Kerning.js
Languages and libraries
javascript library
SHOW HN2011
154points
30comments
#55of 1,097 in 2011
Top 6%of 2011 by points
How HN took it
RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical
0 positive, 5 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 13 critical, out of 21 comments about the project. Thread score -0.50.
Execution: 0 for, 4 againstDesign: 0 for, 4 againstIdea: 0 for, 3 againstPerformance: 0 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Nice work and declarative CSS approach
From 2 comments
Nice work. I like how it all stays declarative in the CSS too. I would recommend outsourcing your parsing though. It's a tough job and things like CSS hacks can really take your…
paulirish on HNGreat library, great work - kudos to you for tackling a very tricky subject (I'm staying well away from CSS parsing and typography ... for now) My only concern is whether this is…
josscrowcroft on HN
Objections
Performance cost from wrapping characters in spans
From 3 comments
What's the performance penalty for wrapping every character in a span? Is it meant for titles only (honest question)?
tambourine_man on HNPretty sure everything about this library is terrible for performance. I cringe to say this, but I might even recommend using images of text over this.
joshfraser on HNCompletely broken in Firefox, takes ages to load in Chrome. Can't imagine why anyone sane would want to use this library if the cost is so severe. Doing it declaratively through…
kevingadd on HN
Flash of unstyled content and reliance on JavaScript
From 2 comments
Yea, but there is flash of un-styled content. There is no way around it because the style has to be applied by the javascript. That is not production ready in my opinion. The way…
voidfiles on HNApparently doesn't work with no-script, even when allowing the whole page. I suppose there is some cross scripting going on? Or is it because my iceweasel 3.5.16 from…
loup-vaillant on HN
Breaks screen readers and SEO
From 2 comments
While pretty, this really messes up screen readers: as each letter gets wrapped in a span, the letters are read out one at a time.
joelanman on HNDoes wrapping everything in spans and divs impede SEO in any way? i.e. Google aside, does Bing and other crawlers interpret: <span>Perfect</span> To be the same as: <span> <span…
darylteo on HN
Misuses vendor prefixes
From 2 comments
This library is misusing vendor prefixes :(... -webkit-* should be an area for WebKit to define custom CSS property, not for this library to tag things "only if using WebKit". If…
saurik on HNCompletely broken in Firefox, takes ages to load in Chrome. Can't imagine why anyone sane would want to use this library if the cost is so severe. Doing it declaratively through…
kevingadd on HN
Poor cross-browser support
From 2 comments
Not very cross-browser, is it? Even the page itself lays out entirely wrong on Opera.
skrebbel on HNCompletely broken in Firefox, takes ages to load in Chrome. Can't imagine why anyone sane would want to use this library if the cost is so severe. Doing it declaratively through…
kevingadd on HN
Requests
Simpler syntax and copy-paste examples
From 1 comment
Great library, great work - kudos to you for tackling a very tricky subject (I'm staying well away from CSS parsing and typography ... for now) My only concern is whether this is…
josscrowcroft on HN
Questions
How it differs from kernjs.com
From 1 comment
How does this differ from http://www.kernjs.com/ ?
audionerd on HN
Whether wrapping in spans affects SEO
From 1 comment
Does wrapping everything in spans and divs impede SEO in any way? i.e. Google aside, does Bing and other crawlers interpret: <span>Perfect</span> To be the same as: <span> <span…
darylteo on HN
Alternatives named
kernjs.com
From 1 comment
How does this differ from http://www.kernjs.com/ ?
audionerd on HN
lettering.js
From 1 comment
Do people use things like this? I recently read Robert Bringhurst's excellent Elements of Typographic Style, but have no idea how to apply it to the web. (There is an effort to…
socratic on HN
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility
From 1 comment
Speaking of kerning, here's a simple CSS declaration for modern browsers: ``` text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; ``` ... which will give you improved handling of kerning pairs…
audionerd on HN