{"rowid": 53, "title": "Get Expressive with Your Typography", "contents": "In 1955 Beatrice Warde, an American communicator on typography, published a series of essays entitled The Crystal Goblet in which she wrote, \u201cPeople who love ideas must have a love of words. They will take a vivid interest in the clothes that words wear.\u201d And with that proposition Warde introduced the idea that just as we judge someone based on the clothes they are wearing, so we make judgements about text based on the typefaces in which it is set.\nBeatrice Warde. \u00a91970 Monotype Imaging Inc.\nChoosing the same typeface as everyone else, especially if you\u2019re trying to make a statement, is like turning up to a party in the same dress; to a meeting in the same suit, shirt and tie; or to a craft ale dispensary in the same plaid shirt and turned-up skinny jeans.\nBut there\u2019s more to your choice of typeface than simply making an impression. In 2012 Jon Tan wrote on 24 ways about a scientific study called \u201cThe Aesthetics of Reading\u201d which concluded that \u201cgood quality typography is responsible for greater engagement during reading and thus induces a good mood.\u201d\nFurthermore, at this year\u2019s Ampersand conference Sarah Hyndman, an expert in multisensory typography, discussed how typefaces can communicate with our subconscious. Sarah showed that different fonts could have an effect on how food tasted. A rounded font placed near a bowl of jellybeans would make them taste sweeter, and a jagged angular font would make them taste more sour. \nThe quality of your typography can therefore affect the mood of your reader, and your font choice directly affect the senses. This means you can manipulate the way people feel. You can change their emotional state through type alone. Now that\u2019s a real superpower!\nThe effects of your body text design choices are measurable but subtle. If you really want to have an impact you need to think big. Literally. Display text and headings are your attention grabbers. They are your chance to interrupt, introduce and seduce.\nDisplay text and headings set the scene and draw people in. Text set large creates an image that visitors see before they read, and that\u2019s your chance to choose a typeface that immediately expresses what the text, and indeed the entire website, stands for. What expectations of the text do you want to set up? Youthful enthusiasm? Businesslike? Cutting-edge? Hipster? Sensible and secure? Fun and informal? Authoritarian?\nTypography conveys much more than just information. It imparts feeling, emotion and sentiment, and arouses preconceived ideas of trust, tone and content. Think about taking advantage of this by introducing impactful, expressive typography to your designs on the web. You can alter the way your reader feels, so what emotion do you want to provoke?\nMaybe you want them to feel inspired like this stop smoking campaign:\nhelsenorge.no\nPerhaps they should be moved and intrigued, as with Makeshift magazine:\nmkshft.org\nOr calmly reassured:\nwww.cleopatra-marina.gr\nFonts also tap into the complex library of associations that we\u2019ve been accumulating in our brains all of our lives. You build up these associations every time you see a font from the context that you see it in. All of us associate certain letterforms with topics, times and places.\nRetiro is obviously Spanish:\nRetiro by Typofonderie\nBodoni and Eurostile used in this menu couldn\u2019t be much more Italian:\nBodoni and Eurostile, both designed in Italy\nTo me, Clarendon gives a sense of the 1960s and 1970s. I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s what Costa was going for, but that\u2019s what it means to me:\nCosta coffee flier\nAnd Knockout and Gotham really couldn\u2019t be much more American:\nKnockout and Gotham by Hoefler & Co\nWhen it comes to choosing your display typeface, the type designer Christian Schwartz says there are two kinds. First are the workhorse typefaces that will do whatever you want them to do. Helvetica, Proxima Nova and Futura are good examples. These fonts can be shaped in many different ways, but this also means they are found everywhere and take great skill and practice to work with in a unique and striking manner.\nThe second kind of typeface is one that does most of the work for you. Like finely tailored clothing, it\u2019s the detail in the design that adds interest.\nSetting headings in Bree rather than Helvetica makes a big difference to the tone of the article\nSuch typefaces carry much more inherent character, but are also less malleable and harder to adapt to different contexts. Good examples are Marr Sans, FS Clerkenwell, Strangelove and Bree.