Web Site Designers

I had thought terms like “intellectual property” and “intellectual theft” were of fairly recent provenance, so my eye was caught by the latter’s use in a headline of a 1930 edition of the US trade journal The American Printer.

The article it headed proved to be equally intriguing, a response by the president of American Type Founders (ATF) to a June 1929 article in the German journal Gebrauchsgraphik by the designer Rudolf Koch, calling the ATF a “highway robber of German intellectual property.” At issue was a typeface marketed by the ATF earlier in 1929 called Rivoli.

Any application of typography can be divided into two arenas: micro and macro. Understanding the difference between the two is especially useful when crafting a reading experience, because it allows the designer to know when to focus on legibility and when to focus on readability.

This article focuses mostly on a few simple macrotypographic techniques—with a dash of micro—and on how to combine them all to build a more harmonious, adaptable and, most importantly, readable Web page. First, some definitions. Microtypography has to do with the details; setting the right glyph, getting the appropriate kerning and tracking, and making stylistic choices such as when to use small-caps.

Sometimes the most appealing products are not those that are priced the most reasonably, but the ones whose packaging goes beyond functionality and crosses over to the artistic. Alberto Alessi said it best when he described his reason for his own aesthetic designs:

The Web font revolution that started around two years ago has brought up a topic that many of us had merrily ignored for many years: font rendering. The newfound freedom Web fonts are giving us brings along new challenges.

Choosing and using a font is not merely a stylistic issue, and it’s worth having a look at how the technology comes into play. While we cannot change which browser and OS our website visitors use, understanding why fonts look the way they do helps us make websites that are successful and comfortable to read in every scenario

Clever graphic designers love to use typography to explore the interaction between the look of type and what type actually says. In communicating a message, a balance has to be achieved between the visual and the verbal aspects of a design.

Sometimes, however, designers explore the visual aspect of type to a much greater extent than the verbal. In these cases, the visual language does all the talking. This article explores when the visual elements of typography speak louder than words.

TV show logos have become an art. They create recognizable brands that become an important part of a show’s off-air life and legacy. The eclipsing O of “Heroes”, the periodic elements of “Breaking Bad”, the film-negative “X-files”, these title pieces have become instantly recognizable, and help make their shows familiar across many mediums.

Words are a really powerful tool to express what you think, but an even more powerful weapon to visualize your main thoughts and concept are graphics. To be more specific a rich combination of beautiful typographical signs, letters and symbols. By using different fonts, sizes and styles it’s possible to create stunning typographical infographics. All you need is an awesome idea and some prior knowledge on the topic to visualize your thoughts and present them to your audience.

Advertise here with BSAI was browsing throughout Flickr looking for some inspiring typography when I found a really cool collection called signs+type. The collection is filled with great photography of signs, and the images are super colorful and inspi…

The practice of using a large letter to mark the start of a text has been around for almost two thousand years. Illustrated caps increased usability by marking important passages and guiding readers through the text. Unlike their historic counterparts, drop caps on the Web don’t add value in terms of usability or readability—and they are hard for Web developers to control, often rendering differently across browsers.

Yet, front-end designers and clients often want to use drop caps as decorative elements. How should we implement them? Just as scribes, artisans, and early printers had a variety of methods for creating initial capitals, we Web designers have multiple methods to choose from. We can use an image of a letter, create a class to enlarge and place a letter, or use a first-child:first-letter to enlarge and place the first letter of the first paragraph. But which method should we use? Which method remains consistent across browsers? Which is most accessible?

Calligraphy is an ancient skill, whose origin is difficult to date. It spans across a wide range of cultures and continents, and can be seen to this day all across the globe. Some track calligraphy back to the inception of the Latin alphabet in 600bc, although other notable examples can be seen through history.