Reading the discussion above, I propose to have the following short term changes.
Revert back to a smaller scale ratio
I propose to lower the scale ratio for 1.250 to 1.190.
That way, the larger fonts would be approximately the same size as they were before, and simply bolder.
And the lower level headings would be slightly smaller, but bold.
The values in parentheses are the size difference to the level above.
| Level | Before | Now (15.9) | After |
|---|---|---|---|
| document title | 34px | 43px | 34px |
| 1 | 29px (-5px) | 35px (-8px) | 29px (-5px) |
| 2 | 26px (-3px) | 28px (-7px) | 24px (-5px) |
| 3 | 23px (-3px) | 22px (-6px) | 20px (-4px) |
| 4 | 20px (-3px) | 18px (-4px) | 17px (-3px) |
| 5 | 18px (-2px) | 14px (-4px) | 14px (-3px) |
| 6 | 16px (-2px) | 13px (-1px) | 13px (-1px) |
| Level 6 stays smaller that the default font size (14px) but is easy to distinguish visually as it is bold. |
Open Sans
Only apply open sans and bold on headings of the content.
Meaning that the rest of the content would be the default font of the system.
- This would lead to a visible change for users that had open sans install but not as the default.
- Also, the font would not be the same for headings and for the rest
That way, we guarantee that other issues with Open Sans will only impact the headings while still making sure that the right level of bold is presented to the user (e.g., in case of local font not supporting bold 700).
Regarding system font stack, this looks interesting but I would only go that way on the 16.x cycle.
WDYT?