with the focus on font type legibility satisfied (on my desktops, ereaders and web site), it was time to address the resultant aesthetic of this site.
So, with some further CSS tweaking and server side magic.. a big face lift!
First and foremost, the former outdented lower case lead in word following all headings—a quirky distinction this site has had from its inception as a stylistic signature—becomes paragraph indented with the leading three first words text transformed to X height upper case courtesy of the site’s Passenger/Nginx application <span></span> insertion and corresponding CSS, producing a less formal presentation—softening in my old age i guess. Paragraph spacing has also been tightened a smidgen in the direction of formatting convention—but not quite.
Next, the glaring bold width and extreme (default) contrast of bold highlights—there being only the regular and bold font weights available with the Atkinson Hyperlegible Font—has been replaced again with an X height all caps rendering and a lower contrast font colour. The X height reduces the stroke width and the font color localizes the emphasis where it belongs (imo), in the content.
Finally, italic highlights—which always look larger with their oblique elongated strokes (correctable with a CSS font size adjustment), to my eyes, just seem visually out of place embedded between words (which i suppose is the highlight intent.. not a big fan of italics obviously!)—get a similar treatment, sans the font weight and color. Not to be confused with but the same as the capitalized lead in words.
All of this serves to soften the default emphasis of HTML character highlighting on the content so one’s eyes are not distracted by visual “shouting”. (But really, only serves my aesthetic.. which is quite possibly very contrary)! In other words, easy on the eyes, hopefully friendlier and more welcoming.. but unexciting. No one has ever accused me of being too colourful. :)