Beyond the FONT Tag: Practical HTML Text Styling

Since its introduction, HTML's FONT tag has been the predominant means of specifying font size, face, and color on the Web. Use of FONT is unfortunate on many counts, not least of which for Web developers is the tedium and bloat of adding, e.g., '...' dozens or even hundreds of times to complex table-based pages. Modem users suffer too: often more than 20% of a typical commerce/portal site's weighty HTML code consists of FONT and its attributes. FONT is slow.

Fahrner, Todd. Cleverchimp (1997). Design>Web Design>Typography

Dithering: Good, Bad, and Ugly

This piece discusses dithering in the context of Web graphics, and introduces the WebScrub image optimization algorithm developed by Todd Fahrner at Verso, realized as freely-downloadable Photoshop plug-ins for Mac and Windows, as well as scripts for the image-processing program DeBabelizer (MacOS only at present).

Fahrner, Todd. Cleverchimp (1997). Design>Graphic Design>Web Design

Size Matters: Making Font Size Keywords Work

The cascading style sheets standard includes seven font-size keywords intended to give designers a simple means of setting font sizes without creating accessibility problems. Sizes range from xx-small to xx-large and are relative to users' preferred 'medium' settings. Putting these seven sizes to work should be a no-brainer. Unfortunately there are plenty of obstacles ahead. Fortunately there is a workaround. Let's start by surveying the damage, then move on to a working solution.

Fahrner, Todd. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>CSS

Toward a Standard Font Size Interval System

This document discusses the strengths and weaknesses of various deployed and recommended methods of specifying font sizes in Web documents and application interfaces, and proposes a harmonization. This scheme will enhance the legibility, clarity, and aesthetics of documents presented on screen, and help retire less elegant alternatives that are hurtful to the Web as a dynamic information resource - one that is accessible to users with widely varying needs and purposes. It is intended for Web browser and stylesheet implementors of all religions, but may be of interest to Web authors and digital typography and/or CSS enthusiasts at large.

Fahrner, Todd. Cleverchimp (1999). Design>Web Design>Typography>CSS

Why Points Suck

A thousand-word GIF essay and a dump of ill-edited correspondence on units of measure for Web design.

Fahrner, Todd. Cleverchimp (1999). Design>Web Design>Typography