CHAPTER 9 The Next Steps for Web Typography
- author
- editor
- Web designer
- type designer
- Web font hosting
- OS rendering engine
- browser (or an eBook reader)
- reader
Just being aware of the number of parts and parties involved is an ac-
complishment in itself. The sooner we start taking into account all of these
factors, the sooner we will be able to let go of the illusion that we can create
a one-size-fits-all design. Web typography and Web design in general are
about creating the best possible conditions for the majority of users, as
long as we are able to preserve adequate experiences for the edge cases.
Less than perfect results are acceptable for users at both ends of the bell
curve, as long as information is accessible and typography is edible.
In the following sections, we will investigate how typography can be
improved at each stage in the content journey.first, Structure the Content
Having taken stock of the whole picture, with the realization that typog-
raphy on its own cannot fix broken patterns missed earlier in the design
process, it becomes easier to set up the project with a solid foundation. The
foundation for every Web design project is HTML and I’ll probably requote
many smart people out there when I say CSS-less HTML is the first break-
point. An unstyled HTML document that is correctly structured is accessible
by default. By using proper semantic markup and by establishing relation-
ships between different parts of the content with elements like header, foot -
er, section, article and aside, we can create structure and meaning. Even
by applying all that markup, the document can still be rendered and it can
easily adapt to its container, the browser window.