Archive for the 'Typography' Category

Are Vista Fonts Ready for the Web?

Windows Vista™ ushered in a new set of screen-optimized typefaces, touted as successors to the Core Web fonts we’ve all become accustomed to. Already, we’ve seen early adopters and trendsetters updating their font-familys to prioritize the newer fonts (Calibri, Cambria, and Segoe UI being current favorites).

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Lucida Hybrid: The ‘Grande’ Alternative

Lucida Grande is such a nice font to use in websites, but because it doesn’t come standard with Windows, we turn to Lucida Sans Unicode and Lucida Sans to make sure users get a similar look. Unfortunately, both typefaces have imperfections that make them less-than-worthy candidates for substitution. Oh, dear.

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Simple Relative Font Size Equation

For those of you working with relative font-sizes in your CSS, here is a basic equation for getting the exact size equivalent in ems, given a desired px value:

emr = pxt ÷ pxp, where
 
emr = result font size, in ems;
pxt = target font size, in px;
pxp = parent element’s font size, in px;

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(There Is Hardship) Beyond Arial & Verdana

Over the course of several recent projects, I’ve been experimenting with some alternatives to the usual cast of web fonts (Arial, Verdana, Georgia, etc.). I know this is nothing new, as countless other designers have had other fonts grace their designs. While the results of my experiments often prove less than successful, I proceed to share my experiences in pursuit of documenting web font knowledge. After all, what’s a designer’s job without a little challenge every now and then?

For those living in the comfort of Arial & Co., do not take this as a discouragement from exploring the outer limits of web fonts, but as a warning of what lies ahead.

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Rapid Fire #3: Quick ‘N Dirty Outlines

The dirty look done quick

In this edition of Rapid Fire, we’ll be making use of a particular design resource in a not-so-conventional manner. Utilizing readily-available corroded fonts, we can achieve a marker- or chalk-stroke effect with which to frame or emphasize our design elements in Adobe® Fireworks®.

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