Map font kerning is making my eyes bleed

[planet]

I'm really looking forward to EU4, and have it pre-ordered. However, the font kerning -- the space between the letters -- is sometimes poor to the point of distraction. Thought I'd offer a couple examples.

First from the screenshots megathread, dev diary #33:

- Yellow Sea's "ow".
- Yang Tse Delta's "ng".
- Anqing "nq", compared to the space around the "i".
- Look at the difference in space around the two "i"s in Taiwan Strait.

Here's another example from dev diary #37:

- The Yellow Sea is still a problem.
- The "OR" in Korea Bay is similarly problematic.
- In the top center, Lioadong has a lot of space around the "i", but little space among the rest of the word.

There are many other examples. In the live stream a couple days ago, Lithiania's kerning was a mess (another case of too much space around the first "i"), and Muscovy was also problematic (too much space around the "s").

Hope we can get a fix for this, as it does detract from the beauty of the map!

 

[Skullslasher6]

I'm really looking forward to EU4, and have it pre-ordered. However, the font kerning -- the space between the letters -- is sometimes poor to the point of distraction. Thought I'd offer a couple examples.

First from the screenshots megathread, dev diary #33:

- Yellow Sea's "ow".
- Yang Tse Delta's "ng".
- Anqing "nq", compared to the space around the "i".
- Look at the difference in space around the two "i"s in Taiwan Strait.

Here's another example from dev diary #37:

- The Yellow Sea is still a problem.
- The "OR" in Korea Bay is similarly problematic.
- In the top center, Lioadong has a lot of space around the "i", but little space among the rest of the word.

There are many other examples. In the live stream a couple days ago, Lithiania's kerning was a mess (another case of too much space around the first "i"), and Muscovy was also problematic (too much space around the "s").

Hope we can get a fix for this, as it does detract from the beauty of the map!

I'm pretty sure this is just an alignment problem. The font itself is a beautiful choice. Looks clean.

Just remember, this is beta; they have to fix a lot of small visual errors still--on top of a lot of others that are actually important.

 

[planet]

I'm pretty sure this is just an alignment problem. The font itself is a beautiful choice. Looks clean.

Just remember, this is beta; they have to fix a lot of small visual errors still--on top of a lot of others that are actually important.

Well, Crusader Kings II also has kerning problems which were never fixed, so I suspect a Clausewitz issue (or some other shared codebase component).

Look at this:

- Land's End, at the bottom, the "nd" in Land.
- St. George's Channel, look at the space around the period and apostrophe, and look how crowded the "eor" and "ch" are.
- Somerset, look at crowded "o" and the space around the second "s".
- The "dog" in Dogger Bank is smooshed together as well.

Game fixes, piffle. Beautiful maps should be the focus.

 

[a4rino]

I'm really looking forward to EU4, and have it pre-ordered. However, the font kerning -- the space between the letters -- is sometimes poor to the point of distraction.

How could you do this to me?!? Once someone points out bad kerning, it can never be unseen!

 

[BoleslavLev]

Lol, I fell the same, never noticed it before. But I believe gameplay experience will hide it

 

[TheFluff]

It really does look ugly. I'm hoping for a fix before release. This has bothered me in past games, as well.

 

[Illanair]

Considering how it is dynamically generated depending on your borders, I don't really complain. Sure it doesn't look perfect always, but it doesn't really annoy me enough to complain.

 

[unmerged(584823)]

OMG, I WON'T BUY THIS GAME !!!
What a shame, really, how is this acceptable ?

 

[a4rino]

Considering how it is dynamically generated depending on your borders, I don't really complain. Sure it doesn't look perfect always, but it doesn't really annoy me enough to complain.

You are right that it is not that big of a deal, but none of the examples the OP gives are dynamically generated. Province and sea zone names are static.

 

[unmerged(12131)]

One reason I dropped EU3 after only a few days was the font problems. I couldn't read lots of the information there. I hope EU4 allows the users to select their own fonts. Since the EU series is really a text and table game, fonts are very important. Where unit counters predominate like in the Civilization series, then text fonts are not important.

 

[planet]

Considering how it is dynamically generated depending on your borders, I don't really complain. Sure it doesn't look perfect always, but it doesn't really annoy me enough to complain.

Many of the offenders are not names of changing multi-province regions, but single-province names, as you can see from the examples. So I don't think it's that. It doesn't even seem to be (only) related to drawing text along a curve. If I were forced to speculate, I'd think it's just part of the font rendering engine -- or the specific font's kerning hints, with some specific letters and letter combinations being more problematic than others.

I wonder if this font is from a first class foundry, or licensed on the cheap? These maps deserve a really excellent font which doesn't just look good, but is professionally designed.

 

[ABookshelf]

OMG, I WON'T BUY THIS GAME !!!
What a shame, really, how is this acceptable ?

I had to go to the eye doctor because the kerning was so bad and offensive. Paradox I hope you will fix this major issue and also reimburse me for the optical surgery that I have to get because of your kerning debacle.

 

[Illanair]

Many of the offenders are not names of changing multi-province regions, but single-province names, as you can see from the examples.

You're right - I didn't take a close look the first time around.

 

[FOARP]

As XKCD pointed out, kerning is one of those things that, once you've had it pointed out to you, will annoy you until the end of your days.



If anyone ever tries to teach you about kerning, cover your eyes and ears and run away - you may injure yourself in the process, but it will be worth it!

 

[burny26]

I hate you OP, thx for screwing my ck2 and eu4 experiences :s

 

[unmerged(12131)]

EU4 really needs user selectable fonts. If they are not 10 point or higher, this game is out for me. I've seen fonts in EU3 as small as 4 point. I have all my eBooks set on my Kindle to 12 point.

 

[Sky_walker]

EU4 really needs user selectable fonts.

And exactly which games offer selectable font sizes that now you demand it as a condition for purchase?

ps. EU isn't playable on Kindle.

 

[FOARP]

EU4 really needs user selectable fonts. If they are not 10 point or higher, this game is out for me. I've seen fonts in EU3 as small as 4 point. I have all my eBooks set on my Kindle to 12 point.

Yeah, it's high time they released a large-print version of the game to appeal to the older demographic!

 

[mejla]

old pirates had a great use of fonts

 

[Illanair]

old pirates had a great use of fonts

They were just at bad at kerning though - Just look at "young d a u gther"