Can you make the new (serif) Courier Prime Bits font optional?

XIII

I find the new (serif) Courier Prime Bits font hard to read. The old sans-serif font was much easier on my eyes.

Can you please include both fonts and make the font user configurable?

rudy

@XIII,

We appreciate the feedback but we're aiming for Courier Prime Bits to be the serif font we use in all the password presentations across all of the 1Password applications. Is there something specific about Courier Prime Bits that makes it harder for you to read? We're also curious what font you were previously using there.

XIII

I think it's the serif part that's making it hard to read for me.

On my iOS 11 devices I'm still using Inconsolata.

• On the iOS 11 version I can choose between "Normal", "Anymous Pro", "Courier Prime", and "Inconsolata".
• On the iOS 12 version there is only 1 font; Courier Prime Bits - no user choice at all (and thus no sans-serif font)

Does the iOS 12 version intentionally have only 1 font, or is this a bug/test?

AGAlumB

@XIII: This is intentional. I don't believe we offer font options in any of our other apps. As Rudy mentioned, we're standardizing with Courier Prime Bits across all of them. I think 1Password for iOS may actually be the last, but I could be forgetting something. While certainly some people prefer non-serif fonts, I guess I don't see how serifs are hard to read. Research in this area seems to suggest the contrary. But personal taste is another matter entirely. Are you just averse to serifs in general, e.g. pretty much anything in the Courier family? Are there specific characters you're having difficulty distinguishing? I haven't seen negative feedback about the new font as we've rolled it out across other platforms, so this is interesting to me.

For comparison, from 1Password for iOS version 7.1:

Courier:

Inconsolata:

Courier:

Inconsolata:

Personally while I like Courier fonts, I do miss the slashed zero...but I think I may also be in the minority there. :)

XIII

Are you just averse to serifs in general, e.g. pretty much anything in the Courier family?

I do indeed seem to prefer sans-serif fonts above serif fonts.

(So far I mainly used Large Type on iOS, so I did not notice this before on other platforms)

AGAlumB

Thanks for getting back to me. I don't happen to fall on that side of this one, but I'm a bit particular myself when it comes to what I like and what I don't so I can relate. ;) The current plan is to complete the rollout of Courier Prime Bits, but we'll continue to listen to feedback. Interesting perspective about the Large Type too. I'm sort of 50/50 with that and just revealing the password, but I'm sure there are other folks who lean one way or the other, and that will certainly result in different takes on the font too I suspect. :)

P.S: Here's my opinion piece: While I don't have a strong preference either way with regard to serif/sans, at large sizes I think the fonts used for passwords before look pretty terrible (see above).

On the other hand, I think Courier Prime Bits looks pretty fabulous at large sizes:

So in that regard I'm definitely a fan. Always fascinating to get different takes though. :)

XIII

BTW: I'm not arguing that the font is ugly, but that it is harder to read, which is more important to me for this use case.

Ben

Indeed. Thanks for the feedback on this. :)

Ben