Typography, Web Design, and sIFR 13
The Problem
Us web designers have a truly limited range of choice when it comes to what font we use on our sites. We have to take in consideration that some fonts aren’t cross-platform. We have to take in consideration that some fonts that are cross-platform show up radically differently in different platforms (eg.: Georgia). So what it boils down to in terms of what web designers can actually use is Verdana, Trebuchet MS, Times New Roman, and a few others. That’s not much choice, especially when fonts can make all the difference in the appearance of the site.
I can hear you saying, “So? Deal with it,” in the background. When designing my site, and I start looking at what fonts I want to use, and I see Font-X looks twenty times better as header type than Font-Y does, but I’m forced to use Font-Y because Font-X is Mac specific, I get a bit mad. I don’t want to just “deal with it” anymore. It’s annoying. So, like many, I turn and see a solution: sIFR.
sIFR
So I’ve done my research– like a good boy– and the only solution that I think is worth noting is scalable Inman Flash Replacement (sIFR), currently maintained by Mike Davidson and based on the original IFR from Shaun Inman. Scalable Inman Flash Replacement uses Flash and Javascript to change normal text to any font the designer wants. This is, seemingly, and on paper, the perfect solution. However, I wouldn’t be writing this if sIFR was the perfect solution. It’s a solution, but not the solution. It has its problems.
Let’s start out with Javascript and Flash, the foundation of sIFR. Flash is extremely popular, and only some odd percentage of people (something around 3%) don’t have it. Javascript has been around for ages and is still a key scripting language in the industry. However, those 3% of people who don’t have Flash, and those odd number of people who turn off Javascript support in their browsers, well, they don’t see the effects of sIFR. Instead, they’ll see the font that the designer specifies for when sIFR fails, which will ultimately be one of select few fonts that the designer would have used anyways, defeating the point of sIFR.
The next problem is a biggie: loading speed. Half the world is still on dialup, and load speeds when rendering sIFR are slow, for the lack of a better word. I’ve personally seen sIFR take up to a minute to load on a 56k. That’s horribly slow just to see the title of a blog post.
The last problem I’ll mention is that sIFR is mainly for use on headers. It still doesn’t solve the problem of use for body text. For some, it’s not only about the headers, but also the main text. What’s the point in having nice looking headers when the text underneath still looks horrible?
sIFR is a good solution, but it’s not the solution, and we need the solution. I’ve heard tell that CSS3 will support typography in the way sIFR does, but CSS3 is a long way off. I hope, in the future, I won’t have to see sites default to Times New Roman because an aspiring designer that doesn’t know about typography issues, or just doesn’t think about it, uses a font that’s not on my system. I hope that solution comes along soon, for the sake of myself and the web design industry as a whole.
Lack of You 9
**I miss you. Come back.**
Version 2 is coming along. I have to work around some Internet Explorer stuff, then I just have to integrate everything into the new design and it’ll be good to go.
**I really do miss you, please come back.**
I’m also working on a new article (inspired by a couple of other articles) that you should see sometime soon. It’s gonna be a big one. I’ve estimated about a week’s worth of pre-writting planning, rough drafts, and other preliminary workings (possible scans to come ;D ).
**Don’t break my heart. Don’t leave me. Stay. Comment. Be… Here.**
The Artist Formerly Known as The Multiple Backgrounds Article 4
[insert Greek-like symbol here]
What used to be here was an article on multiple backgrounds, however, being the dolt I am, I didn’t research before I posted, and the topic I was trying to push to get implemented with what little influence I have, was already thought of and implemented. So. Expect, at some point, a revised article and what can be done with Multiple Backgrounds in CSS3, but until then… Well… You just get to wait until then :P .
Internet Explorer 7 14
So Mr. Big Bill(ionaire) Gates announced it. Seems Firefox (and numerous other open-source, standards compliant browsers) has put the pressure on Microsoft to better comply with standards and to just be a better browser with less security holes, since they seem insistent on hogging 90% of the browser market share.
Previously, Microsoft stated that Internet Explorer would no longer be available as a separate product.
This is, or rather, could be good news coming from the Microsoft camp. IE7, if it corrected its current major flaws, stands to be the first major update IE has seen in a good 6 years (when IE5 was released). Beta comes in summer, maybe we can hope for an official release by the end of the year. Maybe. (via MezzoBlue.com.)
Editor’s Note:
Related article: The New Browser War
Also, the same day IE7 is announced, Firefox breaks through 25,000,000 downloads of version 1.0. See Blake Ross’ Post about it and a little something concerning IE7.
The New Browser War: Turning the Tide 24
The New Browser War. Some referred to the first as the Great Browser War, as people of the time of World War I called that war the Great War. So, for history’s sake, I’ll call what I think is coming the Browser War II. Continue Reading…
AntiPixel Article 4
Go check out my article on Antipixel buttons, that mainly focuses on creation, over at Basseq.com.
The article will eventually go up here, when I get an articles page up.
[Update]
The article is now up on the Articles page.
