[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #48423: Remove Segoe UI from the system fonts stack

[WordPress Trac]

#48423: Remove Segoe UI from the system fonts stack
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 Reporter:  afercia          |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)     |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Administration   |     Version:
 Severity:  normal           |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-screenshots  |     Focuses:  ui, accessibility
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Comment (by afercia):

 > I don't think we can perfectly render text in a similar fashion across
 all OSs, unless we create our own font.

 Before system fonts, Open Sans guaranteed the same rendering on all
 platforms. At the cost of embedding an external resource though.

 Worth also noting the work from #36753 is basically incomplete. The commit
 message itself mentioned further explorations and adjustments that never
 happened (emphasis mine):

 > There will definitely be visual bugs, **mainly around alignment and
 spacing**; these should be documented and reported on the ticket and fixed
 more atomically so that our current and future selves have a better
 understanding of what happened and why.

 Re: the impact:

 > Perhaps this is a non-issue. I don't think the text looks particularly
 bad or uncentered. It just looks a little bottom heavy

 Not sure :) Working a few hours on my Windows laptop just makes me want to
 switch back to the mac as soon as possible. I think WordPress has
 neglected a bit its Windows users in the last years and it would be nice
 to explore a solution. I'd definitely recommend to test on a native
 Windows machine to get a more accurate idea of the actual rendering. Also,
 involving Windows users would be advisable.

 The vertical alignment looks particularly uneven for some elements, for
 example: the buttons. Worth also considering there's an ongoing
 conversation about introducing a 8 pixel based grid in WordPress. If that
 happens, all form controls will be even taller with a height of 32 pixels
 which will make the uneven centering more noticeable. In fact, the taller
 the controls, the more evident the misalignment. For the records: this is
 the reason why the misalignment is more noticeable in WordPress 5.3
 compared to 5.2: form controls are taller.

 > Do you know what font is used when Segoe is removed?

 Not 100% sure but I think it fall backs to `sans-serif` (Arial). As
 mentioned, that's for some languages, while other languages use different
 system fonts.

 Is there anyone in the community with very good knowledge of internal
 typeface metrics who could confirm Segoe UI has different half-leading
 values? I'd tend to think that is the first step to make for this
 exploration.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/48423#comment:3>
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