Q: Are there alternatives to Arial, Times, and Georgia for Web designers?

The short answer is YES!

The slightly longer answer is that most designers use Arial, Times, or Georgia, and, to a lesser degree, Verdana, Trebuchet MS, Courier, and Comic Sans because they think that’s all they have at their disposal, but they are wrong.

The long answer is that the core Web fonts (the one listed above plus Impact and Web Dings) are used because they are almost guaranteed to be installed on the vast majority of computers your designs are likely to be installed on. One fact of life in Web design is that unless the end user’s computer has access to the font file, then the browser cannot use it.

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List of Web Safe Fonts »

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Tags: Typography, Web Design by jason
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Q:What is the practical difference between px (pixel) and em (pronounced m)? When is it best to use one over the other?

The short answer is that pixels measure dimensions relative to the screen while ems measure dimensions relative to type size.

The slightly longer answer is that pixels are the natural unit for measuring dimensions on a screen and are often used when precise deign is required. Ems are the natural unit for measuring type and used when you want to allow maximum design flexibility.

The carpenter’s adage goes “measure twice, cut once,” but carpenters deal with the physical universe where a board always stays the same length once it has been put into place. Many designers want to define with exact precision the placement and size of elements, similar to the way they might design for print or video. Those medium are static, even video, which might move and be projected on to larger screens, but the aspect ratio does not change so everything is scaled relatively. However, on the Web, you are dealing with a variable canvas, with its final size dependent on the whims of the viewer.

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Tags: CSS, Typography, Web Design by jason
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A little over a year ago, when Google announced the launch of a new Web “Browser” I had to scratch my head and ask why? The market already had several excellent options, including Firefox, Safari, and Opera to name just a few. So what would Google get out of putting effort into their own, especially one as anemic as Chrome appeared to be, with few of the bells and whistles of the others? The Answer was obvious almost immediately to me. This was no browser. This was a stealth OS.

Well, it turns out I was right. Although it was announced for a few months, Google made it official yesterday, launching the new Google Chrome OS.

Gizmodo did an excellent write up on Chrome OS, covering the important points as to why this matters.

Tags: Future, Web Development by jason
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Q: Which global reset for CSS should I use?

The short answer is the simplest one possible.

The slightly longer answer is that you should reset some styles, but do so with a good reason.

The long answer is that the exact CSS reset you choose will depend on the needs of your design. I like to keep my own reset simple, relying on adding styles to specific tags as needed. However there are several styles that are inconsistent or (in my opinion) poorly set in most browsers that need to be corrected.

The argument for redefining important CSS properties (generally to none or 0) are straight forward:

• Reduces bad styles: Undoes some of the questionable and downright annoying styles added by browser manufacturers as well as the styles that simply do not work. One that comes springs to mind is using an outline to highlight items that are in focus such as form fields. While highlighting is useful for keyboard navigation, you should design this yourself.
• Eliminates design by default: Sets a level playing field from which to begin a design. Rather than allowing the browser manufacturers dictate how your pages look, you are now in control.
• Browser style consistency: Ensures values across all browser types and versions are the same. Since browsers vary their default style values slightly, a good reset will allow your designs to appear with greater consistency, regardless of how your visitor is viewing it.

There are also several counter arguments to be made against a global reset, although I find their logic to be mostly flawed…

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Tags: CSS, Web Development by jason
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I want to thank everyone who participated in the second Speaking In Styles contest, and helped me spread the word. The first two books went in less than a day, but the third took a little longer—possibly because it looked like lucky number 13 had already been hit. I had to reject several entries for various reasons including that they were too early, had already won the book in a previous contest, were my publisher, or were not following me on Twitter (necessary so that I can send a DM letting them know they won).

So, after the dust had settled, the first, fifth and thirteenth tweets came from:

@kmapes

@oaqque

@NickHamze

Congratulations!

If you didn’t win, keep your eyes out for my future tweets. I will be giving away copies of Fluid Web Typography in December when it comes out. Stay tuned!

Tags: Writing by jason
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