Kermit: A typeface for kids

Evidence and claims about readability

• Many commenters note the article asserts benefits for children’s reading without presenting published studies or quantitative results; several call this out as marketing framed as science.
• Some are open to the idea that indicating prosody in text could aid comprehension, but note the referenced “unpublished study” and lack of code/papers undermine the educational claims.
• A few with education/psychology backgrounds describe the field as full of weak correlations, warning against overinterpreting such findings.

Font design and subjective readability

• Reactions to Kermit’s look are polarized: some find it friendly, fun, or even “world-changing” (easier to read with certain visual issues), while others find it bold, cramped, fatiguing, or outright unreadable.
• Several compare it unfavorably or favorably to Comic Sans; some see it as a smoother, more polished variant, others as a poor imitation.
• There is debate over letterforms for early readers (e.g., single-storey “a”, ambiguous “v” vs “u”, exit strokes on “n”), with some parents/teachers saying it doesn’t target actual beginner-reader confusions.
• Technical nitpicks include inconsistent stroke widths on low-DPI screens, tight kerning (especially with site-wide negative letter-spacing), underline behavior, and difficulty with non-regular weights.

Fonts, dyslexia, and research

• Thread references OpenDyslexic and other “dyslexia-friendly” fonts; multiple commenters say empirical support is weak or contradictory, linking to research that finds little measurable benefit over standard fonts.
• Some dyslexic readers report no help from special fonts; others give anecdotal support for Comic Sans or Kermit, but these are not backed by controlled studies.
• Broader typography discussion notes that font size, spacing, and line length often matter more than specific typeface, and that much prior research confounds these factors.

Prosody animation and technical novelty

• Several see real promise in using variable fonts to encode prosody in captions or to animate stroke order for teaching handwriting.
• Others caution that constant motion or bouncing text could itself hinder readability, especially over long passages.

Website UX, licensing, and access

• Strong criticism of Microsoft’s scroll hijacking and global letter-spacing, and of kermit-font.com’s cryptic, non-scrollable interface.
• Commenters struggle to find licensing terms; consensus is that Kermit is bundled as an Office cloud font, not freely licensed. Some extract webfont URLs but note the lack of a clear, permissive license as a red flag.