Responsive Web Design & Typography

Responsive Web Design and Typography Fronteers meeting @ Inventis, 10

april 2012

2011. This is how it all started...

www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/

Responsive web design + fluid grids + media queries +

flexible images I won’t be talking about flexible media today.

Back to 1994. This early website was completely fluid (

we might even say responsive? ).

This is what a 640px wide window looks like today

(on a 13” MacBook Air)

1997

“The web’s content must be build to travel across vast

networks to unknown devices and browsers.” - Jeffrey Veen, Hotwired Style, 1997

2000 www.alistapart.com/articles/dao/

“Make pages which are adaptable. Make pages which are accessible,

regardless of the browser, platform or screen that your reader chooses or must use to access your pages.” - John Allsopp, A List Apart, 2000

2006 clagnut.com/blog/1663/

“There’s an different approach to web page layout which is

gradually getting some traction. The idea is that the layout is changed to best accommodate the window size.” - Richard Rutter, own blog, 2006

Example: when the screen was wide enough, a third column

was shown www.jrvelasco.com

This was done with javascript, measuring the viewport width.

Also in 2006. A smart man wrote a smart book.

“... increasing a page’s flexibility and taking necessary steps to

ensure that it’s readable in as many circumstances as possible...” - Dan Cederholm, Bulletproof Web Design, 2006 This time focusing on readability instead of layout.

www.simplebits.com/publications/bulletproof

This is the book’s example site.

Bulletproof test: increase the font size by a few notches

The latest release of the book incorporates responsive web design

principles.

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So what happened between 2006 and 2010?

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I truely believe that we would not be were we

are today if it weren’t for the iPhone.

How do we keep our texts readable in such a

flexible environment?

Responsive Web Design and Typography

Typography readability + character Character: does it represent the client

or message?

A great example of readability.

If people need this to be able to read your

website...

...you did something wrong. (example: 11px grey Arial body text)

How do we know it’s readable?

“Read!” - me Read your text. Read it a lot.

Is it easy to read?

Typography number of fonts Hint: don’t use too many.

One font

aworkinglibrary.com

seedconference.com

Two fonts

lostworldsfairs.com/atlantis

Readable text font size measure leading Measure and leading [pronounced:

ledding] come from the days of typesetting.

Readable text font size line length line spacing In more

human language.

www.informationarchitects.jp/en/100e2r/

1em ≠ 1em 1 em was originally the width of

an uppercase letter M set in lead.

16px ≠ 16px

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 48px Georgia The Adventures of

Sherlock Holmes 48px Times New Roman

M 288px Georgia 288px Times New Roman M

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 48px Georgia The Adventures of

Sherlock Holmes 48px Helvetica

M 288px Georgia 288px Helvetica M Today, in the digital

world, it is harder to define what 1 em exactly is.

... 16 18 21 24 36 48 The typographic scale

The typographic scale is a standard also going back to the days of typesetting.

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16px 18px 21px 24px 36px 48px The typographic scale More

suitable for titles on larger screens

48 36 24

16px 18px 21px 24px 36px 48px The typographic scale Looking

better on smaller screens (tablets, iPad,...)

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16px 18px 21px 24px 36px 48px The typographic scale Even

smaller for mobile and small screens.

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Better font size Larger screens need a larger font size,

smaller screens need a smaller font size.

body { font-size: 100%; } p { font-size: 1em; //16px

} Great way of working. If you ever need to scale, you just need to change the root size.

body { font-size: 100%; } ul { font-size: 1em; //16px

} footer ul { font-size: 0.75em; //12px } footer ul p { font-size: 1.33em; //? } But it can get complicated when nesting elements.

body { font-size: 100%; } ul { font-size: 1rem; //16px

} footer ul { font-size: 0.75rem; //12px } footer ul p { font-size: 1rem; //16px } rem (root em) relates back to the root, not to the parent element.

caniuse.com

Readable text font size line length line spacing

“Anything from 45 to 75 characters is widely regarded as

a satisfactory length of line for a single-column page...” - The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web

A handy way of showing character 45 and 75 within

a text. Hat tip to Trent Walton

Readable text font size line length: columns line spacing

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@media only screen and (min-width: 35em) { #container { -webkit-column-count:

2; -webkit-column-gap: 20px; } } One way of dealing with long lines of text is to create columns.

