Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Size and Colors

Merci:  Since we blog, we'd like to talk about blogging today. 

Cyndi:  Yes, we can make our blog be anything we want it to be.

Cameron:  And that makes us happy.  But we also have to consider our readers and make them happy too.

Micah:  Blog readers are like guests in our home.  We want them to feel at home and be comfortable.

Percy:  Oh, Jan says to tell you, if we're going to invite you all to visit our blog, to remind you to wipe the mud off your paws before you enter.

Sam: We all try to make our blog as inviting as possible.  A fun thene, an interesting background, lots of photos, and so forth.

Rusty:  But sometimes we overlook something important and discourage readers.  Your choice of fonts and text colors are every bit as important as an eye-catching blog banner and background.

Buddy:  Yes, sadly, we have visited a number of blogs where we struggle to read the very small text or the fat, light color whirly font, or the small gray text that fades into the background and is sometimes impossible to read, even with a magnifying glass, or .... You get the idea.

Marcus:  I happen to have great eyesight, so I don't have any problem yet.  But the Funny Farmers are older and can't see as well as I can.  A number of other bloggers are older and have vision problems. Even some of the younger bloggers do.

Percy:  A reader doesn't feel very welcome and might not return when, for whatever reason, he (or she) can't read the blog post you worked so hard to publish.

Buddy:  We don't have any particular blogs in mind as we write this.  We just know we've been running into more we can't read. Too small, too light text is a visit-breaker. The colors you choose for all of your fonts, including the hover and visited links, can mean the difference between your posts being legible and being unreadable.

Cyndi: And even if a visitor has good eyesight, he could have eyestrain from too many hours on the computer trying to make a living.  Help him relax and enjoy his visit on your blog.  Take an honest look at your blog and imagine yourself as a visitor.  How legible is your text?

Cameron:  If we haven't visited your blog as often as we once did, please don't assume this is why.  There are currently nine of us to wait on and provide for and Jan isn't getting any younger.  It takes her longer to do anything, and we only get "leftover" computer time.Many days she is on the computer from early morning until late at night and we barely get an opportunity to do a fast post.

Rusty:  We have been trying to make our blog a happy, fun place to visit.  We hope you will keep coming back. And if you ever have a problem reading our text, let us know.
 


Marcus:  To close with a smile, here's a recycled photo of Jan photographing some treats before giving them to us dogs.  And there I am photobombing the shot - again.  Jan used to find my eyes and ears in most of the photos she took. I really am photogenic, aren't I!




25 comments:

  1. Aw, shucks! What makes a GOOD photo a GREAT photo is the PHOTOBOMB!

    :)

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  2. Pawesome picture, we are all MOL!!!

    And a great post too, very good points made, we totally agree with mew!

    Happy Tuesday my pawesome Funny Farmers

    Purrs

    Basil & Co xox

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  3. You made some valid points about blogging
    Snorts
    Lily & Edward

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  4. Excellent points, all of them.

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  5. Wesa haf nevers thought about these things, great points..oh Marcus we think you are so cute.
    stella rose

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  6. UNLESS folks actually FOLLOW their OWN BLOG... they might not KNOW that their colors or fonts are difficult fur others to read.. WE follow OUR BLOG... fur several reasons... butt this is an EXCELLENT reason to Follow YOUR OWN BLOG... so you can SEE exactly what OTHERS See when they visit.

    Like when NEW bloggers Don't KNOW that the Prove you are Not a Robot thingy is there fur their readers to have to deal with in order to comment.
    FOLLOW YOUR OWN BLOG.. so you KNOW what your guests are getting.

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  7. Yes, you are doing it just right ;-)

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  8. I know when I first started blogging, I had several people say my font was hard to read. I didn't realize it. I now have a font that has a bit of "flare" to it, because that's just the type of person I am, but it also much easier to read. Your blog is very inviting, as I have told you before, I always love your use of color, and the backgrounds and headers are just beautiful!
    ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!

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  9. Sometimes we forget about how others view our blog setup. Great suggestions.

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  10. Those are all great point with some old eyes here (Dad). You know what else we never understood? We read a long post and get all the way to the bottom, then have to go all the way back up to the top to click on Comment.

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  11. We agree and think that you must consider many things when you publish a blog. Everyone should be able to read it easily and enjoy. As far as the font, most of the times if it simply enlarged it is easier to read. Not that she has had to do this with a blog but perhaps Jan doesn't know if you hit control/+ it will make the screen image larger. I'm sure Jan knows but our human has had to do that occasionally.

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  12. We agree with Brian that you read to the end of a blogger's post and then
    have to roll all the way back to the top to put on a comment it is a pain.
    Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx

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  13. I'm with Brian, I never did like comment links at the top of blogs.. both is fine, but just at the top seems so weird..

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  14. When my human was working on updating my blog theme, the original font for the body text was the lighter version of what you see now. She lights the dainty, light text of some of the blogs we visit, but she knows that a lot of people have problems with it, so she opted for a heavier weight version. She still could use some work with the link colors, though, IMO. I need to get her working on that!

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  15. I subscribe to my own blog also. I changed the font and size of my posts not long ago. Some of the blogs I visit are very hard to read or they talk in a voice that is very difficult to decipher. Those things don't keep me from visiting, but they are a distraction from the content.

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  16. Important advice! We have also stopped visiting a few blogs cuz it was just too hard to read it!

    Your Pals,

    Murphy & Stanley

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  17. Crikey ..... thanks for all that good info. Mum's learnt two things she didn't EVER think of before. To follow her own blog (thanks Frankie and Ernie) and Control/+ makes the screen image larger (thanks Angel Abby Grace).
    Love the photo bomb!!

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  18. You make very good points Jan. Your fonts and colors are VERY important. I always consider what my readers might think, but if it were up to me, I'd have bright pink and purples and cursive fonts, and a flashy header with a bright pink background ;)
    But, *sigh* I know I can't do that!
    I also consider my spelling. On some blogs, when the animals talk you misspell the words purposely because animals don't know, right? Sometimes I find blogs do that a little too much, and I find it hard to read. So I only make a few words misspelled, when I talk from the cats point of view.

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  19. Marcus, you truly are the best photobomber in the world. And appawently one of the hungriest (or maybe it's greediest) MOL

    Sasha, Sami, & Saku

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  20. Gweat posty. Weez hav twubble readin' sum of da smaller fonts. Course mommy dusn't see so good these days specially. MOL Ow blog only allows us tu write in a kupple diffewent sizes, and so wees twy tu write in da largest or nex tu largest size. Wees did wead in da comments here that it's aggwavating tu wead a post and hav tu go back tu da top tu comment. Wees agwee, but again, ow blog dusn't giv us a choice in dat.

    Luv ya'

    Dezi

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  21. Busy Is! We know you love us all even when you cant visit regular.

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  22. You sure make some excellent points. I will follow my own blog to see what others have to look at. Marcus have such beautiful eyes, and they are always a delight to see!

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  23. Great post ! You talk about impawtant points : for people with a good sight, it's hard to imagine how it can be when you have difficulties to see, or you don't have these difficulties in mind. Thank you for the reminder ! Purrs

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