Screen Typography

Website: coding.smashingmagazine.com/2012/01/30/the-future-of-screen-typography-is-in-your-hands/

The first time I read a document on a computer screen, that was traditionally presented only in printed form, I knew two things. First, digital documents make a lot of sense for storage, presentation, portability and environmental reasons. Second, we weren’t ready for any intensive reading tasks onscreen because the resolution wasn’t high enough yet and backlighting creates eyestrain over time.

With a little bit of time, e-ink helped come to the rescue for eye-strain and display technology made some leaps and bounds becoming both less expensive and higher resolution. This was both good and bad as I see it. For the first time, it was possible to consume a lengthy article, book or magazine onscreen with less eye strain, but it also revealed to us type snobs that what we had was crappy typography and the tools we had didn’t help matters. We have a few emerging tools that look promising, but they are just band-aids in my opinion.

In this article posted to SmashingMagazine.com last week by Andreas Carlsson & Jaan Orvet, some clever Javascript is employed to search out and replace characters with the proper ligatures and create markup in the code for superscript type and many other tasks. Since type on the web flows within many different browser windows it needs something to guide the typographic choices for each situation. I call this a band-aid approach because sooner or later I see this becoming part of CSS or whatever the next web standard is. For now, this is what we have, and if we want more we need to push developers for more tools and push web standards organizations for adoption of those tools.

Related articles

• The Future Of Screen Typography Is In Your Hands (coding.smashingmagazine.com)

New Year, New Things to Learn

I have finished a portfolio website and as soon as finances catch up with my pace I will have it hosted with a .com address of my own. Next up, learn Javascript and PHP. Classes start again on Tuesday. I will be taking a more advanced web design course and a class where we design for a local micro-business. This should be fun.

Update

I recently finished classes and threw off the yoke of social networks so I can catch up on life events. Unfortunately I have not been updating the blog as I had hoped, but I did finish a portfolio website for my web design class. I will be updating it and adding new feature before its official launch. Next step is a custom .com address and finding a web service that will let me do some interesting things and not cost too much. Thinking about doing something with my Cargo account.

Gonna eat my breakfast burrito and finish running errands.

Legacy Browser Support

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been doing some self-guided study on CSS and one topic keeps coming back to the forefront. If I am going to be a professional web designer, I need to make websites that are compatible with all browsers old and new. Internet Explorer appears to be the worst offender as far as supporting the design standards so designers often need to write extra lines of code specifically for IE to help it along. Why, oh why do we do this? The most common argument is that not everyone has a choice in the browser they use (ie. at work) or they don’t know how to update it. To this I say, “Forget them! They are dinosaurs that need to evolve or go extinct.” This may sound harsh but if we keep catering to them as designers, they will have no reason to update their browser or seek help to update it. These are the people who are holding back innovation and the evolution of web design.

One solution to the problem is browsers that automatically update for the user instead of relying on the user to manually update it. Microsoft has implemented a solution for automatic updates since at least Windows XP, however people who had slow connections, slow computers or pirated copies of the OS would choose not to turn on auto-update. This amounted to a large number of people who I had to help update their system, which makes me wonder how many people really used the auto-update feature. Apple has a similar system but it is better integrated and more user-friendly for those that don’t understand the underpinnings of the OS, at least in comparison to Windows XP. Full disclosure, I made the switch to Apple products during the Windows Vista fiasco so I don’t know Vista or 7 very well. Perhaps one of my readers can fill me in on how well updates are handled in the newer versions of Windows? One thing is for certain, no matter what your OS preference is, your browser should  be updating automagically as updates come out so we can reduce the workload on web designers and the amount of data (extra lines of code) that is sent with every click of a link.

Portfolio Review & Airplane Shenanigans

I submitted my portfolio for review by a cadre of instructors last week. I won’t be posting how I did, but I am going to photograph it and post pictures as soon as I get it back with a grade. I should be getting it Tuesday afternoon.

On a side note, I just got back from my travels for a wedding. Everything but the airplane ride was great. I got puked on and they forced me to check my bag that had my laptop in it. My laptop survived but has battle wounds and needs to get checked out and possibly replace the bottom panel. Arrrgh! Not something I am excited about. Apple said a guestimate cost was $300 to $600 for the metal panel. I reported the damage before I left the airport and they know I will be seeking restitution. Wish me luck.

PS. I cut off the tip of my thumb preparing my portfolio. Ouch!

Logo Design

I’ve been in the process of creating a logo for myself for about six months. The idea was to create something that was easily identifiable and looked forward thinking, modern, elegant yet simple (think Bauhaus). I feel like I nailed it but I am so unsure of myself these days.

I figure I will never be happy with it so I might as well put it out there for comments, suggestions and feedback. I’m open to any ideas.

Acer Palmatum Sketches

This is a few weeks old, but I figured I should show the rest of the world that I am alive. Below are some sketches for the deck of designer cards I did for my Digital Illustration II class. I drew four different variations of the Japanese Maple (Acer Palmatum) leaf and made some cards for them. The cards were added to the class deck and we each made a custom box design for our cards.

Drawing type for a card design.

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The final cards and box design.

 

I’d love to hear your comments. =)

Video Test Post

Here is a quick video of what I have been up to. More of a test for future posts.

Moodboards

Last night I started the process of making myself a template for the moodboards that I am required to create for every class project. I realized a little logo would compliment them well and make them feel more professional but I haven’t finalized my logo design yet. The logo design is on my list and drafts have been drawn up.

Here are my moodboards for a three card series. The  design brief is to create three cards the size of playing cards with black and white artwork on the backside and anything you want on the other side. Suggestions were three self portraits in different design styles or something I am interested in. The French Paper Company‘s GoFrench cards were the instructors inspiration for the project. I am planning on showcasing the different leaves of the Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum). I have no Photoshop airbrushing skills yet so I will be pushing myself to learn that technique for this project. Wish me luck.

 

Front Design Ideas

Back Design Inspiration

 

 

What happened?!

If you’ve been following this blog you will know that I had a short disappearance due to illness and then a long period of nothingness. What happened? Life and school happened. The web design project is on a temporary hiatus until after this term because I am now taking a full course load and doing the portfolio review at the same time. I may just go insane by the end of this term without the added pressure of designing a website. I really wish I could just drop everything and do the website but alas, it is not to be.

This is not farewell until the summer. No, this is hello crazy life and you are coming along for the ride. I’ll do my best to update this with my portfolio progress and posts about some other class pieces in progress. No promises, but I will try to update at least once a week. I’ll be using the tags portfolio process and class process to differentiate between the posts. You are welcome to comment on my work and give me tips if you see something that can be improved upon. Actually, PLEASE give me feedback. I need it.

That’s all for now. See you soon.