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Comment by basseq | Hacker News Reader

I love the level of detail in this analysis. Just typographic nerdiness at its finest. And I have never watched NGE or have particular interest in anime.

I found the mechanical compression the most interesting part of this. I suspect it started out as limited technical aptitude and/or an "efficiency hack", but has since morphed into an actual stylistic decision that both makes thematic sense[1] and sets NGE apart. To the point now that it might be harder to do mechanical compression than just use a condensed font variant[2].

[1] "[the mechanical compression's] ubiquitous occurrence did evoke haste and, at times, despair—an emotional motif perfectly suited to a postapocalyptic story with existentialist themes"

[2] "... loads the normal Matisse Pro EB and then uses the CSS transform property to achieve the compression effect."

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> I suspect it started out as limited technical aptitude and/or an "efficiency hack", but has since morphed into an actual stylistic decision that both makes thematic sense[1] and sets NGE apart.

I forget which famous modern composer said it, but there's the wonderful observation that "the artifacts of your medium will become its defining and desired characteristic".

See how we have systems trying to emulate CRT scanlines, or Synthwave style of music that not only reproduces the limitations of early synths but applies those limitations to newer sounds.

Edit: I think it was Brian Eno, though I can't immediately find the quote

It was Brian Eno, here's the quote:

“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.”

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/649039-whatever-you-now-fin...

I suppose that mechanical compression faithfully evokes what condensed fonts actively try to mitigate: the squeezing and stretching itself, which lends it a sense of emotional stress and tension.

Also, with digital fonts as new as they were when NGE was released, it's likely that compression seems more like a novel way to establish identity, rather than the now ubiquitous ignorant rescaling of fonts.

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