Notes

Source Sans Pro

If you missed the announcement earlier in August, Adobe have released Source Sans Pro, the company’s, “first open source type family.” Not only is the typeface beautifully crafted, they’ve also published an extensive article covering the brief behind the typeface and details of its extensive development, which makes for interesting reading. As Paul Hunt (the typeface’s designer), writing on Typblography, puts it:

The primary need for type in Adobe’s open source applications has thus far been for usage within user interfaces. A second environment of perennial interest to Adobe is the realm of text typography. Thus the immediate constraints on the design were to create a set of fonts that would be both legible in short UI labels, as well as being comfortable to read in longer passages of text on screen and in print.

The result is a typeface perfect for user interfaces, legible at low resolution whilst also readable in text-heavy settings. Get it free from GithHub, where the company is engaging with the community in an admirable effort to improve the typefaces ongoing development and refinement. It’s nice to see a company of Adobe’s size open sourcing what would otherwise be a valuable source of income. Hats off to them.

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The Periodical

The most recent entries in the Periodical and Reviews sections:

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HTML and CSS Web Standards Solutions

Learn how to build hand-crafted web pages using well-structured XHTML and lean and efficient CSS. By embracing a web standards approach, HTML and CSS Web Standards Solutions enables you to create web sites that not only look great in all modern browsers, but are also accessible to a wide variety of audiences across a range of platforms - from those browsing on everyday computers, to those accessing the web on the latest, emerging mobile devices.

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The Authors

In addition to their role as lecturers in interactive design at the University of Ulster at Belfast, where they have been active in promoting a web standards-based curriculum, Christopher Murphy and Nicklas Persson are practicing designers and digital artists. Their work has featured in a variety of design books and magazines alongside numerous internationally respected designers and they are regular speakers at design conferences and workshops worldwide.

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