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The drawback is that people might need to scroll down

the first column, up the second...

@media only screen and (min-width: 35em) and (min-height: 40em) {

#container { -webkit-column-count: 2; -webkit-column-gap: 20px; } } That’s why you can combine columns with a minimum height.

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Side note: hyphenation

blog.fontdeck.com/post/9037028497/hyphens

p { -webkit-hyphens:auto; }

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<!DOCTYPE HTML> <html lang="en-US"> <head> Hyphenation uses the page’s language

to look up the dictionary.

Readable text font size line length: max-width line spacing

Too long lines to read...

#container { max-width: 45em; margin: 0 auto; }

Aaah. Perfect.

Better line length Create columns when height allowed, use maximum

width otherwise.

Readable text font size line length line spacing

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p { line-height: 1.5; } Generally a good line height

for larger screen sizes.

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@media only screen and (max-width: 45em) { p { line-height:

1.45; } } Adjusted for smaller screens...

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@media only screen and (max-width: 22em) { p { line-height:

1.4; } } ... and even more for mobile and very small screens.

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“What we need is a fluid way to set line

height. ... Molten leading would maintain a specific font- size while adjusting line-height based on width. ... What I’m talking about is augmenting CSS with range rules (effectively, min/max line-height) that don’t yet exist, but should for the sake of fluidity.” - Tim Brown, Molten Leading, 2012 It would be nice if we had a min-line-height, like we have a min-width.

A jQuery plugin until CSS catches up. github.com/jimjeffers/jQuery-minLineHeight

Better line spacing Wider paragraphs need more line height.

Headlines fittext

fittextjs.com

Fittext makes sure the title scales automatically when the screen

is resized.

<script src="js/jquery.fittext.js"></script> <script> jQuery(document).ready(function($){ $(".fit").fitText(0.7); }); </script> You have to

play around with the value. A bigger value makes the text smaller.

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Details lettering kerning other

Details lettering kerning other

letteringjs.com

<script src="js/jquery.lettering-0.6.1.min.js"></script> <script> jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $("h2").lettering(); }); </script> .char1, .char4,

.char19, .char26, .char30 { color: #FF0067; } You can use lettering to target and style individual letters...

<script src="js/jquery.lettering-0.6.1.min.js"></script> <script> jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $("h2").lettering(); }); </script> .char1, .char4,

.char19, .char26, .char30 { color: #FF0067; } Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

<script src="js/jquery.lettering-0.6.1.min.js"></script> <script> jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $("h2").lettering("words"); }); </script> .word4, .word9

{ color: #FF0067; } ... or words ...

<script src="js/jquery.lettering-0.6.1.min.js"></script> <script> jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $("h2").lettering("words"); }); </script> .word4, .word9

{ color: #FF0067; } Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

<script src="js/jquery.lettering-0.6.1.min.js"></script> <script> jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $("h2").lettering("lines"); }); </script> .line2 {

color: #FF0067; } ... or lines.

<script src="js/jquery.lettering-0.6.1.min.js"></script> <script> jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $("h2").lettering("lines"); }); </script> .line2 {

color: #FF0067; } Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

trentwalton.com/css3/type

www.strangenative.com/foldup

Details lettering kerning other

aestheticallyloyal.com/public/optimize-legibility

h2 { text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; } You can use CSS for

kerning...

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could cause a performance hit! ... but be aware of

the side effects. Use only on titles.

... or you could use a jQuery plugin in the

meanwhile. Still, only use on titles. typebutter.com

Details lettering kerning other Alias “everything else Trent Walton does

is awesome”.

trentwalton.com/category/notes

The date format changes with the available space. Told you,

it’s a detail!

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Fittext used in combination with CSS3 goodness.

Selected text colour matches the article’s colours.

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The future?

beta.typecastapp.com

Setting type in an infinite canvas...

with access to thousands of web fonts...

and CSS automagically created for you!

An example of a page made entirely in Typecast without...

... and with a grid to show the vertical rhythm.

simpleasmilk.co.uk

Resources Interested and wanting to read more on web typography?

Look no further!

webtypography.net/toc/

jasonsantamaria.com/articles/

trentwalton.com

nicewebtype.com

8faces.com

Thank you t @dannycalders