View Issue
Home
» Newsletters
» View Issue
The SitePoint TECH TIMES #261 Copyright (c) 2009
October 13, 2009 PLEASE FORWARD
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Tips, Tricks, News and Reviews for Web Coders
by Kevin Yank (techtimes@sitepoint.com)
Read the HTML version of this newsletter, with graphics, at:
http://www.sitepoint.com/newsletter/viewissue.php?id=3&issue=261
Note: This newsletter is supported solely by advertisers like the
one below. We stand 100% behind every ad that we run. If you ever
have a problem with a company that advertises here please contact
us and we will try to get it resolved.
INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The SitePoint team are still winding down from Web Directions
South '09. And they've returned bearing gifts! Raena caught up
with typophile Simon Pascal Klein and you can read the interview
in this issue of the Tech Times.
I also hear that the CSS Frameworks presentation by SitePoint's
own Kevin Yank was very popular and well received. If you missed
it he'll also be presenting at the Edge of the Web [1] conference
in Perth, Western Australia. A small contingent from SitePoint
will be attending, so stop by and say hi if you're going to be
there too.
The look of concentration and knitted brow of Shayne, our
marketing guy, tells me that the imminent release of the newest
SitePoint book -- Fancy Form Design by Jina Bolton, Tim Connell
and Derek Featherstone -- is just around the corner. Stay tuned!
[1] <http://www.edgeoftheweb.org.au/>
SPONSOR'S MESSAGE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
HostGator Eats Up the Competition with Their Newly Priced Plans!
Whether you're a web designer or a small site owner, HostGator
offers a web hosting plan to fit your needs. With their Hatchling
Plan starting at $4.95, ranging to their Reseller Plans and Dedicated
Servers, you'll definitely have room to grow.
Host Unlimited Sites on Our Baby Plan:
- Disk Space: Unlimited
- Bandwidth: Unlimited
Along with superior support and features like instant backups,
99.9% uptime, and an all-new 45-day money-back guarantee, you'll
be glad you chose HostGator.
Sign Up Now and Receive $9.94 OFF!
http://secure.hostgator.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=sitepoint-102009
Coupon: SitePoint
IN THIS ISSUE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- Introduction
- A Few Questions for Simon Pascal Klein
- Raw Component
- Techy Forum Threads
- More Techy Blog Entries
A FEW QUESTIONS FOR SIMON PASCAL KLEIN - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It's that time of year again -- the time when web developers'
diaries are packed with conferences, BarCamps, and events. Over
in Perth, at the edge of the world, the Edge of the Web
conference [1] is three days' worth of presentations, workshops,
and networking opportunities with some of the Web's leading
lights. I caught up with one of the speakers, Simon Pascal
Klein, to chat about his presentation, the state of typography
on the Web, and some of the work that inspires him.
Edge of the Web is just a few weeks away now. What will we take
home from your talk?
A number of things I hope: I want people to feel enthusiastic
about web typography -- we need to overcome some of the
despair that hangs in the air that standards-based web
typography is limited, boring, and just plain sucks.
I intend to illustrate that typography is more than just "oh
yeah, I'm pickin' a cool font" by covering some of many
standardized and well-supported CSS options available for
manipulating text. I also give a rundown on the recent
developments in the domain of web fonts that extend the number
of typefaces available to us on the Web.
We're crying out for more available fonts on the Web. We have
wider support for @font-face but sometimes it's no option, given
that the fonts we'd like to use are usually licensed in a manner
that prevents us from including them that way. What gives?
I honestly am unable to foresee font foundries releasing their
business assets for use on the Web in a format that makes it
possible to share or download the font with ease. Typekit and
the other similar web font hosting and licensing services employ
a range of methods that obscure the font data, including splicing
up the font so that it's only pieced together per se in the
browser, setting the font data in different formats or
encodings, obscuring it with JavaScript, and so on. This is to
prevent a savvy web user from viewing the site CSS and accessing
the @font-face web font URL to directly download the linked font
for use outside the web site.
