[wodenokoto]

He also advocate not using underline to denote links. In his practical typography book he practically hides all hyperlinks.

I also find his redesigns of documentation pages uninviting to read.

I find Butterick to be a passionate, opinionated, hard working, but ultimately a poor designer.

[munificent]

    > He also advocate not using underline to denote links.
    >In his practical typography book he practically hides all hyperlinks.

I think that's a fine, defensible stylistic choice. When reading a paragraph of prose, I find it INTERRUPTS MY FLOW if there is a jarring style change in the middle of a sentence, as in this one.

The visual style of a hyperlink is only relevant to the point that you know the hyperlink is there and can find it when you want to click on it. Most of the time, that's not a goal, so you want it to fade into the background unless the user has indicated that is their goal.

So my preferred style for hyperlinks in prose is a color that's right at the just-noticeable difference [1] relative the normal text. When you mouse over the paragraph, which indicates you are intending to click, the contrast increases.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-noticeable_difference

[dspillett]

> hyperlinks in prose is a color that's right at the just-noticeable difference

The problem with trying to achieve JND for online publishing formats is that you have to account for variable monitor settings and lighting conditions. What stands out on my monitors at home might be barely noticeable on the crap displays at the office or my laptop under some lighting conditions or when I have it set to low power.

On top of technological differences, you also need to contend with variances in people's eye-sight.

Underlining is far simpler and more reliable. Perhaps highlighting with an underline as the link is drawn or scrolls into view, and fading the underline out soon after, to be drawn again if the pointer hovers over the paragraph or the page scrolls, would work?

[vanderZwan]

> When you mouse over the paragraph, which indicates you are intending to click, the contrast increases.

What would you suggest in the case of touchscreens? Increased contrast while scrolling with a slow fade-out afterwards?

[munificent]

Ooh, that's a great question. I haven't thought about that (though I do generally try to make my designs responsive and mobile-friendly). I like your idea of a slow fade after scroll.

[arantius]

> I like your idea of a slow fade after scroll.

Things blinking/fading/shifting/changing when I'm taking completely unrelated actions (or, worse, all on their own) is one of the most unreadable/unusable design decisions I regularly face. It's a good way to get me to close a tab, regardless of any other factors.

[paulriddle]

I agree. His book Practical Typography is very hard on the eyes, even looking at the text is uncomfortable. I think he fell into a trap of overdoing things. Like some people when they learn about what you can do with javascript and css add all sorts of annoying visual effects with no unified theme to the whole. They just enter some sort of trance and keep adding.