\nPush the boat out\nRemember, all type can have an effect on the reader. Take advantage of that and allow your type to have its own vernacular and impact. Be expressive with your type. Don\u2019t be too reverential, dogmatic \u2013 or ordinary. Be brave and push a few boundaries.\nAdapted from Web Typography a book in progress by Richard Rutter.", "year": "2015", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2015-12-04T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2015/get-expressive-with-your-typography/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 120, "title": "Easier Page States for Wireframes", "contents": "When designing wireframes for web sites and web apps, it is often overlooked that the same \u2018page\u2019 can look wildly different depending on its context. A logged-in page will look different from a logged-out page; an administrator\u2019s view may have different buttons than a regular user\u2019s view; a power user\u2019s profile will be more extensive than a new user\u2019s.\n\nThese different page states need designing at some point, especially if the wireframes are to form a useful communication medium between designer and developer. Documenting the different permutations can be a time consuming exercise involving either multiple pages in one\u2019s preferred box-and-arrow software, or a fully fledged drawing containing all the possible combinations annotated accordingly.\n\nEnter interactive wireframes and Polypage\n\nInteractive wireframes built in HTML are a great design and communication tool. They provide a clickable prototype, running in the browser as would the final site. As such they give a great feel for how the site will be to use. Once you add in the possibilities of JavaScript and a library such as jQuery, they become even more flexible and powerful.\n\nPolypage is a jQuery plugin which makes it really easy to design multiple page states in HTML wireframes. There\u2019s no JavaScript knowledge required (other than cutting and pasting in a few lines). The page views are created by simply writing all the alternatives into your HTML page and adding special class names to apply state and conditional view logic to the various options. \n\nWhen the page is loaded Polypage automatically detects the page states defined by the class names and creates a control bar enabling the user to toggle page states with the click of a mouse or the clack of a keyboard.\n\n\n\nUsing cookies by way of the jQuery cookie plugin, Polypage retains the view state throughout your prototype. This means you could navigate through your wireframes as if you were logged out; as if you were logged in as an administrator; with notes on or off; or with any other view or state you might require. The possibilities are entirely up to you.\n\nHow does it work?\n\nFirstly you need to link to jQuery, the jQuery cookie plugin and to Polypage. Something like this:\n\n<script src=\"javascripts/jquery-1.2.6.min.js\" type=\"text/javascript\"></script>\n<script src=\"javascripts/cookie.jquery.js\" type=\"text/javascript\"></script>\n<script src=\"javascripts/polypage.jquery.js\" type=\"text/javascript\"></script>\n\nThen you need to initialise Polypage on page load using something along these lines:\n\n<script type=\"text/javascript\">\n\t$(document).ready(function() {\n\t\t$.polypage.init();\n\t});\n</script>\n\nNext you need to define the areas of your wireframe which are particular to a given state or view. Do this by applying classes beginning with pp_. Polypage will ignore all other classes in the document.\n\nThe pp_ prefix should be followed by a state name. This can be any text string you like, bearing in mind it will appear in the control bar. Typical page states might include \u2018logged_in\u2019, \u2018administrator\u2019 or \u2018group_owner\u2019. A complete class name would therefore look something like pp_logged_in.\n\nExamples\n\nIf a user is logged in, you might want to specify an option for him or her to sign out. Using Polypage, this could be put in the wireframe as follows:\n\n<a href=\"logout\" class=\"pp_logged_in\"> Sign out </a>\n\nPolypage will identify the pp_logged_in class on the link and hide it (as the \u2018Sign out\u2019 link should only be shown when the page is in the \u2018logged in\u2019 view). Polypage will then automatically write a \u2018logged in\u2019 toggle to the control bar, enabling you to show or hide the \u2018Sign out\u2019 link by toggling the \u2018logged in\u2019 view. The same will apply to all content marked with a pp_logged_in class.\n\nStates can also be negated by adding a not keyword to the class name. For example you might want to provide a log in link for users who are not signed in. Using Polypage, you would insert the not keyword after the pp prefix as follows:\n\n<a href=\"login\" class=\"pp_not_logged_in\"> Login </a>\n\nAgain Polypage identifies the pp prefix but this time sees that the \u2018Login\u2019 link should not be shown when the \u2018logged in\u2019 state is selected.