Frog Design Mind

While this is arguable clever,
a similiar concept has been known for ages to traditional printers.

There is a whole class of typefaces optimized for high speed, low cost/low quality printing, which pre-compensates the letterform for expected ink bleeding, so called Ink Traps[1][2]. They are highly optimized for a specific printing method, the font size and the paper-quality used, and don't translate well to non-ink based printing.

The problem with current desktop publishing fonts is that they can't possibly be optimized for every single use case on screen and for all of the myriad types of printing so robustness while maintaining legibility is key. Especially if the product is expected to be photocopied I would always go for a reasonable bolder weight, uncondensed typeface rather than losing information.

Also make sure the 8 is distinct enough from a 6 [3] (Times New Roman beats Arial by lengths in this aspect)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_trap

[2] http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/calculated-errors-the-ink-trap.html

[3] http://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox-workcentres_are_switching_written_numbers_when_scanning

I don't mind the worn look, though I often clean the fingerprint oils off the keyboard. A blog post titled Aged to Perfection describes my view[1]:

> The truth is that consumer products are ‘new’ for a very brief moment when they are first removed from the packaging, but spend the great majority of their useful lives as ‘used’ products in the process of decay. Many welcome the breaking-in of products like a leather wallet or a pair of jeans as this wear can be aesthetically-pleasing. The Japanese have a term for this, “Wabi-sabi”.[2] Wabi-sabi can be used to describe the aesthetically pleasing wear of an object as it decays over time.

I still use my X62 as my primary development machine. I like it so much that I've ordered an X210 from the same manufacturer.

1. https://designmind.frogdesign.com/2011/09/aged-perfection/

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

> it's to look closely at the new thing, understand why people like it better, and then bring that understanding to your next iteration or your next product.

I agree with this, and the "copy, then improve" mindset, along with the customer-centric view, has some great similarities to the "shanzhai" culture in China:

http://designmind.frogdesign.com/articles/shanzhai-s-role-in-innovation-strategy.html

http://p2pfoundation.net/Shanzhai

http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=284

On the Internet, I see this same remix philosophy manifest itself very strongly in the creation and propagation of memes.

Further reading from press covering TEDGlobal:

Forbes:
http://blogs.forbes.com/firewall/2010/07/16/julien-assange-of-wikileaks-surfaces-in-oxford/

CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/07/16/wikileaks.disclosures

Design Mind:
http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/julian-assange-of-wikileaks-troublemaker-or-hero.html