Thoughts on web development and technologies by Peter Gasston
2007 August Archive
The web needs more & better fonts
Aesthetics also provide a strong argument for web fonts. There are many beautiful and interesting fonts that can improve aesthetics and increase visual variety on the web. Just as I am sometimes stunned by beautiful book designs, I want to be overwhelmed by beautiful web pages. And, I don’t want those beautiful pages to be […]
Seeing the light on microformats
It took me a while to see the benefits of microformats, but now I’m definitely there. In October 2006, the UK WSG meeting was all about microformats, and I decided it was too faddy, too niche for me, and that I wouldn’t bother. I regret that now.
The first thing that changed my mind for me was […]
Delicious: One of the best free fonts around
I’ve done a few small tweaks on the design of my blog; it’s still not the way I had it in my head - my design skills don’t match my ideas, unfortunately - but it’s getting there, at least. I’ve had a first pass at creating a logo and a matching favicon, both of which […]
CSS 3 and HTML 5: Simple Semantics
Interesting times to be a web developer, as HTML 5 and CSS 3 are both on the (somewhat distant) horizon. I’ve just written about the Advanced Layout module on CSS3.info, IBM developer works have a nice introduction to the new elements of HTML 5, and Wikipedia has a chart of current browser implementation.
In a few(?) years […]
Five simple steps to alleviate IE6 frustration
A post called Trash All IE Hacks! on the (rather lovely) Web Designer Wall blog has attracted a huge amount of comments recently with its call to stop pandering to those who have the audacity to still be using the previous version of Internet Explorer (approx. 80% of visitors on one site I manage), and […]
Jeffrey Zeldman: King of Web Standards
Jeffrey Zeldman: King of Web Standards serves as an interesting profile of the standardista, as well as being a history of standards and a primer on their importance.
Aside
It was announced on the HTML Working Group mailing list this morning that the font element will be absent from the next draft of the HTML5 specification. The inclusion of font in the spec was controversial, as many (including myself) thought it was a purely decorative element that had no place in semantic code.
Of course, browsers will still have to support the element because of the many legacy sites on the web; but as of now any software that generates mark-up should use the style attribute instead. It’s a small increment better.
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