KernType
Games
typography game
SHOW HN2011
How HN took it
16 positive, 12 neutral or asking, 4 mixed, 7 critical, out of 39 comments about the project. Thread score +0.18.
Idea: 8 for, 1 againstExecution: 2 for, 5 againstDesign: 4 for, 1 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
Fun, simple and beautiful game with a smooth, intuitive interface.
From 4 comments
Fun, simple, & beautiful. Though, I wish I could turn my monitor upside down.
stuartjmoore on HNGreat fun! I also like that you can submit your own version if you think it’s better. It’s a nice touch that visibly acknowledges the subjectiveness of the game.
ugh on HNNice! Beautiful well thought design, nicely balanced game, and such an intuitive way to understand kerning: let your visual intuition guide you. One suggestion: a way to move…
stephth on HNBrilliant and fun. All those years of hand kerning type pays off, finally.
Adaptive on HN
Keyboard shortcuts match Photoshop and it works on touch devices like iPad.
From 2 comments
Uses same shortcuts as Photoshop -- so if you are a hard-core kerner in Photoshop, try out the same keys. Pretty slick!
bprater on HNPleasantly surprised that it worked perfectly on my iPad with touch and dragging. I always read HN on my iPad and so many sites, especially anything keyboard driven, become…
zachwaugh on HN
Clever way to crowdsource kerning or teach design.
From 3 comments
nicking an idea from a friend on IRC: you should set this up as a service for like $5 to crowdsource kerning for logos
Palomides on HNI like it. Very much like Luis von Ahn's "human computation" projects (reCAPTCHA, etc)
tlrobinson on HNI think this is a really clever way to get people interested in your upcoming courses. I enjoyed the short test, did much better than I thought I would, and look forward to…
forbes on HN
Objections
Letters start too far apart so the game is subjective and hard to judge.
From 2 comments
I tried this a couple of times, but the first and last letters seem so far apart that this becomes less about "make it look good" and more about "make it look less terrible". I…
JoshTriplett on HNGreat game, though a bit subjective.
rorrr on HN
Selected letters are hard to see; deselecting by clicking elsewhere fails in some browsers.
From 2 comments
Please let me deselect letters while I'm kerning them. I find it hard to see the spacing with one letter in bright blue.
endtwist on HNFor the first three or so I could de-select by clicking elsewhere, but then it no longer worked. My Google Chrome version string is "14.0.835.202 (Official Build 103287) m". I'm…
timknauf on HN
Scoring error calculation seems wrong when off in two directions.
From 1 comment
I think you need to take the absolute value of the error, rather than the simple sum of negative and positive. I keep getting 100 when I'm slightly off in two directions.
leot on HN
Requests
Randomize word order and add difficulty levels.
From 1 comment
This is lovely. Could you randomize the order in which you present the words so that I don't have to go through the same word list every time I visit the website? Also, could you…
alphakappa on HN
Explain which mistakes were made after scoring.
From 1 comment
A thought, it would be great if it could explain what mistakes you made. Knowing I got a 0/100 is great but I'd really like to know why :) That would turn it from leaning through…
yariang on HN
Move first and last letters, and move multiple letters at once.
From 3 comments
How about a slider to scale the spacing between characters and also letting me move the first and last characters?
beaumartinez on HNNice! Beautiful well thought design, nicely balanced game, and such an intuitive way to understand kerning: let your visual intuition guide you. One suggestion: a way to move…
stephth on HNI felt like this as well. I think it needs variable font sizes and the ability to move the first or last letter and then this would be great fun.
alextebbs on HN
Questions
How to find out which typeface was used after kerning.
From 2 comments
Just hit 100/100 on screen 3, "holly," in... wait, how do I find out what typeface it is after kerning?
callahad on HNFF Zine Slab Black Italic http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/fontfont/zine-slab/
robert-boehnke on HN
Why the A appears higher than W and V in WAVE.
From 1 comment
In WAVE, the A is higher than the W and V. Is that supposed to happen? (MacBook Pro, OSX Snow Leopard)
DanBC on HN
Alternatives named
Automatic kerning built into typefaces and Adobe software.
From 2 comments
As a developer, this seems like something that should be handled automatically by a typeface.
wavephorm on HNAdobe (for example) offers automatic kerning. It’s great most of the time but not all of the time.
ugh on HN
reCAPTCHA and Distributed Proofreaders as crowdsourcing examples.
From 2 comments
A related idea is the Distributed Proofreaders, a website that crowdsources proofreading of OCR'd public domain books. Unfortunately, proofreading is not very "gamifiable".…
cpeterso on HNI like it. Very much like Luis von Ahn's "human computation" projects (reCAPTCHA, etc)
tlrobinson on HN