The One True Layout

November 02nd, 2005 * Comments(0)

Alex Robinson came up with some ideas for achieveing a  One True (CSS) Layout

He lists his goals as:

Total Layout Flexibility
That is, the ability to order columns logically in the source while displaying them in any order desired. For any number of columns.

Equal Height Columns
Or more accurately, equal height columns without having to rely on faux columns.

Vertical placement of elements across grids/columns
Designers face the choice of relying on elements being a particular height, resorting to tables or simply not bothering.

The solutions are quite interesting and he clearly put a lot of effort into finding solutions around bugs in various browsers.

I’ll seriously have a go at his approach since I really dislike the idea of using faux columns to achieve the badly needed effect of equal height columns. In fact it could hardly come up at a better time.

 

Dilbert Blog

October 29th, 2005 * Comments(0)

This one is for the fans of the geeky  Dilbert comic strip (  [rss]: RSS feed )

Scott Adams decided to start writing a  Dilbert Blog and it makes an interesting addition to the comic itself.

 

Microsoft Font Blog

October 29th, 2005 * Comments(0)

Microsoft Typography team started a  Font Blog where they try to explain aspects of screen readability, technology behind ClearType, typography design and stuff like that. Looks promising so far.

They also pointed out an interesting feature I haven’t seen properly applied before(at least not that I noticed) – font embedding. They are using the new MS Vista fonts called Candara (for body text) and Calibri (for headings).
The feature doesn’t work in Firefox for some reason. It should work in any case since I have all the new Vista “C” fonts installed already.

Before you start criticizing the new fonts for being utterly useless and unreadable -> turn on ClearType smoothing (find it in Display properties – Appearance – Effects) then head on to  ClearType tuner to finalize the setup.

It makes all the difference doesn’t it? Suddenly they look, dare I say it? Nice?!

The problem with ClearType is that it has exactly the opposite effect on old fonts (like Verdana) which become very fuzzy and blurred (at least on CRTs, aperture grille masks seem to handle it a tiny bit better than shadow masks) thus reducing readability.

Microsoft is betting on the widespread use of LCD screens (I guess they have a point there) but I’m not sure I like their attitude towards those of us who wouldn’t trade our belowed CRTs for crappy LCD panels. Let’s face it, the only ones that are any good are Apple CinemaScreens and top of the line NEC-Mitsubishi panels that cost about as much as a small car.

 

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