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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I’m underway writing my next book, Fluid Web Typography: A Guide , which will be out this fall. As with Speaking in Styles: The Fundamentals of CSS for Web Designers , I’ll be doing the layout myself. I got some input on the cover, but it’s not completely mine this time.

I’ve been collecting a lot of Web sites to use in the new book to show off the best in Web typography, but I’m looking for more. If you have a site you are particularly proud of, or can suggest one, take a look at my criteria below, and then add a comment after this article with a link to the site or (if you want to keep it private) use my contact form to send me the link.

What I’m looking for:

1. Good use of typography in an attractive Web design (obviously). This includes typefaces, contrast, scale, motion, rhythm, and composition.
2. Use of fonts other than the core Web fonts. Anyone using fonts from the Web-safe fonts list or using @font-face to download fonts would be best.
3. No or limited use of type in images. I want to concentrate on typography set using text in HTML.
4. No or limited use of Flash for typography. Some Flash for videos is OK, but I’m not looking for typography in Flash
5. Recent. The newer the better.

The sites I get that fit my criteria will be considered for use in Fluid Web Typography and receive a copy of the book when it comes out.

Tags: CSS, Typography, Web Design, Writing by jason
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I’m working away on my most recent book for Web designers—Speaking In Styles. I just turned in Chapter 6, which puts me just over the half way mark. 

It’s a lot of work, and, to be honest, I could use your help.

Peachpit has started publishing a Rough Cuts version, putting chapters of the book online in PDF format after their first round of editing. This is a book for Web designers, written to demystify how CSS works.

From the intro:

Speaking in Styles targets Web designers, aiming to help them learn the “language” that will be used to take their vision from the static comp to the live Internet. Many designers think that CSS is code, and that it’s too hard to learn. Jason takes an approach to CSS that breaks it down around common design tasks and helps the reader learn that they already think in styles–they just need to learn to speak the language.

If you are not already a Safari Books Online Member, you can get a trial account, and I’m, looking into getting a few free accounts to give away here. Anybody interested?

Tags: Web Design, Writing by jason
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