It's this copy protection technology that has given rise to web
fonts recently, as foundries have had no way previously to make
their fonts available on the Web without risking them being
downloaded and shared.
I guess that another simple answer in favor of these services is
that the range offered by type foundries who've created their own
web font service, or sublicense them via a system like Typekit,
will likely be better than some of the non-professional fonts
that you see. Of course, the idea of whether something is better
is judged by comparing it to something else -- in this case,
this is usually the print world.
In print, properties that have defined a quality typeface
included good kerning across the entire character set,
alternative or extra styles and glyphs, a range of ligatures,
and the like. On the Web many of these attributes are less
important, or unavailable -- for example, advanced OpenType
features are unavailable when setting web type. This places
professional, print-optimized fonts on a more equal footing with
non-professional fonts.
Since we have all these options available to us, it's fair to
say we'll see an explosion of font use around the Web. How do we
avoid being one of those who's just "pickin' a cool font?"
I would recommend caution in setting the body of your copy in a
web font, regardless of whether it's a licensed web font from a
foundry or a freely licensed font you've come across on a
font-sharing web site. A good use case for these fonts would be
traditionally larger type -- so think hero text, headings,
call-outs, and the like.
Everyone loves inspiration. Whose work delights you?
The single person that really deserves kudos for placing
typography, particularly web typography, back into the limelight
is John Boardley of ilovetypography.com. [2] That man merits
recognition for reminding many of us that type requires
attention.
Here are some of my favorites:
- Sushi & Robots, [3] the personal site of Jina Bolton. I love
her use of the grid system and am impressed that she's also
applied everything to a common baseline, which is even
graphically visible. Use of good grid systems and baselines
provide a good sense of rhythm.
- Black Estate, [4] the site of Black Estate, a New
Zealand-based vineyard. I love how something so beautiful has
been created with something so simple: a good, versatile grid
and simple font choices (type set in Times New Roman for body
text with body headings in the more bulkier Georgia -- both
web-safe fonts).
- Information Architects. [5] The site is simple, clean, and
above all structured and legible. Again, set predominately in
Georgia, which being designed and optimized for screen usage
fits snuggly and makes for a good reading experience.
- Jon Tan, [6] Jon Tan's personal site. With widths
set in ems, the page scales perfectly -- not to mention his
use of various font styles (bold, italic, small capitals) and
sturdy grid. Jon's site is an absolute pleasure to browse.
- Subtraction, [7] the site of Khoi Vinh. Khoi's grid is
amazing, and illustrates that with one single, simple font
choice (Arial) and a brilliant grid, you can build a beautiful,
structured site that's reminiscent of the Swiss Style. Version
7.x of his site has also been live for a while, but is still
definitely worth pointing out, and a reminder of the recognition
that grid systems really can translate from the print world to
the Web.
Thanks, Pascal!
If you're visiting Edge of the Web, you'll catch Pascal's talk,
Beautiful Web Typography [8], on November 5th. While you're at
it, be sure to check out a presentation from SitePoint's Kevin
Yank [9] on CSS frameworks that same morning -- it went down a
treat at last week's Web Directions South conference.
Read the interview:
A Few Questions for Simon Pascal Klein [10]
by Raena Jackson Armitage
[1] <http://www.edgeoftheweb.org.au/>
[2] <http://ilovetypography.com>
[3] <http://sushiandrobots.com>
[4] <http://blackestate.co.nz/>
[5] <http://informationarchitects.jp/>
[6] <http://jontangerine.com/>
[7] <http://subtraction.com/>
[8] <http://www.edgeoftheweb.org.au/program/simon-pascal-klein/>
[9] <http://www.edgeoftheweb.org.au/program/kevin-yank/>
[10] <http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/interview-simon-pascal-klein>
SPONSOR'S MESSAGE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5 Minutes, 4 Prizes, 1 Survey
Go in the draw and you could win ONE of the following prizes:
- A new iPhone GS3
- A Nintendo Wii
- An Intuos4 Wacom tablet
Or perhaps you'd like to give $1,000 to charity instead?