\n\nStates can also be joined together to add some basic logic to pages. The syntax follows natural language and uses the or and and keywords in addition to the afore-mentioned not. Some examples would be pp_logged_in_and_admin, pp_admin_or_group_owner and pp_logged_in_and_not_admin.\n\nFinally, you can set default states for a page by passing an array to the polypage.init() function like this:\n\n$.polypage.init(['logged_in', 'admin']);\n\nYou can see a fully fledged example in this fictional social network group page. The example page defaults to a logged in state. You can see the logged out state by toggling \u2018logged in\u2019 off in the Polypage control bar. There are also views specified for a group member, a group admin, a new group and notes. \n\nWhere can I get hold of it?\n\nYou can download the current version from GitHub.\n\nPolypage was originally developed by Clearleft and New Bamboo, with particular contributions from Andy Kent and Natalie Downe. It has been used in numerous real projects, but it is still an early release so there is bound to be room for improvement. We\u2019re pleased to say that Polypage is now an open source project so any feedback, particularly by way of actual improvements, is extremely welcome.", "year": "2008", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2008-12-11T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2008/easier-page-states-for-wireframes/", "topic": "process"}
{"rowid": 141, "title": "Compose to a Vertical Rhythm", "contents": "\u201cSpace in typography is like time in music. It is infinitely divisible, but a few proportional intervals can be much more useful than a limitless choice of arbitrary quantities.\u201d So says the typographer Robert Bringhurst, and just as regular use of time provides rhythm in music, so regular use of space provides rhythm in typography, and without rhythm the listener, or the reader, becomes disorientated and lost.\n\nOn the Web, vertical rhythm \u2013 the spacing and arrangement of text as the reader descends the page \u2013 is contributed to by three factors: font size, line height and margin or padding. All of these factors must calculated with care in order that the rhythm is maintained. \n\nThe basic unit of vertical space is line height. Establishing a suitable line height that can be applied to all text on the page, be it heading, body copy or sidenote, is the key to a solid dependable vertical rhythm, which will engage and guide the reader down the page. To see this in action, I\u2019ve created an example with headings, footnotes and sidenotes. \n\nEstablishing a suitable line height\n\nThe easiest place to begin determining a basic line height unit is with the font size of the body copy. For the example I\u2019ve chosen 12px. To ensure readability the body text will almost certainly need some leading, that is to say spacing between the lines. A line-height of 1.5em would give 6px spacing between the lines of body copy. This will create a total line height of 18px, which becomes our basic unit. Here\u2019s the CSS to get us to this point:\n\nbody {\n\tfont-size: 75%; \n}\nhtml>body {\n\tfont-size: 12px; \n}\np {\n\tline-height 1.5em; \n}\n\nThere are many ways to size text in CSS and the above approach provides and accessible method of achieving the pixel-precision solid typography requires. By way of explanation, the first font-size reduces the body text from the 16px default (common to most browsers and OS set-ups) down to the 12px we require. This rule is primarily there for Internet Explorer 6 and below on Windows: the percentage value means that the text will scale predictably should a user bump the text size up or down. The second font-size sets the text size specifically and is ignored by IE6, but used by Firefox, Safari, IE7, Opera and other modern browsers which allow users to resize text sized in pixels.\n\nSpacing between paragraphs\n\nWith our rhythmic unit set at 18px we need to ensure that it is maintained throughout the body copy. A common place to lose the rhythm is the gaps set between margins. The default treatment by web browsers of paragraphs is to insert a top- and bottom-margin of 1em. In our case this would give a spacing between the paragraphs of 12px and hence throw the text out of rhythm. If the rhythm of the page is to be maintained, the spacing of paragraphs should be related to the basic line height unit. This is achieved simply by setting top- and bottom-margins equal to the line height.\n\nIn order that typographic integrity is maintained when text is resized by the user we must use ems for all our vertical measurements, including line-height, padding and margins.