Most prominently, all body copy and captions were small with tight leading, while font families for body text and headings were set merely to use your browser’s default sans-serif font. Our sites have historically used text styles which present many issues at small sizes and in non-Latin scripts. Accessibility: Wikimedia content must be highly accessible to all, including those with impairments.Any selections must degrade gracefully across devices and platforms (Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, and mobile operating systems). Availability: All typefaces we use must be already usable (or made available) on all platforms where Wikimedia projects are present.A growing proportion of our readers and editors access content on multiple such devices. Consistency: A consistent visual experience across desktop and mobile devices.Type is also an element which must help differentiate interface elements (such as site navigation) from article content. Readability: Type must be readable and beautiful at all sizes and in as many scripts as possible.We approached this change to Wikimedia’s default typography with the following requirements in mind:
All Wikipedia readers and editors will see the change one week from today (Thursday, April 3rd), while other Wikimedia sites will receive the update earlier, on Tuesday, April 1st. Soon, we’re releasing a small but important update to the typography on the desktop version of Wikimedia sites.