All you have to do is answer our 5-minute SitePoint reader survey.
Click here to check out the details:
http://www.sitepoint.com/launch/c8e060
Or do the survey now:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=sAdg5SDLgShCmkF8a4IgJw_3d_3d
SPONSOR'S MESSAGE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Build Better Apps in a Snap
With Adobe Flex Builder 3 software, you can quickly create engaging
applications, and consistently deliver highly interactive experiences
to your clients. Flex Builder 3 is an Eclipse based development tool,
enabling intelligent code hinting, interactive step-through debugging,
and visual design of user interface layout, appearance, and behavior.
So providing a compelling user experience is simple, fast, and
easy -- every single time.
Download Flex Builder 3 to expand your capabilities for creating rich
Internet applications (RIAs).
http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;218593019;41682035;g
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
See you next week for another issue of the Tech Times!
Andrew Tetlaw
techtimes@sitepoint.com
SitePoint Technical Editor
New Technical Articles
Pushing Pixels on a Shoestring: Bring out the GIMP!
There’s a lot of great desktop software available in the open-source
world. In this article, Tim shows us a few cool tricks using GIMP,
a free and open-source image editor.
TECHY FORUM THREADS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hey, Java gurus -- what should we write about on sitepoint.com?
<http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=640573>
Complex form design
<http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=641165>
How do you organize your HTML/CSS/PHP??
<http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=640695>
Favicon blues
<http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=640561>
Three Columns with Two Floated and One Absolute?
<http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=640551>
Web Server at Home--Basic Concepts?
<http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=640547>
MORE TECHY BLOG ENTRIES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
News & Trends Blog: INDUSTRY NEWS FOR WEB PROFESSIONALS
Webmail Security Breaches Continue (4 comments)
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/10/12/webmail-security-breaches/
Web Tech Blog: TECHNICALLY SPEAKING
16 Fabulous Web Browser Options (9 comments)
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/10/12/web-browser-options/
Progressive Enhancement Techniques 3: the JavaScript (5 comments)
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/10/08/progressive-enhancement-3-javascript/
Progressive Enhancement Techniques 2: the CSS (2 comments)
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/10/07/progressive-enhancement-2-css/
Progressive Enhancement Techniques 1: the HTML (6 comments)
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/10/06/progressive-enhancement-1-html/
ADVERTISING INFORMATION - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Find out what thousands of savvy Internet marketers already know:
email newsletter advertising works! (You're reading an email ad
now, aren't you?)
Find out how to get YOUR sponsorship ad in this newsletter and
reach 95,000+ opt-in subscribers! Check out
http://www.sitepoint.com/mediakit/ for details, or email us at
mailto:adinfo@sitepoint.com
HELP YOUR FRIENDS OUT - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
People you care about can take charge of their Website by
effectively using the information and resources available on the
Internet. Help them learn how - forward them a copy
of this week's SitePoint Tech Times.
ADDRESSES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Send suggestions and comments to:
techtimes@sitepoint.com
To subscribe, send a blank email to:
subscribe@sitepoint.com
The Archives are located at:
http://www.sitepoint.com/newsletter/archives.php
The SitePoint Tech Times is (c) 1998-2009 SitePoint Pty. Ltd. All
Rights Reserved. No part of this Newsletter may be reproduced in
whole or in part without written permission. All guest articles
are copyright their respective owners and are reproduced with
permission.
SitePoint Pty. Ltd.
48 Cambridge Street
Collingwood, VIC 3066
AUSTRALIA
You are currently subscribed to The SitePoint Tech Times as:
[email]
To change the email address that you currently subscribe with:
http://sitepoint.com/newsletter/manage.php
To switch to the HTML version of this newsletter:
<http://sitepoint.com/newsletter/htmlplease.php?email=[email]>
To leave this list, please visit:
[unsubscribe]
Do Not Reply to this email to unsubscribe.
We send this newsletter using Campaign Monitor.
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Topics
Download sample chapters of any of our popular books.
Learn more with SitePoint books