Serif & Script Lower Case Gs (Photo credit: Brett Jordan)
A lot goes into typeface design that we tend not to think about. Online, it’s commonly understood that serifs, or fonts with a tiny line tailing the edges of the lettering, like Times New Roman, help influence the horizontal flow of reading. In reality, it’s not that simple. (User-interface designer Alex Poole pored over 50 empirical studies for his master’s thesis if you’re interested in learning more.)
“There are many very readable sans serif typefaces out there. Plus some shapes of serifs might actually hinder readability if they are too prominent or draw too much attention to themselves,” Alexander Tochilovsky, a design instructor at the Cooper Union School of Art, told me in an email. “Besides the formal qualities of the typeface, [or] the structure of the letters, a lot also depends on how the fonts are employed, and for what purpose.”
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- Enter the Type Designer (bigjumppress.wordpress.com)
- Why Typography Matters (business2community.com)
From the very beginning to the present day, I’ve been impressed by the thought, care, and dedication that WordPress’ developers have demonstrated. Each one has brought his or her unique perspective, each individual has strengthened the whole. It would be impossible to thank each of them here individually, but their achievements speak for themselves. In WordPress 1.2 the new Plugin API made it easy for developers to extend WordPress. In the same release gettext() internationalization opened WordPress up to every language (hat tip: Ryan Boren for spending hours wrapping strings with gettext). In WordPress 1.5 our Theme system made it possible for WordPress users to quickly change their site’s design: there was huge resistance to the theme system from the wider community at the time, but can you imagine WordPress without it?
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One challenge I’ve recently been considering is how to handle content re-use on a web content management system, such as Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, or some other web platform. Let’s say you’re writing about ACME widgets and have three different audiences: ACME developers, ACME sales people, and ACME administrators. All your help content is hosted on (Read more...)