\n\np {\n\tfont-size:1em;\n\tmargin-top: 1.5em;\n\tmargin-bottom: 1.5em; \n}\n\nBrowsers set margins on all block-level elements (such as headings, lists and blockquotes) so a way of ensuring that typographic attention is paid to all such elements is to reset the margins at the beginning of your style sheet. You could use a rule such as:\n\nbody,div,dl,dt,dd,ul,ol,li,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,pre,form,fieldset,p,blockquote,th,td {  \n\tmargin:0; \n\tpadding:0; \n}\n\nAlternatively you could look into using the Yahoo! UI Reset style sheet which removes most default styling, so providing a solid foundation upon which you can explicitly declare your design intentions.\n\nVariations in text size\n\nWhen there is a change in text size, perhaps with a heading or sidenotes, the differing text should also take up a multiple of the basic leading. This means that, in our example, every diversion from the basic text size should take up multiples of 18px. This can be accomplished by adjusting the line-height and margin accordingly, as described following.\n\nHeadings\n\nSubheadings in the example page are set to 14px. In order that the height of each line is 18px, the line-height should be set to 18\u00a0\u00f7\u00a014 =\u00a01.286. Similarly the margins above and below the heading must be adjusted to fit. The temptation is to set heading margins to a simple 1em, but in order to maintain the rhythm, the top and bottom margins should be set at 1.286em so that the spacing is equal to the full 18px unit.\n\nh2 {\n\tfont-size:1.1667em;\n\tline-height: 1.286em;\n\tmargin-top: 1.286em;\n\tmargin-bottom: 1.286em; \n}\n\nOne can also set asymmetrical margins for headings, provided the margins combine to be multiples of the basic line height. In our example, a top margin of 1\u00bd lines is combined with a bottom margin of half a line as follows:\n\nh2 {\n\tfont-size:1.1667em;\n\tline-height: 1.286em;\n\tmargin-top: 1.929em;\n\tmargin-bottom: 0.643em; \n}\n\nAlso in our example, the main heading is given a text size of 18px, therefore the line-height has been set to 1em, as has the margin:\n\nh1 {\n\tfont-size:1.5em;\n\tline-height: 1em;\n\tmargin-top: 0;\n\tmargin-bottom: 1em; \n}\n\nSidenotes\n\nSidenotes (and other supplementary material) are often set at a smaller size to the basic text. To keep the rhythm, this smaller text should still line up with body copy, so a calculation similar to that for headings is required. In our example, the sidenotes are set at 10px and so their line-height must be increased to 18\u00a0\u00f7\u00a010 =\u00a01.8.\n\n.sidenote {\n\tfont-size:0.8333em;\n\tline-height:1.8em; \n}\n\nBorders\n\nOne additional point where vertical rhythm is often lost is with the introduction of horizontal borders. These effectively act as shims pushing the subsequent text downwards, so a two pixel horizontal border will throw out the vertical rhythm by two pixels. A way around this is to specify horizontal lines using background images or, as in our example, specify the width of the border in ems and adjust the padding to take up the slack. \n\nThe design of the footnote in our example requires a 1px horizontal border. The footnote contains 12px text, so 1px in ems is 1\u00a0\u00f7\u00a012 =\u00a00.0833. I have added a margin of 1\u00bd lines above the border (1.5\u00a0\u00d7\u00a018\u00a0\u00f7\u00a012 =\u00a02.5ems), so to maintain the rhythm the border + padding must equal a \u00bd (9px). We know the border is set to 1px, so the padding must be set to 8px. To specify this in ems we use the familiar calculation: 8\u00a0\u00f7\u00a012 =\u00a00.667.\n\nHit me with your rhythm stick\n\nComposing to a vertical rhythm helps engage and guide the reader down the page, but it takes typographic discipline to do so. It may seem like a lot of fiddly maths is involved (a few divisions and multiplications never hurt anyone) but good type setting is all about numbers, and it is this attention to detail which is the key to success.", "year": "2006", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2006-12-12T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2006/compose-to-a-vertical-rhythm/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 146, "title": "Increase Your Font Stacks With Font Matrix", "contents": "Web pages built in plain old HTML and CSS are displayed using only the fonts installed on users\u2019 computers (@font-face implementations excepted). To enable this, CSS provides the font-family property for specifying fonts in order of preference (often known as a font stack). For example:\n\nh1 {font-family: 'Egyptienne F', Cambria, Georgia, serif}\n\nSo in the above rule, headings will be displayed in Egyptienne F. If Egyptienne F is not available then Cambria will be used, failing that Georgia or the final fallback default serif font. This everyday bit of CSS will be common knowledge among all 24 ways readers.