Resources
This Resource List was prepared to accompany “Manipulating Web Typography with Cascading Style Sheets: A practical approach with consideration for users’ needs and lessons learned from print typography.” The paper addresses Web typography as a desirable goal for Web designers. It offers specific CSS code examples for building a paragraph informed by typographical principles. It also remarks on the effects of some of these principles on a Web site’s users. Most of the sources listed were cited in the paper. Those that were not are still worthy of consideration as important sources of typographical information.
Bain, E.K. (1970). The theory and practice of typographic design. New York:
Hastings House.
Bain presents a uniquely British treatment of print typography. He focuses
mainly on principles of type used to evoke emotion, but touches on sound principles
of print typography, as well.
Briggs, O. (n.d.). The noodle incident. Retrieved from http://www.thenoodleincident.com/
Owen Briggs, the main author of Briggs, et al. (2004), maintains a personal
page of CSS quirks, workarounds, resources, and rants. One of his tangents
specifically addresses text sizing.
Briggs, O., Champeon, S., Costello, E., & Patterson, M. (2004). Cascading
style sheets: Separating content from presentation (2nd ed.). New York: Friends
of ED.
This book is a from-the-experts guide to the theory and practice of CSS. Briggs
includes an extensive section on Web typography, with examples from print
typography and ways to work around browser quirks.
Brinck, T., Gergle, D., & Wood, S.D. (2002). Usability for the Web: Designing
Web sites that work. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann.
These authors present a manual for Information Architecture, and include sections
for the I.A. specialist to consider the role of typography in a project’s
design and completion.
Byrne, J. (2004). Accessible Web typography: An introduction for Web designers
[HTML ed.]. Glasgow: ScotConnect. Electronic book retrieved December 5, 2005,
from http://www.scotconnect.com/webtypography/index.php
This electronic book is freely available in its HTML format. The author focuses
on Web typography’s ability to expand usability and accessibility for
users who may have problems accessing carelessly built sites.
Craig, J. (1971). Designing with type: A basic course in typography (S.E.
Meyer, Ed.). New York: Watson-Guptill.
This oversize book presents some basics of print typography. The remainder
of the book offers a series of projects to the student, and provides a series
of enlarged images of many print fonts.
Dyson, M.C., & Haselgrove, M., (2001). The influence of reading speed
and line length on the effectiveness of reading from screen. International
Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 54, 585-612. Retrieved December 6, 2005,
from Elsevier Science Direct.
The authors attempt to determine the optimal line length of text for users
who read text on a screen. From their results, they conclude that an average
of 55 characters per line is ideal, depending on the size of the font.
Gillespie, J. (2001, July 10). Alien typography. Digital Web Magazine. Retrieved
from http://www.digital-web.com/articles/alien_typography/
This article emphasizes the importance of using fonts in the media for which
they were designed, and attempts to explain the difference between fonts designed
for print and fonts designed for the screen.
Gribbons, W.M., (1993). Information design: A human factors approach to a
new typography. Proceedings: 1993. International Professional Communication
Conference: The New Face of Technical Communication: People, Processes, Products
(pp.17-23). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Retrieved December
6, 2005, from IEEE Electronic Library.
The author takes a unique approach to typography that considers its potential
for human factors and usability. Even though he is not specifically referring
to Web typography, his approach is similar to that of Byrne (2004).
Kahn, P., & Lenk, K. (1998). Design: Principles of typography for user
interface design. Interactions, 5(6), 15-29. Retrieved December 5, 2005, from
ACM Digital Library.
This article contains excellent graphics that draw and define the terminology
of print typography. The authors describe the benefits and challenges to electronic
graphical interface design of employing techniques of typography.
Mackiewicz, J., (2003). What technical writing students do know and should
know about typography. Proceedings: 2003. International Professional Communication
Conference (pp.209-222). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Retrieved December 6, 2005, from IEEE Electronic Library.
The author studies a pool of technical writing students to determine if they
knew enough about typographical terminology and the nuances of font selection
to give their documents correct style and tone. He concludes that students
need to know more about typography to maximize the messages being sent by
their documents.
Mackiewicz, J., & Moeller, R., (2004). Why people perceive typefaces
to have different personalities. In Proceedings: 2004. International Professional
Communication Conference (pp.304-313). Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers. Retrieved December 6, 2005, from IEEE Electronic Library.
The authors studied attitudes toward a set of fonts. Some of the fonts varied
widely, while some were only slightly different. The authors concluded that
the study subjects professed opinions on the fonts mostly by intuition, rather
than by any trained knowledge of fonts or typography.
Peck, W. (2003). Great Web typography. New York: Wiley.
This book provides a carry-around resource for learning about Web typography.
Emphasis is heavy on Cascading Style Sheets and real-life examples.
Reed, D., & Davies, J., (2006). The convergence of computer programming
and graphic design. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 21, 179-187.
Retrieved December 5, 2005, from ACM Digital Library.
The authors argue that the field of computer science, particularly computer
programming, has a lot to learn from the field of graphic design, and vice-versa.
Computer programmers need design skills to work in current graphical, user-centered
environments, and graphics designers need programming skills to successfully
design for electronic media.
Shaw, P. (2005). Code style font sampler. Retrieved December 6, 2005, from
http://www.codestyle.org/css/font-family/index.shtml
This site is an invaluable resource for comparing fonts available on different
operating systems. The author also maintains a font survey that keeps statistics
on a given font’s reported frequency of use.
Tullis, T.S., Boynton, J.L., & Hersh, H., (1995). Readability of fonts
in the Windows environment. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems:
Conference companion (pp.127-128). ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human
Interaction. New York: ACM Press. Retrieved December 6, 2005, from ACM Digital
Library.
The authors study users’ reading speed, comprehension, and retention
rate over a variety of fonts and font sizes on a screen of fixed resolution.
They conclude from their results that users read most effectively when information
appears on-screen in larger, sans serif fonts.
Turnbull, A.T., & Baird, R.N. (1975). The graphics of communication:
Typography, layout, design [3rd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
These authors present a complete treatment of print typography in the context
of its use as a tool of communication. They draw on studies of how humans
read to influence their advice on typographical best practices.
Van Doren, S. (2001, July 10). Type-O-Graphy: Making words stand out, every
time. Digital Web Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.digital-web.com/articles/type_o_graphy/
This article encourages the use of Web typography as a way of adding interest
to Web page text. The author also describes the transformation of some print
fonts into screen fonts.
Whitbread, D. (2001). The design manual. Sydney: University of New South
Wales Press.
Although his focus is on Australia, Whitbread combines a thorough resource
on the theory, terminology, and best practices of print typography with an
awareness of typography in electronic media.
