That Stupid Apple Notes ‘a’
Nathan Ingraham, writing for Engadget: There are a lot of rumors flying around about a big iOS and macOS redesign coming this year, perhaps as a distraction to the continued issues around Apple Intelligence. And while I’m game for a fresh coat of paint across the software I use every single day, I have one plea while Apple’s at it: Please, for the love of god, make the Notes app render the letter “a” properly. I’ve meaning to rant about this ever since Vesper went under and I switched to Apple Notes. I absolutely despise the alternate single-story a glyph that Apple Notes uses. I use Notes every single day and this a bothers me every single day. It hurts me. It’s a childish silly look, but Notes, for me, is one of the most serious, most important apps I use. And yet it renders the third-most common letter English (after e and t) like you’re reading a first-grade primer. To me, the core problem isn’t Apple’s decision to use the single-story alternate a glyph in Notes by default. It’s modern Apple’s aversion to preferences. (Or, as they call them now, settings.) If you want to make an unusual opinionated design decision, fine, but unusual opinionated design decisions should be preferences. Let us turn off this silly a, please. ★
Nathan Ingraham, writing for Engadget:
There are a lot of rumors flying around about a big iOS and macOS redesign coming this year, perhaps as a distraction to the continued issues around Apple Intelligence. And while I’m game for a fresh coat of paint across the software I use every single day, I have one plea while Apple’s at it: Please, for the love of god, make the Notes app render the letter “a” properly.
I’ve meaning to rant about this ever since Vesper went under and I switched to Apple Notes. I absolutely despise the alternate single-story a glyph that Apple Notes uses. I use Notes every single day and this a bothers me every single day. It hurts me. It’s a childish silly look, but Notes, for me, is one of the most serious, most important apps I use. And yet it renders the third-most common letter English (after e and t) like you’re reading a first-grade primer.
To me, the core problem isn’t Apple’s decision to use the single-story alternate a glyph in Notes by default. It’s modern Apple’s aversion to preferences. (Or, as they call them now, settings.) If you want to make an unusual opinionated design decision, fine, but unusual opinionated design decisions should be preferences. Let us turn off this silly a, please.
