# Tiny Grey Type?



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Wondering what others think of this newish trend......

I note a current trend in web formatting and often in printed matter these days--the growing use of pale grey or pale blue type, often quite tiny, as the normal default for copy. I don't know for sure why this is happening but put it down, not to consumer demand, but rather to the follow-the-leader mentality of the herd to ape what they believe is The Design Latest Thing. Also, in so many cases, programmers/designers are constantly "improving" sites that were perfectly good to begin with, in order to justify being at their work stations. Perhaps they could devote their efforts to actually making sites more user-friendly and intuitive (as they tell us they are) by putting their "improvements" out there for serious review by a large and mixed test group--Is this better, worse, or just a waste of time, money, and user approval. As someone who worked for decades in the printing industry, I have seen these waves of cleverness come and go in print design, but to no useful end--people like type they can read and that melts away into unconsciousness so that the message itself is the key player and is not lost behind the self-importance of the typeface.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

Strange Magic said:


> Wondering what others think of this newish trend......
> 
> I note a current trend in web formatting and often in printed matter these days--the growing use of pale grey or pale blue type, often quite tiny, as the normal default for copy. I don't know for sure why this is happening but put it down, not to consumer demand, but rather to the follow-the-leader mentality of the herd to ape what they believe is The Design Latest Thing. Also, in so many cases, programmers/designers are constantly "improving" sites that were perfectly good to begin with, in order to justify being at their work stations. Perhaps they could devote their efforts to actually making sites more user-friendly and intuitive (as they tell us they are) by putting their "improvements" out there for serious review by a large and mixed test group--Is this better, worse, or just a waste of time, money, and user approval. As someone who worked for decades in the printing industry, I have seen these waves of cleverness come and go in print design, but to no useful end--people like type they can read and that melts away into unconsciousness so that the message itself is the key player and is not lost behind the self-importance of the typeface.


Well I've already changed to the dark mode because the light mode was difficult to see.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

The instructions that came with my new Apple Pencil, although brief, almost defeated me. And I was using a lighted reading glass.


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