{Bug?} Font anomaly in password generator

Keith22

I'm really pleased to see the new password generator in 1Password for iOS, especially the option for memorable passwords and PINs.

Your change notes are, as always, comprehensive - something I find very refreshing compared to other apps. :)

The font used in the password generator, however, is jarring and incongruous with what is displayed elsewhere. It also makes distinguishing letters like 'l' (L) difficult.

To reproduce this behaviour;

• Create a new login
• Use the password generator
• Observe the font
• Save the item
• View the password when saved
• Observe the difference in font

The horrible password generator font is different to the nice font that is used when viewing the password of a saved item.

I'm hoping this is a bug, i.e. unintentional.

If it's intentional, please add this as a feature request and strongly consider using a consistent font throughout (i.e. the nice font that is used when viewing saved passwords).

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1Password Version: 7.7
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: 14.0.1
Sync Type: Membership

Ben

Hi @Keith22

I took a look at this but off-hand I'm not seeing the difficulty distinguishing between characters. The two that generally cause trouble are l (lowercase L) and 1 (numeral one). In 1Password these characters have different coloring: numerals are blue and letters are white. While I agree it would be nice to be consistent and use the same font in both places, and perhaps that is reason enough to consider changing it, I'd be interested to hear more about the specific difficulty you're having differentiating characters.

Thanks!

Ben

Keith22

Hi @Ben

I was concerned about confusing characters such as l (1) and O (0).

I've regenerated the password 30+ times but cannot seem to see the number zero appear so maybe it has been removed from the password generator for this reason? It goes without saying that this reduces entropy and, for want of using the other font, an entirely unnecessary removal of a perfectly adequate character/numeral.

Also the pipe (|) is commonly confused with the letter (l), cf. l/|, but it seems like this less-frequent character has (understandably in this case) been removed.

Strangely I tried manually editing the password in the top picture and the results didn't appear in the password generator beneath. Perhaps another bug? Sometimes I have to do this because of website requirements.

Really it seems like there's no good reason to use a decent, clear font in the password field and a hard-to-read, potentially confusing font in the generator.

In fact 1Password are increasing the cognitive load for users by forcing customers to recognise two different fonts. A bad outcome would be that a less observant user will look at the clear font then type in the randomly generated password underneath into another system and potentially mis-key a letter because they're used to the graphical conventions of the first font.

ag_ana

@Keith22:

Also the pipe (|) is commonly confused with the letter (l), cf. l/|, but it seems like this less-frequent character has (understandably in this case) been removed.

It's for this reason that 1Password uses different colors in the password generator:

• Letters are black
• Numbers are blue
• Symbols are red

So even in the case of the letter "I" and the pipe symbol, you would be able to recognize the difference by the color being used. And thank you again for taking the time to share this feedback with us!

Keith22

So is this the first behaviour intentional?
Is the second (edits not being reflected) a bug?

Keith22

Regarding my question four days ago;

perhaps one of the developers could give an answer if the Customer Support team are unsure. :)

Ben

Hi @Keith22

My apologies for the delay. It does not appear any of this is operating differently than expected. Additionally, we would generally recommend avoiding editing generated passwords, as doing so will effect their entropy. We will continue to evaluate how the password generator should work in order to provide strong secure passwords in a user-friendly manner.

Thank you for your feedback here.

Ben