Courses/Design & Technique-Essential Web Design/04

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Revision as of 06:19, 29 September 2015 by Andre (talk | contribs) (→‎position)

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styling links

css uses a pseudo-class for the different states of a link

a:visited - a link the user has visited a:hover - a link when the user mouses over it a:active - a link the moment it is clicked

For each of them, normally a rule is written.

position

important

(leaving for next class) CSS property position chooses alternative forms to for position elements.

The most common are

  • relative - the position is determined in relation to its neighbors
  • absolute - the position is determined in relation to its ancestors elements or html page body, if has no parent elements.
  • fixed - like absolute, but often used to create a floating element that stays in the same position even after scrolling the page

See square examples in https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/position

centering elements

http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/007/center.en.html


css for typography

essential typography properties

  • font-size: body in pt, rest of elements in em
  • font-height: regular or bold
  • font-style
  • font-family
  • color
  • text-align
  • line-height
  • letter-spacing: increases or decreases the space between characters( negative values are allowed)
  • text-shadow


Using fonts

system fonts custom fonts
ready to use need to load or upload
limited set broad range
change slightly in each user's computer remain the same to all users
too familiar fresh

system fonts

System fonts are generic fonts.

  • Sans­serif
  • Serif
  • Monospace
  • Cursive

system fonts example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <style>
body {
   font-size: 10pt;
}

p {font-family: cursive;
   font-size: 3em;
}

p.other {font-family: sansserif}

span.yetanother {font-family: monospace}
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>Cursive generict font</p>
    <p class="other">Testig another generic font. 
      <span class="yetanother">And yet another one</span>
    </p>
  </body>
</html>


custom fonts

The @font-face CSS at-rule allows authors to specify online fonts to display text on their web pages. Mozilla @font-face

Web fonts formats

Different font formats exist:

  • Web Open Font Format (.woff)
  • TrueType/OpenType (.ttf/.otf)
  • Scalable Vector Graphics Fonts (.svg)

Currently, most browsers support these font formats, with the exception of .svg, that is only supported by Firefox. See Wikipidia article on Web fonts.

use a custom font

To use a custom font, the font file has to be stored somewhere, either locally (same folder as your site).

You can download a sample of display fonts from: http://publicationstation.wdka.hro.nl/displayfonts.zip Containing:Amatic-Bold.ttf, AmaticSC-Regular.ttf, GrandHotel-Regular.otf, Pacifico.ttf

try changing the following example with other custom font 

<html>
<head>
  <style type="text/css">

    @font-face {
      font-family: "Pacifico";
      src: url("fonts/Pacifico.ttf");
    }
    
    h1 { font-family: "Pacifico", serif;
    font-weight: normal;
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>This is a custom font.</h1>
</body>
</html>

fonts and licenses

We can use this fonts and even make a commercial (for which we receive money) website, using that font, without paying for the font.

It is not because the font is free (of charge), but because they are open.

They are released under a SIL Open Font License (OPF).

SIL license

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=OFL_web

License:

  • allows fonts to be used, studied, modified and redistributed freely.
  • fonts, including any derivative works, can be bundled, embedded,

redistributed and/or sold with any software.

  • fonts and derivatives, however, cannot be released under any other type of license.
  • requirement for fonts to remain under this license does not apply

to any document created using the fonts or their derivatives.

Apache license

http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/sinkin-sans

open fonts libraries

remote custom fonts

It is possible to use custom fonts, that are not stored locally, and instead "live" in a service like Google Fonts or Open Font Library.

This method is:

  • convenient
  • easier

but, on the down-side:

  • it takes more time to load the page
  • the font can be removed at any point by the service

remote custom font example

Using the font https://fontlibrary.org/en/font/barrio and following the "Use this font" instructions: 

<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" media="screen" href="https://fontlibrary.org/face/barrio" type="text/css"/> 

  <style type="text/css">
    
    h1 {   font-family: 'BarrioRegular';
           font-weight: normal;
           font-style: normal; 
    font-size: 3em;
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>This is a remote custom font.</h1>
</body>
</html>


Assignment

  • find a text or several that you consider interesting;
  • place it on a webpage.
  • type-set it with CSS, so that the style either illustrates, contradicts, or is in dialog with the content.

Rules:

  • use at least a custom font
  • make use of CSS essential typography properties
  • be bold, be extreme: you can go from a legible and soothing style, to total illegible and cryptic. Most important is that the style responds to the text content. And that you have fun and find out new things while doing it.

Example: http://publicationstation.wdka.hro.nl/go/Alice.html

References

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