CSS

Monotype Imaging releases 500 new Web fonts

Monotype Imaging has opened up a batch of 500 more typefaces for use on the Web and announced a partnership under which those publishing on Acquia's Drupal Gardens can use the service.

Web fonts, after languishing for years, are giving typeface makers a new business opportunity with the arrival of new abilities in the formatting technology called CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in modern browsers. With it, Web publishers can employ downloadable fonts to give their Web sites a more memorable look or to add some pizazz not possible with the limited number of "Web-safe" fonts that can be expected to already be installed on a browser's computer.

It's not that such typography wasn't possible before on the Web. It's just that it likely was done with graphics rather than type. Graphics, though, can be bulky to download, don't scale well to different screen sizes, aren't noticeable as text to search engines, and can't be copied and pasted as text.

Monotype Imaging now licenses hundreds of its fonts for online use through its Fonts.com site. Among the new arrivals to the online service is ITC Avant Garde Gothic, a widely used sans-serif typeface.

It seems likely that budget-minded publishers might steer clear of fonts with a fee, opting instead for free options such as Google's Web-font options. But Drupal Gardens also is used by corporations and others that might be more concerned about a refined look or proper brand identity.

Drupal Gardens also announced recently that it's now hosting more than 50,000 sites and that it's improved several publishing tools. … Read more

CSS 2.1 emerges as official Web standard

Much of the Web world has moved on to CSS 3, but today the World Wide Web Consortium has declared the CSS 2.1 standard for Web page formatting to be done.

In W3C standards lingo, CSS 2.1 has reached "recommendation" stage. Phillipe Le Hegaret, leader of the HTML working at the W3C group, announced the milestone on Twitter today.

Browser makers, even longtime laggard Microsoft, have turned much of their attention to CSS 3, which offers glamorous new features such as animating the transition from one page to another, endowing boxes with rounded corners, and if … Read more

Adobe's Web design work lands in WebKit browser

Adobe has begun putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to improving Web page design.

Today, the first bit of Adobe-written code landed in the WebKit browser engine project, an early step to try to bring magazine-style layouts to Web pages using an extension to today's CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) technology. Adobe calls the technology CSS Regions.

The move begins fulfilling a plan Adobe announced in May to build the technology into WebKit and--if the company can persuade others to embrace it--furthers Adobe's ambition to standardize the advanced CSS layout mechanism.

WebKit is the browser … Read more

Font analyzer

Font Finder is a free extension for Firefox that extracts and displays CSS text information from Web pages. It's a valuable tool for Web designers and developers who need to determine or test CSS data for single elements up to paragraph size. It analyzes data and saves it to the clipboard. It can disable font families for entire pages to test degradation for cross-platform support. It also enables in-line adjustment of any font option in an active element.

Font Finder installs just like any Firefox extension. We opened the Firefox add-on manager, but Font Finder has only two options: … Read more

Rapid-release idea spreads to Firefox 5 beta

Mozilla released a beta version of Firefox yesterday, its first on a new quick-release plan intended to bring features to browser users and Web developers sooner.

Firefox 5 beta's big new feature is support for CSS animations, which let Web developers add some pizzazz to actions such as making dialog boxes pop up or switching among photos. Also in the new version is canvas, JavaScript, memory, and networking, according to the release notes and bug-fix list.

That may not sound like a dramatic overhaul for a whole new version number, and indeed it isn't. Mozilla is following in … Read more

Adobe issues CSS Web publishing prototype

SAN FRANCISCO--Hoping to bring magazine-style layout tools to Web publishing, Adobe Systems tonight released a prototype browser specifically designed to let Web developers test the company's proposed formatting technology.

The technology, called CSS Regions, lets programmers easily create multi-column layouts, place text in various polygonal shapes, and flow around objects in the middle of text. That technology has existed for years in the print publishing world, but it's generally missing from the Web, and its absence grows ever more conspicuous as magazines and newspapers move to digital publishing, especially on tablets such as Apple's iPad.

The formatting … Read more

Still no Google Instant for Opera browser fans

In September, Google said it hoped to bring its then-new Google Instant search feature to users of the Opera browser "shortly." A half-year later, there's still no sign of it.

Google still is working on it, though.

"We've encountered some technical barriers that are temporarily preventing us from making Instant available for Opera," Google said in a statement yesterday. "It's difficult for us to estimate when we will overcome these barriers, but we want to bring Instant to as many browsers, platforms and regions as possible."

It's not clear exactly … Read more

Adobe proposes standard for magazine-like Web

Adobe Systems has proposed a standard that could make it easier to create Web pages with fancy layouts seen more often in magazines.

The company proposed a technology it calls CSS Regions (PDF) yesterday to the World Wide Web Consortium, which standardizes the Cascading Style Sheets technology widely used to control formatting on Web pages. Adobe also described the technology at a CSS Working Group meeting in Silicon Valley.

"This proposal is intended to support sophisticated, magazine-style layouts using CSS," said Arno Gourdol, director of engineering for runtime foundation at Adobe, in a mailing list posting.

The proposal … Read more

Online word processors: Awesome and primitive

I love that you can now write full, rich, graphical applications for the Web--even for core tools like word processors. As Stephen Shankland recently noted, Google Docs has evolved into something surprisingly useful, even for a professional writer. I second that opinion, and add that competitors like Zoho Writer are similarly powerful, usable, and useful--as are other "Office 2.0" apps for spreadsheets, presentations, project management, and other tasks. Cloud apps have come a long way, baby!

Online editors let you move your work easily to just about any connected computer, and they enormously facilitate live, real-time collaboration. … Read more

W3C's new logo promotes HTML5--and more

Underscoring the confluence of technology, politics, and marketing, the World Wide Web Consortium today unveiled a new logo for HTML5.

With the logo, the W3C wants to promote the new Web technology--and itself. The Web is growing far beyond its roots of housing static Web sites and is transforming into a vehicle for entertainment and a foundation for online applications.

The W3C hopes the logo--T-shirts and stickers with it already are on sale--will fuel excitement and interest in the refurbished Web. "In addition to work on the specification, test suites, and useful materials for developers, we seek to raise … Read more