WordPress.com Blog Bling: Fun Font Bling

Why not dress up your WordPress.com blog with some font bling? So far on this series on WordPress.com Blog Bling, I’ve covered how to using images, logos, and badges to decorate your WordPress.com blog, how to add horizontal and vertical lines and smilies, and Social Bookmarking Submit Links on WordPress Blogs, including WordPress.com blogs. In […]

Clagnut Compares Mac and PC Browser Font Rendering

Clagnut recently posted “Problems with font rendering on Macs”, an interesting and technical look at the issue of browser fonts on Macs. If you are designing with Mac in mind, as well as other browsers and operating systems, Clagnut’s comparison of Camino 1.2, Safari 2, Firefox 2, and Opera 9 might help your web font […]

Font Size Frustration

In a refreshing voice, Wisdump gets the point of readability: While reading the excellent article, Web Design is 95% Typography II, I noticed that Oliver included a link to Wisdump which affectionately states what more than a handful of people have said about the site. Scrivs, you are without no doubt the dude 2.0 – […]

Using Non-Embedded Decorative Fonts in Firefox

Update 2006 There is no way currently to embed a font into any web page viewable by Firefox or any browser other than Internet Explorer. The font converter is proprietary to Microsoft. What I uncovered is actual appropriate default behavior for any browser. If the font declared in a stylesheet is not found within the […]

Blog Design: The Nature of Fonts

While content sells your blog to its audience, the readability isn’t just based on the words, it’s also based upon the letters. The fonts you choose to design your website or blog can make or break your audience’s ability to read the words. I’ll be talking a lot more about what fonts work best with […]

Blog Exercises: Backups and Alternatives

I didn’t expect to return home after a meeting this morning to find I have no telephone or Internet access on this bright sunshine, calm weather May day. I’ve got classes to prep for, sites to review for students and clients, article deadlines, these blog exercises to publish and keep to my year long commitment, […]

Blog Exercises: Prepare for Summer

It’s Editorial Calender check-in and check up time. May is the shift from spring to summer. From blossoming flowers to green leafed trees casting shade, the weather is changing, bringing warmer days to the northern hemisphere and colder temperatures down under. For those of us living in the Pacific Northwestern United States, we are experiencing […]

Blog Exercises: How to Write about Something Someone Else Wrote

In the early development of the web, blogs were classified as echo chambers, vessels of redundant content as every original idea was shared, reshared, quoted, and spread across the web at rapid speed. Some estimates state that less than 2% of all the content on the web is original. It’s mostly regurgitation of the same […]

Blog Exercises: Excerpts and Continue Reading

Encountered the front page of a blog where the posts ran on and on and on and on, stretching across the length of the page? Do you ever wish you had more control over the length of your posts on the front page of your site? This Blog Exercise explores the use of the “more” […]

Blog Exercises: How Long Are Your Paragraphs?

How long are your paragraphs? Have you measured them lately? One of the telling differences between traditional writing and writing for the web is the length of the paragraph. Look at the example below. Which is easier to read? On the left, the paragraphs are huge, long blocks of text. On the right, the paragraphs […]

Blog Exercises: Dissecting Post Categories

In a recent article, Noah Weiss shared his struggle to figure out categories and tags on his personal site. I know many of you following these Blog Exercises have also struggled to figure out your categories, so I thought Noah’s site would be a perfect example, He has gratefully given me permission to rip his […]

WordPress Anniversary: Comment Spam Lessons

It’s hard to believe that I’ve learned much from comment spammers over the years. I’ve learned that they are among the most hated folks in the world, yet you have to respect them as well. As I look back on ten years of blogging with WordPress on this 10th Anniversary year, I realized that comment […]

Blog Exercises: List Your Resources

In “Blog Exercises: What Are Your Reference Articles” your blog exercise was to identify your reference articles from within your site and list them on a Page or in a post as a reference list. Today’s blog exercise is to identify and publish your resources beyond your site, the reference material and sources you count […]

Blog Exercises: Fall in Love with Words

There are certain clues that tell you how much a restaurant will cost. If the word “cuisine” appears in the advertising, it will be expensive. If they use the word “food,” it will be moderately priced. However, if the sign says “eats,” even though you’ll save money on food, your medical bills may be quite […]

Blog Exercises: Who Changed Your Life?

This is one of the special Blog Exercises this year, a chance to really celebrate who you are and those who helped make you. As we travel through life, people change our lives on a daily basis as well as for a lifetime. Today’s exercise is focused on those who stepped in your path and […]