Download Font Speedy Normal
Kate Kokenge
You know you've entered the highest pantheons of geekhood when you get excited about Microsoft's new fixed-width font, Consolas. I am always on the lookout for a better fixed-width programming font. After reading Scott's post, and then Steve's post, I was intrigued enough to copy it from a Vista install on to my XP box.
I'll definitely agree that Consolas is one of the best looking ClearType fonts I've ever seen. That's probably because it is part of the first font family designed from scratch with ClearType hinting in mind.
However, I prefer not to use font smoothing on my programming fonts. And Consolas looks like crap without ClearType! Consolas appears to lack any kind of hinting for reasonable display at small point sizes. Consolas isn't just optimized for ClearType, it can barely be used without it.
For the record, I am not anti-ClearType. On a high DPI display-- think 15" laptop display with a resolution of 1600x1200-- I definitely like it. But on a display with a more typical DPI, say a typical 19" 1280x1024 panel, the ClearType RGB pixel noise around the fonts is extremely fatiguing to my eyes. Particularly when reading fixed-width programming fonts.
Now, before you write me off as a font hatin' luddite, let me point out that Rick Strahl has almost exactly the same problem with Consolas, ClearType, and programming fonts that I do. It's a great technology, but it's also a high-DPI display technology, and Windows sucks for high DPI displays. That's a huge disconnect. And it won't be resolved until Windows Vista ships.
What I tend to do is set the font size to 85% and then the leading (line-height) to 1.5 so that the fonts can scale nicely - and if using an elastic layout, the containers as well (when sized using EM).
Using one relative font size for body and another for paragraphs, lists, tables, etc. is not a good idea. The issues of nesting elements will cause a nightmare and result in unnecesssarily bloated CSS.
By setting the font-size in the body to 13px you sidestep the issue of what the default font size setting is because if you said 75% then that would only be 75% of the default which may vary between browsers.
From then on in the inernal elements in your page you can increase/decrease the font sizes using percentages by what ever percentage you need and the relationship will be stable. There is a chart on the yahoo font page that tells you roughly what percentages to use to effect pixel changes.
Be careful when setting font-sizes on elements that are nested because the relative size will compound. If you had a nested list where the parent was set to 85% the a nested ul would be set to be 85% smaller than its parent and so on. Compounding is an issue you will need to understand in order to avoid or correct it.
If you want the font sizes to all be the same size (75% of whatever the browser says the default font size), yes. I do the same thing with my reset example above, as you can see in the link I provided a couple posts up.
So all the text is going to be the same size everywhere:). Seems unlikely to me. However, that is no different to all the other methods above in that respect as they all set the font size for the body. My method is the only one that you can guarantee (as much as you can guarantee these things) will set text at 13px though
I guarantee you it takes a lot more time and trouble to develop a website that is accessible to all people and there have already been two examples posted so far. With most modern browsers supporting zoom features now there is no one with eyesight that has been left out. Those using FireFox can just press the Ctrl key and scroll the mouse to increase font size.
Before we get into the finer points of optimizing Google Fonts, don't forget to first apply these strategies to reduce and streamline web fonts. Another important layer in the rich and rewarding tapestry of page speed optimization...
Custom web font services like Google Fonts make it easy to enhance branding with eye-catching headings and stylish text elements. In most cases, using custom Google fonts is as easy as adding a single line of HTML - for example the regular and bold variants of a font called Roboto:
Although this file is usually very small for a reasonable number of fonts (4-6), a conventional render blocking reference for relatively low-priority resources like fonts can impact page speed. Fortunately there's a simple solution to configure Google Fonts to eliminate this render blocking resource.
As with any custom fonts including self-hosted files, Google fonts are added to the page with a collection of CSS @font-face rules to define each specified font. These rules make the fonts ready and available for use in CSS styling and include a reference to the fonts files themselves - typically WOFF2 or WOFF for modern browsers, but sometimes other formats like TTF and EOT to support older browsers.
To load Google Fonts asynchronously, reconfigure the font CSS with a combination of a non-matching media attribute value and a bit of JavaScript to update the media attribute once the file is loaded, thereby applying the CSS to the page: HTML (Jump down for the fully-optimized code snippet.)
As is, the async Google Fonts CSS will load in the background but also at a low priority. Using HTML resource hints can increase loading priority in the browser and also get a head start on loading the needed font files that are specified in the CSS.
The method for asynchronous CSS above starts loading the font CSS file right away, but because the initial media value doesn't apply to the page, it does so at a low priority. That priority can be optionally increased with a preload resource hint:
If you're familiar with Google Fonts, you've probably noticed that the CSS file and the font files themselves are loaded from different domains - the CSS file is found on fonts.googleapis.com while fonts.gstatic.com provides the fonts files.
The domain of the CSS file is directly discoverable in the HTML (in the href value) so the browser starts making that connection right away. However since the location of the font files is defined in the CSS, the browser doesn't connect to the domain for the font files until the CSS is loaded and examined.
They are heavy duty wooden awls that are used as hand sewing tools that use diamond point needles and waxed twine. The thick needles are surprisingly strong and can punch through most fabric material. With the waxed twine, whatever is fixed is often more durable than before and does well in the water. I keep my speedy stitcher in my day bag and take it on any multi day trip (rafting or otherwise) to use when some piece of gear inevitably fails.
In the new design, the speedy stitchers are very compact and sleek. All of the bits and pieces fit inside the awl itself. It can be stored with the needles hidden so you do not risk puncturing something on accident. To avoid tangled twine, it is stored in a compartment on a spool at the blunt end of the stitcher. This holds a surprisingly ample amount of twine but I like to carry extra with me as back up. The only additional tool you will need to finish your speedy stitcher projects is a knife or scissors to cut the twine. Luckily, if you are working while on the river, you have (or should have) your river knife!
I was working on the Futaleufu River in Chile rowing safety catarafts with mesh floors. Constantly stepping on the mesh floors was causing them to rip where they met the frame. Quickly before putting on the river one day, I got out my speedy stitcher to fix the floor. We had to put the raft up on its side and I was able to resew the ripped part of the floor and reinforce other parts that were starting to fail. It lasted through the rest of that season and the next.
My boss is a big fan of patches. We have a patch for each river we guide trips on and they are a fun treat for guests at the end of trips. I like to sew my patches on my gear bags, hats and purses. But, again, regular needles and thread are too flimsy to work with the thick patches. And so, the speedy stitcher comes to the rescue again. It is very easy to use and makes quick work of sewing my patches.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
As you can see, the number 2 is in bold font, even though the number 1 is not. I assume this is because the second item starts with a bold-font word. But aesthetically, this is terrible. Is there a way to avoid this automatic bolding feature? I can not select the number unfortunately.
Whilst creating a navigation bar for my site I decided to make the active page tab show up in bold for usability purposes, but when I change the font-weight on the element it only slightly makes the element wider, an example I made using hover effects instead demonstrates my issue and i've never known a way to solve it..
An alternative to font-weight for bolding text is to use text-shadow to set a horizontal shadow the same colour as the text. This code sets equal shadows to the left and the right. With only one shadow, the text would appear to shift in the direction of the shadow.
As you are not specifying any width for the elements, they are sized according to their content. As such, when the font-weight is normal, the element takes up less space than when it is bold. As the content changes size, the size of the box also changes.
I think there is no CSS based solution for this, unless you can add a width, maybe a different width to each li item.You already have a change in bg color on hover and selected states, I suggest you drop the font-weight change. Visually it's not a big change, and in terms of usability you already have the bg color change that I think is enough.
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