\n\nIt is also a commonly held belief that the only fonts we can rely on being installed on users\u2019 computers are the core web fonts of Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana, Georgia and friends. But is that really true?\n\nIf you look in the fonts folder of your computer, or even your Mum\u2019s computer, then you are likely to find a whole load of fonts besides the core ones. This is because many software packages automatically install extra typefaces. For example, Office 2003 installs over 100 additional fonts. Admittedly not all of these fonts are particularly refined, and not all are suitable for the Web. However they still do increase your options. \n\nThe Matrix\n\nI have put together a matrix of (western) fonts showing which are installed with Mac and Windows operating systems, which are installed with various versions of Microsoft Office, and which are installed with Adobe Creative Suite.\n\n\n\nThe matrix is available for download as an Excel file and as a CSV.  There are no readily available statistics regarding the penetration of Office or Creative Suite, but you can probably take an educated guess based on your knowledge of your readers.\n\nThe idea of the matrix is that use can use it to help construct your font stack. First of all pick the font you\u2019d really like for your text \u2013 this doesn\u2019t have to be in the matrix. Then pick the generic family (serif, sans-serif, cursive, fantasy or monospace) and a font from each of the operating systems. Then pick any suitable fonts from the Office and Creative Suite lists.\n\nFor example, you may decide your headings should be in the increasingly ubiquitous Clarendon. This is a serif type face. At OS-level the most similar is arguably Georgia. Adobe CS2 comes with Century Old Style which has a similar feel. Century Schoolbook is similar too, and is installed with all versions of Office. Based on this your font stack becomes:\n\nfont-family: 'Clarendon Std', 'Century Old Style Std', 'Century Schoolbook', Georgia, serif\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNote the \u2018Std\u2019 suffix indicating a \u2018standard\u2019 OpenType file, which will normally be your best bet for more esoteric fonts.\n\nI\u2019m not suggesting the process of choosing suitable fonts is an easy one. Firstly there are nearly two hundred fonts in the matrix, so learning what each font looks like is tricky and potentially time consuming (if you haven\u2019t got all the fonts installed on a machine to hand you\u2019ll be doing a lot of Googling for previews). And it\u2019s not just as simple as choosing fonts that look similar or have related typographic backgrounds, they need to have similar metrics as well, This is especially true in terms of x-height which gives an indication of how big or small a font looks.\n\nOver to You\n\nThe main point of all this is that there are potentially more fonts to consider than is generally accepted, so branch out a little (carefully and tastefully) and bring a little variety to sites out there. If you come up with any novel font stacks based on this approach, please do blog them (tagged as per the footer) and at some point they could all be combined in one place for everyone to consider.\n\nAppendix\n\nWhat about Linux?\n\nThe only operating systems in the matrix are those from Microsoft and Apple. For completeness, Linux operating systems should be included too, although these are many and varied and very much in a minority, so I omitted them for time being. For the record, some Linux distributions come packaged with Microsoft\u2019s core fonts. Others use the Vera family, and others use the Liberation family which comprises fonts metrically identical to Times New Roman and Arial.\n\nSources\n\nThe sources of font information for the matrix are as follows:\n\n\n\tWindows XP SP2\n\tWindows Vista\n\tOffice 2003\n\tOffice 2007\n\tMac OSX Tiger\n\tMac OSX Leopard (scroll down two thirds)\n\tOffice 2004 (Mac) by inspecting my Microsoft Office 2004/Office/Fonts folder\n\tOffice 2008 (Mac) is expected to be as Office 2004 with the addition of the Vista ClearType fonts\n\tCreative Suite 2 (see pdf link in first comment)\n\tCreative Suite 3", "year": "2007", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2007-12-17T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2007/increase-your-font-stacks-with-font-matrix/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 239, "title": "Using the WebFont Loader to Make Browsers Behave the Same", "contents": "Web fonts give us designers a whole new typographic palette with which to work. However, browsers handle the loading of web fonts in different ways, and this can lead to inconsistent user experiences.