That. Which.
I always forget these little rules, but they are worth remembering in all forms of writing.
Search for ‘writing’
There are 43 entries matching ‛writing’:
Top blog tips
Every now and then, ALA runs an article which further cements the strong relationship between its readers and its authors (who, I suspect, are also readers). I’m talking about the kind of cosy (in its most positive sense) article, written by someone who clearly gets the…
Blog Block
Hmm. I’m struggling for things to write at the moment – I’m just feeling like I’ve got little to say. For example, I nearly decided to omit mentioning the little bloggers’ meet up we had in London at the weekend.
Relief at last
For those of you following the saga, my iBook is finally fixed and it feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
Dasher
Dasher is the most incredible writing interface I think I’ve ever seen. Dasher is a zooming interface. You point where you want to go, and the display zooms in wherever you point. The world into which you are zooming is painted with letters, so that any point you zoom…
Recent mark-up chatter
I’ve contributed my two penn’orth to a couple of interesting HTML related posts.
Get It
Mozilla 1.0. Stick a fork in it. It’s done and looking good. Posted a few pikkies from the Mini Rally recently held in Brighton. Check out those wonderfully ridiculous chopped cars – why have a small car when you can have a tiny one? Like me, Owen Briggs has been…
Note to self
…to check out Joe “Accessibility” Clark’s web various weblogs: Axxlog: Links-and-commentary blog on accessible media NUblog: Links-and-commentary blog on online content and everything that entails. Written in a somewhat affected third person. …
Google’s Smart Tags
Remember the brou ha ha when Microsoft announced its Smart Tags? Smart Tags would automatically add links into your documents, whether you liked it or not. Well Zeldman reports that the latest Google toolbar does exactly that, for example a street address will link to Google…
Back my Web Typography book
I’m writing a book on Web Typography which I’m hoping to crowdfund on Kickstarter. It’ll be a handbook for designing beautiful and effective typography in modern websites, and I hope it’ll be available in time for Ampersand conference this year.
Ten questions for Andy
Brighton blogger and Web designer Andy Budd answers ten questions on topics including standards fascism and the success of Skillswap. Andy also echoing my own feelings on blogging.
Yahoogle II
A while ago I pointed that more and more, Yahoo is relying on Google for it’s search results. Tim Parkin pointed out that a Yahoo listing will give a higher Google ranking, so from that point of view being on Yahoo does still have some importance. In fact, the reason a…
I’ve been away
Why I haven’t been blogging much recently and what I’ve missed over the past few weeks. Highlights include Todd Dominey’s PGA Open Championship and Phantom Power, the new album from Super Furry Animals. Also a brief critique of the new Pixelsurgeon site.
On Information Design
The Design Council has published a detailed look at what information design is and what is expected from information designers.
The user-centred aesthetic
So far this year, my regular reads on the Web have covered techniques in all the disciplines required to create quality web sites. All the disciplines bar one, that is. What’s missing? The visual design; the look; the skin; the surface. While the folks I’ve been…
HTML is better than XHTML
Judging by the latest SitePoint TechTimes, it seems Stuart Langridge has won the argument. SitePoint’s DHTML book will be published with HTML.
Web Standards Awards
The Web Standards Awards have just launched tp celebrate and encourage CSS-based design. The emphasis will be on commercial sites which is definitely a good thing as the Web design world as a whole has a lot of catching up to do.
Dissatisfied
Well it seems someone isn’t too keen on The Guardian’s blog competition. Tom argues that the compo goes against the essence of blogging; that we shouldn’t be judging people’s outpouring of thoughts, emotions and ideas. On the face of it, this…
A parallel cavalcade of geek life
Clagnut is featured as a Star Site in Practical Web Design magazine and @media 2006 is announced.
Lists, lists & more lists
A discussion of the recent prevalence and possible overuse of heavily styled lists for such elements as site navigation and overall blog structure.
Speaking on typography at SxSW 2007?
This year, SxSW Interactive is enabling attendees to vote for panels to be featured in the conference. I’m hoping to present a talk with Mark Boulton called Web Typography Sucks. The Panel Proposal Picker Round Two is now live, so get your votes in!
Googlerank feedback loop
I recently started listing Google search terms with each blog post. This was done as a matter of interest, but it had an unintentional effect: the search terms fed back into Google and boosted my page rank. I explain the feedback process.
Displaying titles for Flickr Badges
Flickr badges don’t show photo titles, so I turned to a simple bit of DOM scripting for a solution.
Only on the Internet…
Pepys’ Diary is a weblog with daily entries from Samuel Pepys’s diary, starting from 1st January 1660. I don’t know how well known Samuel Pepys is outside of Britain (anyone care to enlighten?), but every schoolkid here learns about him in History. As a…
Apostrophe s
Why is the humble apostrophe so regularly misused and why are hairdressers so often the culprits? Ladie’s perm’s at half price (As the Guardian readers’ editor points out, journalists who should know better also get it wrong.) Apostrophes have two…
A new year, a new design
To my surprise, Clagnut.com was last redesigned in September 2008. Well, it’s all change, with a new redesign launched today. It’s been created from the typography outwards, responsive from the beginning and elegant on huge as well as tiny screens.
Gruber’s footnotes
I just noticed the way John Gruber handles footnotes on Daring Fireball. In particular the little arrow appended to the footnote which sends readers back to their place in the text.
Whither blogmarks?
One of the topics discussed at Dunstan’s was that of blogmarks: their purpose, evolution and effectiveness.
Gravatars
So I was perusing Joshuaink, John Oxton’s splendidly autumnal blog, and spotted that some of the commenters had small images next to their names, making the comments easy to scan for your favourite personality. In itself not a new idea but…
Getting started with variable fonts
Variable fonts are a new font format offering unprecedented flexibility. They will be landing in web browsers and native operating systems within 12 months. Learn how to try them out now.
Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance
Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance is the full title of the latest book with my name on it. Published by Friends of Ed, it’s now gone to the printers and will be available sometime in July.
Blog Design Solutions
I think it’s high time I told you about my new book; or rather our book, Blog Design Solutions.
A matter of style
Eric Meyer has created a rather nifty colour blending widget which calculates a palette between any two given colours. Fun (and funky JavaScript) and if nothing else, it’s useful for calculating the midpoint between two colours. Matt has posted a list of online style…
Great Escape Festival day two
Wow, what an evening. I spent the whole evening in the Hanbury Ballroom – a great little venue two streets away from my house. I was really looking forward to this night and I wasn’t disappointed.
How to use variable fonts in the real world
Using variable fonts in the real world turns out to be tricky. This post explains how we achieved it for the new Ampersand website and what we learned along the way.
Full-text searching
Recently I’ve been playing around with MySQL full-text searching, including integrating it as Clagnut’s search engine. It’s good, but there’s a few limitations I had to get around.
Variable fixed width layout
There’s a 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.
International Standard Serial Number
A year ago I applied for an ISSN for Clagnut; my request was turned down. Weblogs are eligible for ISSN under the existing guidelines and I explain how there are increasingly compelling practical reasons for assigning ISSN to weblogs.
A wicked googly
Those of you who follow Jason Kottke’s fine blog will have recently read a post concerning his incomprehension of an article on cricket. An excerpt from the article in question (in the Guardian): The Yorkshireman Len Hutton was so eager to let loose Frank…
Upcoming changes to the CSS you need for variable fonts
Two weeks ago I was invited to Berlin for a CSS Working Group meeting. One afternoon was dedicated to resolving issues with the CSS Text and Font modules. Two resolutions in particular will affect the CSS we need to work with variable fonts.
Upgrade now!
A discussion of the Upgrade Your Browser message so often placed at the top of web pages which can only displayed as intended by browsers with good CSS capabilities. Personally I find find it annoying…
Scattered notes from Dots
The inaugural Dots conference provided a very enjoyable day on the loose subject of innovation. I was in a mood to listen rather than take notes but I did jot down a few bits and bobs. Here they are made into some sentences.
Use rems for global sizing, use ems for local sizing
An unedited extract from my forthcoming book, Web Typography. This chapter is quite technically focussed and hopefully stands well on its own. The other chapters I’ve written contain much higher proportion of typographic theory.