends like they can tell the difference between 75% of fonts is a lying piece of shit.
Click to expand...

Any time the font has changed even slightly, there has been a thread REEEEEEing about it within minutes.

I personally probably wouldn't notice if you changed it to a similar serif font that worked well in white on black with the Dark theme, but if you changed it into some shitty font or a sans font, I would.

Whatever happened, someone out there would REEEE nearly immediately.
 
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Libre Baskerville looks nice for me.

Large, legible, and the characters are spaced nicely.
 
Absolutego said:
Courier New only looks fitting in green text over a black background.
Click to expand...

I'm used to seeing it in black on white paper, and thousands of pages of it at a time. It's sort of an old friend.
 
Massive Necro, but the Terrible Tilde is back:

Tildes:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dashes:
----------------
 
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