\n\nSafari, Chrome and Internet Explorer leave a blank space in place of the styled text while the web font is loading. Opera and Firefox show text with the default font which switches over when the web font has loaded, resulting in the so-called Flash of Unstyled Text (aka FOUT). Some people prefer Safari\u2019s approach as it eliminates FOUT, others think the Firefox way is more appropriate as content can be read whilst fonts download. Whatever your preference, the WebFont Loader can make all browsers behave the same way.\n\nThe WebFont Loader is a JavaScript library that gives you extra control over font loading. It was co-developed by Google and Typekit, and released as open source. The WebFont Loader works with most web font services as well as with self-hosted fonts.\n\nThe WebFont Loader tells you when the following events happen as a browser downloads web fonts (or loads them from cache):\n\n\n\twhen fonts start to download (\u2018loading\u2019)\n\twhen fonts finish loading (\u2018active\u2019)\n\tif fonts fail to load (\u2018inactive\u2019)\n\n\nIf your web page requires more than one font, the WebFont Loader will trigger events for individual fonts, and for all the fonts as a whole. This means you can find out when any single font has loaded, and when all the fonts have loaded (or failed to do so).\n\nThe WebFont Loader notifies you of these events in two ways: by applying special CSS classes when each event happens; and by firing JavaScript events. For our purposes, we\u2019ll be using just the CSS classes.\n\nImplementing the WebFont Loader\n\nAs stated above, the WebFont Loader works with most web font services as well as with self-hosted fonts.\n\nSelf-hosted fonts\n\nTo use the WebFont Loader when you are hosting the font files on your own server, paste the following code into your web page:\n\n<script type=\"text/javascript\">\nWebFontConfig = {\n\tcustom: { families: ['Font Family Name', 'Another Font Family'],\n\turls: [ 'http://yourwebsite.com/styles.css' ] }\n};\n(function() {\n\tvar wf = document.createElement('script');\n\twf.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https' : 'http') + '://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/webfont/1/webfont.js';\n\twf.type = 'text/javascript';\n\twf.async = 'true';\n\tvar s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];\n\ts.parentNode.insertBefore(wf, s);\n})();\n</script>\n\nReplace Font Family Name and Another Font Family with a comma-separated list of the font families you want to check against, and replace http://yourwebsite.com/styles.css with the URL of the style sheet where your @font-face rules reside.\n\nFontdeck\n\nAssuming you have added some fonts to a website project in Fontdeck, use the afore-mentioned code for self-hosted solutions and replace http://yourwebsite.com/styles.css with the URL of the <link> tag in your Fontdeck website settings page. It will look something like http://f.fontdeck.com/s/css/xxxx/domain/nnnn.css.\n\nTypekit\n\nTypekit\u2019s JavaScript-based implementation incorporates the WebFont Loader events by default, so you won\u2019t need to include any WebFont Loader code.\n\nMaking all browsers behave like Safari\n\nTo make Firefox and Opera work in the same way as WebKit browsers (Safari, Chrome, etc.) and Internet Explorer, and thus minimise FOUT, you need to hide the text while the fonts are loading.\n\nWhile fonts are loading, the WebFont Loader adds a class of wf-loading to the <html> element. Once the fonts have loaded, the wf-loading class is removed and replaced with a class of wf-active (or wf-inactive if all of the fonts failed to load). This means you can style elements on the page while the fonts are loading and then style them differently when the fonts have finished loading.\n\nSo, let\u2019s say the text you need to hide while fonts are loading is contained in all paragraphs and top-level headings. By writing the following style rule into your CSS, you can hide the text while the fonts are loading:\n\n.wf-loading h1, .wf-loading p {\n\tvisibility:hidden;\n}\n\nBecause the wf-loading class is removed once the the fonts have loaded, the visibility:hidden rule will stop being applied, and the text revealed. You can see this in action on this simple example page.\n\nThat works nicely across the board, but the situation is slightly more complicated. WebKit doesn\u2019t wait for all fonts to load before displaying text: it displays text elements as soon as the relevant font is loaded. \n\nTo emulate WebKit more accurately, we need to know when individual fonts have loaded, and apply styles accordingly. Fortunately, as mentioned earlier, the WebFont Loader has events for individual fonts too.