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Font comparison tool

A side-by-side preview for picking a body font. Two columns, two dropdowns, identical sample text in different sans-serifs.

Published Maturity 🌿 Sapling AI Co-created with AI Written by AI based on my ideas and direction.

A small standalone tool for comparing body fonts side-by-side. Live at /font-compare.html.

What it does

Two columns, two dropdowns. Each column renders the same sample (a short article fragment, a numerals row, a few metadata pills) in the chosen font. Headings stay Lora to match the rest of the site, so only the body typography differs between columns.

Fifteen sans-serif candidates plus eight handwriting / cursive options are loaded. Sans: Roboto, Source Sans 3, IBM Plex Sans, Lato, Atkinson Hyperlegible, Inter, Karla, Manrope, Fira Sans, Mulish, Cabin, Work Sans, DM Sans, Nunito, Rubik. Handwriting: Cedarville Cursive, La Belle Aurore, Reenie Beanie, Shadows Into Light, Mrs Saint Delafield, Caveat, Indie Flower, Architects Daughter. All Google Fonts.

Why a comparison view

Single-font previews are easy to misjudge. Two fonts side by side, on the same words, expose differences that are otherwise too subtle to register: how an g is shaped, where the e aperture closes, how comfortable italics feel, whether numerals have lining or oldstyle figures.

Numerals get their own row deliberately, since most candidate fonts shift personality between letters and digits.

Companion tool

For looking at one font at a time on the actual site (rendered through the production layout in an iframe), use /font-preview.html.

Caveat

Both pages live in public/ as static HTML, they aren’t part of Astro’s build. They load Google Fonts directly. Useful for design exploration; not a production system.

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