TLDR; understanding the math of centering stuff doesn't mean you know how to center stuff in design.
The visual/optical center is not the geometric center. It is slightly above.
Graphic design basics.
The author mentions the word 'optical' once and 'visual' twice. Never in the above context.
I.e. they never explain this, so we must assume they don't know about it.
And we actually have evidence they don't.
The image below the sentence "Apple can't do it" is an example of visually/optically correctly centered text on the vertical axis.
Slightly above geometric and giving the lowercase letters more weight in the decision. Some designers would argue the text should be moved down one pixel in the example at hand but I'd disagree.
The problem here is a different one. The ellipsis (...) is very light, optically, so the horizontal center should account for that and the text moved slightly right.
That is not shown or talked about at all. Go figure ...
Yes, there is a problem, it's the enshittification of design everywhere.
Centering not existing is part of it.
As are people like the author who understand the problem but lack knowledge (sea above) to detail a correct solution.
They say "we developers" in one sentence. Graphic design was something you studied at uni when I was young. Just as CS. Maybe I'm just old but you don't know shit about centering stuff in design if you know how to center stuff mathematically.
And yeah, since I'm ranting:
Don't get me started on Material design. Where to start?
Tiny text only buttons that don't even have an outline and whose size depends solely on the length of the text inside. Etc.
The visual/optical center is not the geometric center. It is slightly above.
Graphic design basics.
The author mentions the word 'optical' once and 'visual' twice. Never in the above context.
I.e. they never explain this, so we must assume they don't know about it.
And we actually have evidence they don't.
The image below the sentence "Apple can't do it" is an example of visually/optically correctly centered text on the vertical axis. Slightly above geometric and giving the lowercase letters more weight in the decision. Some designers would argue the text should be moved down one pixel in the example at hand but I'd disagree.
The problem here is a different one. The ellipsis (...) is very light, optically, so the horizontal center should account for that and the text moved slightly right.
That is not shown or talked about at all. Go figure ...
Yes, there is a problem, it's the enshittification of design everywhere. Centering not existing is part of it.
As are people like the author who understand the problem but lack knowledge (sea above) to detail a correct solution.
They say "we developers" in one sentence. Graphic design was something you studied at uni when I was young. Just as CS. Maybe I'm just old but you don't know shit about centering stuff in design if you know how to center stuff mathematically.
And yeah, since I'm ranting:
Don't get me started on Material design. Where to start?
Tiny text only buttons that don't even have an outline and whose size depends solely on the length of the text inside. Etc.