\n\nWhen a specific font is loading, a class of the form wf-fontfamilyname-n4-loading is applied. Assuming headings and paragraphs are styled in different fonts, we can make our CSS more specific as follows:\n\n.wf-fontfamilyname-n4-loading h1, \n.wf-anotherfontfamily-n4-loading p {\n\tvisibility:hidden;\n}\n\nNote that the font family name is transformed to lower case, with all spaces removed. The n4 is a shorthand for the weight and style of the font family. In most circumstances you\u2019ll use n4 but refer to the WebFont Loader documentation for exceptions.\n\nYou can see it in action on this Safari example page (you\u2019ll probably need to disable your cache to see any change occur).\n\nMaking all browsers behave like Firefox\n\nTo make WebKit browsers and Internet Explorer work like Firefox and Opera, you need to explicitly show text while the fonts are loading. In order to make this happen, you need to specify a font family which is not a web font while the fonts load, like this:\n\n.wf-fontfamilyname-n4-loading h1 { \n    font-family: 'arial narrow', sans-serif; \n}\n.wf-anotherfontfamily-n4-loading p { \n    font-family: arial, sans-serif; \n}\n\nYou can see this in action on the Firefox example page (again you\u2019ll probably need to disable your cache to see any change occur).\n\nAnd there\u2019s more\n\nThat\u2019s just the start of what can be done with the WebFont Loader. More areas to explore would be tweaking font sizes to reduce the impact of reflowing text and to better cater for very narrow fonts. By using the JavaScript events much more can be achieved too, such as fading in text as the fonts load.", "year": "2010", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2010-12-02T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2010/using-the-webfont-loader-to-make-browsers-behave-the-same/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 307, "title": "Get the Balance Right: Responsive Display Text", "contents": "Last year in 24 ways I urged you to Get Expressive with Your Typography. I made the case for grabbing your readers\u2019 attention by setting text at display sizes, that is to say big. You should consider very large text in the same way you might a hero image: a picture that creates an atmosphere and anchors your layout.\nWhen setting text to be read, it is best practice to choose body and subheading sizes from a pre-defined scale appropriate to the viewport dimensions. We set those sizes using rems, locking the text sizes together so they all scale according to the page default and your reader\u2019s preferences.  You can take the same approach with display text by choosing larger sizes from the same scale.\nHowever, display text, as defined by its purpose and relative size, is text to be seen first, and read second. In other words a picture of text. When it comes to pictures, you are likely to scale all scene-setting imagery - cover photos, hero images, and so on - relative to the viewport. Take the same approach with display text: lock the size and shape of the text to the screen or browser window.\nIntroducing viewport units\nWith CSS3 came a new set of units which are locked to the viewport. You can use these viewport units wherever you might otherwise use any other unit of length such as pixels, ems or percentage. There are four viewport units, and in each case a value of 1 is equal to 1% of either the viewport width or height as reported in reference1 pixels:\n\nvw - viewport width,\nvh - viewport height,\nvmin - viewport height or width, whichever is smaller\nvmax - viewport height or width, whichever is larger\n\nIn one fell swoop you can set the size of a display heading to be proportional to the screen or browser width, rather than choosing from a scale in a series of media queries. The following makes the heading font size 13% of the viewport width:\nh1 {\n    font-size: 13 vw;\n}\nSo for a selection of widths, the rendered font size would be:\nRendered font size (px)\nViewport width\n13\u202fvw\n320\n42\n768\n100\n1024\n133\n1280\n166\n1920\n250\n\nA problem with using vw in this manner is the difference in text block proportions between portrait and landscape devices. Because the font size is based on the viewport width, the text on a landscape display is far bigger than when rendered on the same device held in a portrait orientation. \nLandscape text is much bigger than portrait text when using vw units.\nThe proportions of the display text relative to the screen are so dissimilar that each orientation has its own different character, losing the inconsistency and considered design you would want when designing to make an impression.\nHowever if the text was the same size in both orientations, the visual effect would be much more consistent. This where vmin comes into its own. Set the font size using vmin and the size is now set as a proportion of the smallest side of the viewport, giving you a far more consistent rendering.