LEADING. Leading Space between lines of type. Comes from traditional letterpress-style...
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Transcript of LEADING. Leading Space between lines of type. Comes from traditional letterpress-style...
Leading
Space between lines of type. Comes from traditional letterpress-style
typesetting, where strips of lead are used to separate one line of text from the next.
Establishing appropriate leading is one of the fastest ways to make your site look professional.
Leading rules of thumb
Blocks of type typically need positive leading. Blocks of type do not read well with no
leading. Short elements of type (e.g., headers) need
less leading. Darker (heavier) type needs more leading
than lighter type. Sans serif type needs more leading than serif. Longer line-lengths need more leading. Shorter line-lengths require less leading.
Jeff Croft, 2008
Shades of gray
For legibility contrast must exist between the background and foreground colors.
Computer screens have much greater black/white contrast than typical printed page.
As a result, many web designers prefer off-black to pure black on white backgrounds.
Elegant to use very light gray instead of pure white on black backgrounds.Show Examples 1 - 4
Shades of gray
Make all visual distinctions as subtle as possible, but still clear and effective.
Edward Tufte
Visual Explanations
Grids
Bring order to page and help specify where things should go and their flow.
Use “gutters” (margins between columns) to separate your columns
http://960.gs/ http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/example
s/
Show Grid Examples
Additional items
Set body in a serif and headings in a san serif or visa-versa - add to visual appeal.
Set abbr and acronym elements in small caps (using the font-variant property).
Mark new paragraphs with indents, outdents, or other ornaments, drop cap and/or headers.
Simon Pascal Klein, Beautiful Web Typography
Additional items
Generally use flush-left (text-align: left;) for running text, particularly with narrow measure.
Justification can work at ample measures and better with serif typefaces.
Use high-contrasting link colors
Simon Pascal Klein, Beautiful Web Typography
Additional items - Indents
Tradition suggests there is no indent on a paragraph following a head or sub head.
Tradition suggests there is no indent following lists and blockquotes.
Achieve this using adjacent sibling selectors. For example, if you have already set an indent on your paragraphs:
p { text-indent: 2.5em; }
To stop any paragraphs following a heading of rank 1–3 having an indent you can set:
h1 + p, h2 + p, h3 + p { text-indent: 0; }
Examples:
http://www.andyrutledge.com/ Hierarchy of size and tone to indicate
chronology. Boundried blocks define thoughts.
http://acrossamerica.robweychert.com/ Use of indents Text set flush left and ragged right. Combination of indents and small-capped
openings in his blog posts.
Quotes |Jon Tan
“Skim reading is the norm on the Web…. it’s only when we become absorbed that we digest the meaning of the text linearly. It’s a way of filtering the noise in a page to try and get to the content of interest. However, this has become essential because of bad design; pages have been confused with intrusive advertisements, overbearing calls to action, and layouts that don’t serve legibility. It has forced people to skim, whether they want to or not. Better designers refuse such harmful techniques. Getting layout and content right in prototyping is essential.”
Jon Tan
Source: http://jontangerine.com/log/2008/06/the-paragraph-in-web-typography-and-design
Quotes |Jon Tan
“A common mistake is to allow the design to dominate the text: Design for design’s sake, or even worse, fashion’s sake.
The text is made subservient to the canvas that the designer wished to paint on the screen. This is exemplified by the proliferation of fun, but ultimately harmful, web design galleries.
Once a user muscles past the gag reflex, or stops admiring the amazing graphical decoration, they can often realize the design is in their way. The content is obscured. The narrative space becomes broken into fragments, like pieces of torn parchment linked tenuously together by calls to action, or a nested index of links called a menu.”
Quotes |Jon Tan
“Careful choice of paragraph style (and other body text forms) can accommodate all of the differences in audience behavior and expectations. Choose judiciously, but most of all, designers should know why they are choosing a particular form; “because it looks good” is not a good reason on its own; “because it feels good” may well be.”
Typography Tools
Get text: http://html-ipsum.com/
EM Calculator http://riddle.pl/emcalc/ http://pxtoem.com/
Web Safe Typography on Screen http://www.suprb.com/apps/csstype/ http://www.typetester.org/ http://www.fonttester.com/
Preview your CSS text as you modify it http://csstypeset.com/
Typography Resources
http://webtypography.net http
://alistapart.com/topics/design/typography http://ilovetypography.com http://cameronmoll.com http://jeffcroft.com http://markboulton.co.uk http://zeldman.com http://960.gs/ http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/