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Comment by Tenemo | Hacker News Reader

I don't think I've seen a less accessible *font* in my life, including all the dark grey on black and yellow on white ones. Those are hard to read, but this one makes my eyes hurt, they actually started to hurt after I tried reading it despite discomfort. How come? Reading random text for 10 seconds can cause people physical pain? I wear glasses for near-sightedness and slight astigmatism, I wonder if it's related, and if people with 20/20 vision experience it differently.

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I thought it was me, I literally think there are things that should no longer be acceptable and this font is one of them. It serves no purpose and I would like to ask medical professionals if it is potentially harmful.

Edit: While fuzzy or blurry text itself is highly unlikely to trigger an epileptic seizure it is a major cause of optical strain, headaches, and reading barriers across various accessibility needs. Given the amount of screen time we all incur in our daily lives, I do not see why this should be a "thing".

You guys are saying this on a website which puts light grey text on light grey background.

My site shows black with yellow background and white text boxes. Highly visible. Maybe you're referring to dead comments? There are options to hide those.

I'm sorry, what is your username again? I can't read it, because it's tiny light grey text on a light grey background.

Controversy shouldn't give me cataracts either.

and tiny buttons

It hurt for me too. I stopped reading it because it gave me a serious headache.

And I got reprimanded by some rando pretending to be a mod for my previous comment. What is actually going on here?

Not a font. The VHS line striping is just a repeating gradient applied over the whole page:

    main::before { 
        background: 
            linear-gradient(rgba(18, 16, 16, 0) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.25) 50%),
            linear-gradient( 90deg, rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.06), rgba(0, 255, 0, 0.02), rgba(0, 0, 255, 0.06) );
    }

The red glow is a red text shadow applied to every element on the page:

    :root { 
        --text-shadow: 2px 0px red, -2px 0px var(--glitch-color-2);
    }

Surprisingly, the glitchy logo is also done with CSS, with animations over two different versions of the text overlain atop one another:

        <span>explorator.dev</span>        
        <span>єӿƿłøгⱥʈøг.ᑻ</span>

I know this because the first thing I did when I got to the page was hit F12 to bring up the debugging tools and turn these styles off so I could read it. :)

I have 20/20 vision and this presentation hurt my eyes. I'm glad my browser has "reader mode" to normalize things like this. I'm not trying to yuck someone else's yum. I simply appreciate the technical ability to read someone else's post in a way that doesn't cause discomfort.

I had to stop reading the first paragraph because of how bad it is.

this font is the stupidest thing ive seen in ages

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