\nh1 {\n    font-size: 13vmin;\n}\nLandscape text is consistent with portrait text when using vmin units.\nComparing vw and vmin renderings for various common screen dimensions, you can see how using vmin keeps the text size down to a usable magnitude:\nRendered font size (px)\nViewport\n13\u202fvw\n13\u202fvmin\n320 \u00d7 480\n42\n42\n414 \u00d7 736\n54\n54\n768 \u00d7 1024\n100\n100\n1024 \u00d7 768\n133\n100\n1280 \u00d7 720\n166\n94\n1366 \u00d7 768\n178\n100\n1440 \u00d7 900\n187\n117\n1680 \u00d7 1050\n218\n137\n1920 \u00d7 1080\n250\n140\n2560 \u00d7 1440\n333\n187\n\nHybrid font sizing\nUsing vertical media queries to set text in direct proportion to screen dimensions works well when sizing display text. In can be less desirable when sizing supporting text such as sub-headings, which you may not want to scale upwards at the same rate as the display text. For example, we can size a subheading using vmin so that it starts at 16 px on smaller screens and scales up in the same way as the main heading:\nh1 {\n    font-size: 13vmin;\n}\nh2 {\n    font-size: 5vmin;\n}\nUsing vmin alone for supporting text can scale it too quickly\nThe balance of display text to supporting text on the phone works well, but the subheading text on the tablet, even though it has been increased in line with the main heading, is starting to feel disproportionately large and a little clumsy. This problem becomes magnified on even bigger screens.\nA solution to this is use a hybrid method of sizing text2. We can use the CSS calc() function to calculate a font size simultaneously based on both rems and viewport units. For example:\nh2 {\n    font-size: calc(0.5rem + 2.5vmin);\n}\nFor a 320 px wide screen, the font size will be 16 px, calculated as follows:\n(0.5 \u00d7 16) + (320 \u00d7 0.025) = 8 + 8 = 16px\nFor a 768 px wide screen, the font size will be 27 px:\n(0.5 \u00d7 16) + (768 \u00d7 0.025) = 8 + 19 = 27px\nThis results in a more balanced subheading that doesn\u2019t take emphasis away from the main heading:\n\nTo give you an idea of the effect of using a hybrid approach, here\u2019s a side-by-side comparison of hybrid and viewport text sizing:\ntable.ex--scale{width:100%;overflow: hidden;} table.ex--scale td{vertical-align:baseline;text-align:center;padding:0} tr.ex--scale-key{color:#666} tr.ex--scale-key td{font-size:.875rem;padding:0 0.125em} .ex--scale-2 tr.ex--scale-size{color:#ccc} tr.ex--scale-size td{font-size:1em;line-height:.34em;padding-bottom:.5rem} td.ex--scale-step{color:#000} td.ex--scale-hilite{color:red} .ex--scale-3 tr.ex--scale-size td{line-height:.9em}\n\ntop: calc() hybrid method; bottom: vmin only\n16\n20\n27\n32\n35\n40\n44\n16\n24\n38\n48\n54\n64\n72\n320\n480\n768\n960\n1080\n1280\n1440\n\nOver this festive period, try experiment with the proportion of rem and vmin in your hybrid calculation to see what feels best for your particular setting.\n\n\n\n\nA reference pixel is based on the logical resolution of a device which takes into account double density screens such as Retina displays.\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e\n\n\nFor even more sophisticated uses of hybrid text sizing see the work of Mike Riethmuller.\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e", "year": "2016", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2016-12-09T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2016/responsive-display-text/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 330, "title": "An Explanation of Ems", "contents": "Ems are so-called because they are thought to approximate the size of an uppercase letter M (and so are pronounced emm), although 1em is actually significantly larger than this. The typographer Robert Bringhurst describes the em thus:\n\n\n\tThe em is a sliding measure. One em is a distance equal to the type size. In 6 point type, an em is 6 points; in 12 point type an em is 12 points and in 60 point type an em is 60 points. Thus a one em space is proportionately the same in any size.\n\n\nTo illustrate this principle in terms of CSS, consider these styles:\n\n#box1 {\n     font-size: 12px;\n     width: 1em;\n     height: 1em;\n     border:1px solid black;\n}\n\n#box2 {\n     font-size: 60px;\n     width: 1em;\n     height: 1em;\n     border: 1px solid black;\n}\n\nThese styles will render like:\n\n M\n\nand\n\n M\n\nNote that both boxes have a height and width of 1em but because they have different font sizes, one box is bigger than the other. Box 1 has a font-size of 12px so its width and height is also 12px; similarly the text of box 2 is set to 60px and so its width and height are also 60px.", "year": "2005", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2005-12-02T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2005/an-explanation-of-ems/", "topic": "design"}