5

The default font "UbuntuRegular" used by Ask Ubuntu is messed up on umlaut characters. Affected characters seem smaller than normal. I played around the font-size and it doesn't help with the problem.

This seems to happen with all umlaut characters like ÄäÖöÅåÜüÑñ and so on.

# cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS \n \l

UbuntuRegular on Ask Ubuntu

Me

Arial on Stack Overflow

enter image description here

Given that there are not too many posts with umlauts on AU this still looks very weird in running text, see the example.

enter image description here

2
  • Are you on Windows?
    – muru
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 13:01
  • @muru I use Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
    – Seppo Erviälä
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 13:03

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
6

I'm pretty sure this has to do with how Stack Exchange calls the font family. I edited the element's CSS to test:

  • Named Ubuntu: enter image description here
  • Named Ubuntu Regular enter image description here
  • Named UbuntuRegular (no space) enter image description here Note how the lack of fall-back families causes these characters to be shown in Serif font.

(I'm on Windows, and also have the Ubuntu font installed.)

I'd say the family should be set to 'Ubuntu Regular', Ubuntu, 'Bitstream ... instead of the current UbuntuRegular, Ubuntu, 'Bitstream Vera Sans... .

6
  • 1
    It should be Ubuntu, UbuntuRegular, 'Bitstream ... Where the Ubuntu font on users machines takes precedence
    – Marco Ceppi Mod
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 14:13
  • @MarcoCeppi you sure? Ubuntu is more generic than Ubuntu regular, so specifying it first would mean Ubuntu regular will never be matched.
    – muru
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 14:17
  • Yes, because if the user does not have Ubuntu the font installed it should move on to UbuntuRegular which is loaded with Google Fonts and will almost always match
    – Marco Ceppi Mod
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 14:20
  • @MarcoCeppi that depends on how specific the call to Google web fonts is. I use it on my site and it loads the generic Ubuntu family as well.
    – muru
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 14:22
  • Well, considering it's defined in the CSS as UbuntuRegular and no actual font exists on the users machine as UbuntuRegular it will always match the webfont.
    – Marco Ceppi Mod
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 14:58
  • @MarcoCeppi any course of action to improve the situation?
    – guntbert
    Commented Jan 25, 2015 at 16:21
0

This should be reported as a bug to the UbuntuFont project, it's nothing Stack Exchange controls

4
  • You control the fonts displayed on this site. eg. font "Ubuntu" works just fine.
    – Seppo Erviälä
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 12:32
  • Ubuntu.com uses "Ubuntu" font instead of "UbuntuRegular", why doesn't askubuntu.com do the same?
    – Seppo Erviälä
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 12:34
  • StackExchange seems to have control over the fonts as StackOverflow uses different fonts than AskUbuntu.
    – Seppo Erviälä
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 12:39
  • UbuntuRegular is the Ubuntu font. Ubuntu is the family, Regular is the weight. UbuntuRegular is a Google fonts naming scheme used to load the Ubuntu font for users who don't have it installed.
    – Marco Ceppi Mod
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 14:13

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .