Typographic Web Design: How to Think Like a Typographer in HTML and CSS (2011) | Hacker News Reader

Typographic Web Design: How to Think Like a Typographer in HTML and CSS (2011)

wiley.com

30 pointsteleforce8 comments

For those who want a more recent publication regarding typography on the web, check out Ellen Lupton's Type on Screen.

This seems pretty old (2011) to be altogether relevant for all the new typographic techniques of 2022 on the web.

The fundamentals of typographic thinking haven't changed.

"10 great looks for 2022" will change in January.

I am the first to agree: I still wouldn't get a book with "web" in the title from 2011 (which is incidentally from when my knowledge gap of eg CSS widens).

I suspected and then checked the TOC to confirm: the book does not cover flex layout, multiple device layout etc, yet it prides itself on offering "practical CSS and HTML" tips.

If you are looking for a pure typography book, get a classic like Bringhurst that applies equally to all media.

I'd be curious if there's anything people would consider their primary source, I find myself picking concepts from various sources when the need arises.

Here's are a couple from poking around on the topic:

https://css-tricks.com/intrinsic-typography-is-the-future-of...

https://github.com/clagnut/webtypography

https://cssreference.io/typography/

https://type-scale.com/

The cool thing with typography is that almost all of the ancient knowledge and philosophies still hold today -- in a world where screen sizes are too many to even think in the much simpler life of the yesteryears of small, medium, and large widths.

For instance, the aged old idea of scaling up text-size increments in musical rhythms such as tritonic, tetratonic, or the classic typographic scale remains true today and will so in the future.

Or of the ever Golden Ratio of spacings between lines (line-height) always works. The idea invented during the early days of print, with how much lead to be added between lines, got carried over to the digital world today and is just beautiful.

To understand typography, it is always a good idea to go back, way back in time, not just 2011, or 2001 to fully understand, appreciate it, and then apply it today with modern tools. Imagine using a calc() in CSS to calculate the spacings based on a starting point, and all spacings afterward are spaced out that are pleasing to the eye.

As I responded to a sibling comment, I agree. But a book on applying those typography rules to the web from 2011 _is_ outdated, imo.

The typographic principles of today were already established in print for decades before the web existed. It just took a while before web was held to a similar standard.

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