May retrospective
We had a great May*. You could say it was Nice Web Type’s first “real” month, full of posts, bookmarks, tweets, and favorites. New readers, followers, and visitors, thank you for giving me your valuable attention. In case you missed anything, here’s the scoop.
* I might be biased about the greatness. I’m a new dad!
Posts
Since smashing the champagne bottle against our hull and beginning to write, I’ve shared a few thoughts about licensing, thoughtful critique, and important resources for web typographers. Here are a few interesting bits:
Skepticism about Typekit
There are plenty of reasons to be excited about Typekit, but the reactions I’ve heard so far are mixed. [...] Typekit will provide an extensive FAQ. You and I can help with that by asking the questions we’d like to have answered. Why might you not use Typekit?
Criticism for web typography
Yesterday I asked for critique at Typophile regarding my Graublau Sans Web with Lucida sanserif type specimen. No responses yet, but sooner or later we’ll have a good discussion going. This got me thinking – where do you critique?
Nice Web Type likes
Readers know that I have recently called for more thoughtful critique of typeset text on the web. Examining combinations of web type is a good way to start.
@font-face caching issues?
Has anyone else noticed typefaces failing to load (stack understudy shows instead) or typefaces leaving blank areas (browser thinks typeface is there, but nothing renders) when using @font-face?
Focus on fonts that matter
With more typefaces, and more kinds of typefaces, available now than ever before, how do we know which ones matter? More…
Does @font-face trump suggestion?
Our techniques amount to suggestion. “Here’s what I, the designer, the typographer, think would be best. What’s that? You don’t have the right setup? Ok, try this instead.” And so on. The question is, for how long will design be a matter of suggestion?
Free fonts should be web licensed
If you’re going to offer a typeface for free, why not make it available for @font-face linking on the web?
Typesites review: Typographica
It was a privilege to contribute to Typesites, a fine project curated by Kyle Meyer, and great to justify as “work” some of the many hours I have spent absorbing and admiring Typographica.
Bookmarks
Bookmarks have been Nice Web Type’s bread and butter since 2006, and May 2009 did not disappoint. The world of web type is hopping. Thoughtful folks are inspiring our minds, folks with ingenuity are helping us better our work, and you, dear reader, aren’t missing a beat.
Check out Andy Clarke’s posts on leading and a tool that could be used to address Andy’s x-height conundrum. How about Cameron Moll’s proposal for increased layout width and measure, or Dave Shea’s thoughts about, and example use of, font embedding?
These plus Typekit, browser rendering, CSS thoughts, and good typographic advice in our Delicious Bookmarks.
Favorites and Mobile
I follow some terrific people on Twitter, and I needed a way to highlight the tweets I felt were especially insightful. Lucky for me, Twitter has just such a feature built-in. It’s called Favorites, and you’ll find mine here (even if you’re not a Twitter user).
Soon after I set that up, I wanted a more convenient way to check on them from my iPhone. So I created Nice Web Type Mobile for bookmarks and Twitter favorites on-the-go. I’ve found it useful. Maybe you will too. Making the iPhone/iTouch icon was fun (you can see it if you save NWT to your home screen).
New people
Welcome to all 250+ new Twitter followers, 150+ new RSS subscribers, and many casual visitors. Thanks to Dave Shea, Jason Santa Maria, Jeffrey Zeldman, and Cameron Moll for directing attention my way. Thanks to many twitterers, followers or not, for the reruns and linkage.
And thank you for reading. You are awesome.
