Design Typography Web 2.0 Web Design
Tim Brown has written one of the most comprehensive guides to font embedding with CSS that I’ve ever read. There’s some good information here and all the common stumbling blocks have been addressed.
High Performance Programming Scalability Web 2.0 Web Design
Fortunately, there are ways to get scripts to download without blocking any other resources in the page, even in older browsers. Unfortunately, it’s up to the web developer to do the heavy lifting.
There are six main techniques for downloading scripts without blocking:
Graphics Imaging Open Source Photography Software UM Code Web 2.0 Web Design
Over the past few months I’ve been building up a library of imaging functions that I seem to end up using over-and-over again in my web development projects. On this website alone, I’ve added automatic thumbnailing, grayscale image conversion and CSS Sprite generation to supplement the various iterations of design I’ve been through. This has been especially visible on the recent redesign of the home-page, where imagery became the foundation of the design rather than an adjunct to it.
The imaging library I’ve built has become indispensable to me and, as it’s so very useful, I thought I’d package it up and release it under a GPL so that others can benefit from it too.
Design GUI Interface Internet Web 2.0 Web Design
An online tool that makes it easy for you to create, link together, preview, and share mockups of your website or application. Wireframes, on-the-fly, in the browser. Cool.
Changelog Design Graphics Imaging Software Typography Web 2.0 Web Design Weblog WordPress
The paint has now dried on the redesign of the Urban Mainframe’s home-page. The celebrations have begun to diminish and normality is being restored. As the dust settles, I thought I’d write a little about the thought processes behind the design. I’d also like to document a few of the little tricks I’ve employed (because I’m ever so proud of them).
Despite trying various tweaks and reshuffles of 
the previous version of the home-page, I was never totally happy with it. Looking back, I think I tried to convey way too much information on that page, which made it look terribly cluttered. It simply didn’t “feel” right to me. The problem was that I had no idea of how to remodel it, no inspiration.
Design Lists Software Typography Web 2.0 Web Design
Let’s face it: Web-safe fonts are very limiting. Maybe a dozen fonts are out there that are widely enough adopted to be considered “Web safe,” and those ones aren’t exactly spectacular for much other than body type. Sure, Georgia, Arial or Times New Roman work just fine for the bulk of the text on your website, but what if you want something different for, let’s say, headings? Or pull quotes? What then?
You have a few options. Many people just opt for more elaborate CSS font stacks, with their preferred fonts up front. But that still leaves a big chunk of your visitors seeing the same old Web-safe fonts.
Enter dynamic text replacement. In addition to font stacks, why not replace the heading text with an image, embedded font, or bit of Flash? These methods are easier than they sound and the end result is that the vast majority of users will see the beautiful typography you want them to see. A word of warning, though: don’t use dynamic text replacement for all of the text on your page. All that would do is slow it down and frustrate your visitors. Instead, save it for headings, menu items, pull quotes and other small bits of text.
Essay HTML5 Internet Programming Video Web 2.0 Web Browser Web Design
Anyone who has visited YouTube.com in the past four years knows that you can embed video in a web page. But prior to HTML5, there was no standards-based way to do this. Virtually all the video you’ve ever watched “on the web” has been funneled through a third-party plugin — maybe QuickTime, maybe RealPlayer, maybe Flash. (YouTube uses Flash.) These plugins integrate with your browser well enough that you may not even be aware that you’re using them. That is, until you try to watch a video on a platform that doesn’t support that plugin.
HTML5 defines a standard way to embed video in a web page, using a <video> element. Support for the <video> element is still evolving, which is a polite way of saying it doesn’t work yet. At least, it doesn’t work everywhere. But don’t despair! There are alternatives and fallbacks and options galore.
And Mark Pilgrim goes on to explore this fascinating and long-overdue addition to web-developer’s armoury. As we have come to expect from Pilgrim, all the technicalities are covered and the essay is written in an easy-to-understand manner with exquisite presentation. The “bible” for video-over-web people everywhere.
Art Audio Design Graphics Photography Software Video Web 2.0 Web Design
Index + Exhibit: A web application used to build and maintain an archetypal, invisible website format that combines text, images, movies and sound. Looks interesting and I’ll use this as soon as I have a project for which it would be appropriate.
High Performance Lists Miscellanea Open Source Programming Scalability Typography Web 2.0 Web Design WordPress
A directory of my recent bookmarks. Maximum coolness!
Design Open Source Typography Web 2.0 Web Design
Chris Wallace has published a fix for the Cufón FOUC bug.
Whenever I’ve used Cufón, I’ve ALWAYS experienced a FOUC, otherwise known as a Flash of Unstyled Content. If you are experiencing the same issue, then this fix is definitely going to make you happy.
