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A retired type guy in Portland told me he checks kerning by squinting at 3am, and I finally tried it
I met a retired type designer at a coffee shop in Portland last month and he mentioned he only proofs his kerning when he's dead tired, squinting at the word from across the room. I thought it sounded silly until I tried it on my own serif project around 2am and suddenly saw three pairs that were way too loose. Turns out when you're sleepy your brain stops reading the word and just sees the shapes, which is exactly what you want. I fixed all three in about 10 minutes after staring at them for an hour earlier that day. Does anyone else have a weird trick like this, or am I just making excuses to work late?
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averymitchell17h ago
Sleepy brain sees shapes not words, same reason I spot typos in signs driving past.
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theabennett17h ago
Wait, so that's why I can read a stop sign from half a block away but completely blank on what it actually said five seconds later? Honestly my sleepy brain does the same thing with my phone, I'll stare at a text and the letters just turn into little bugs crawling around. Then I look again and it says something totally normal and I feel like an idiot for squinting at it for a full minute. Maybe we should all just stop trying to read anything until we've had coffee. The signs are fine, it's us.
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