Internet Explorer 11 Reading View
“Reading View is a new feature in IE11 that provides a focused reading experience for text-heavy pages, such as news articles and blog posts.” — Microsoft, Internet Explorer Test Drive
“IE 11 reading view takes advantage of a brand new font for Windows 8.1, called Sitka. It was developed for Microsoft by Mathew Carter, in collaboration with the Advanced Reading Technologies team that previously developed Clear Type text rendering to work well for online reading as well as in print.
One of the advantages of the Sitka font comes from the optical scaling addressed by its different weights. Research has shown that different letter spacing, stroke sizes, and x-height can have a positive effect on the readability of different sizes of text. An optical family contains styles specifically optimized for each size and use case – rather than trying to be one-size-fits-all, like many of the typefaces common on the Web. Thus, you can get terrific legibility in text, and style in display sizes, all with the same family. Reading view for example uses Sitka Small, which is designed with thicker strokes, larger x-height, and looser letter spacing, for image captions, and Sitka Banner, designed with thinner strokes and tighter letter spacing, for the article titles.
Sitka was also the first typeface family designed with scientific legibility studies integrated directly into the design process. Most fonts do not undergo legibility studies. Those few that do are studied after the font is nearly done. Sitka, however, was repeatedly tested throughout the design process.” — IEBlog
4 Comments on “Internet Explorer 11 Reading View”
Can I use Sitka in my new book of poems published by Createspace?
Hi Larry, it depends on the way you obtained the Sitka fonts and the license agreement (EULA) that came with them. You probably got Sitka bundled with a Microsoft software product. It looks as if publishing with CreateSpace requires embedding the fonts into a PDF. You’ll need to look up this topic in the EULA.
Hi, the font would be governed by the Windows EULA. From Windows Vista through Windows 8.1 the EULA contained a font specific section, which amongst other things allows “document font embedding” (providing the font’s embedding permissions are set appropriately). I am not an attorney but I think embedding within a PDF falls under this definition. Hope this helps, Si (former manager of the Windows font team)
Does anyone know of a way to purchase the Sitka font collection? I would like to use it outside of Windows/Office, but haven’t been able to find it for sale. Is Microsoft just planning for this to be a Windows only, or at least a Microsoft only, font. I can use it within Office on Mac, but not from within other programs. Obviously, that’s their right, but I hope it’s not their intent.