HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 9
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Typography
W
ith all the attention given to multimedia on the Web, it sometimes seems strange that text
still is the content king. Type and the written word has been with us much longer than photos,
videos, audio recordings, and the like, and quite an art has developed around it. Typography is
the art of setting type. This art exists to honor the content it sets—to enhance legibility and
embody the character of the words within. All too often, web designers think that typography
means “picking a cool font.” They believe it's simply not possible to achieve quality typogra-
phy on the Web, or they reduce the art to a set of mundane rules like “Always use sans serif
fonts on the Web.” In reality, attention to typography is one of the hallmarks of well-designed
sites that differentiate them from their amateurish counterparts.
CSS was designed with typography at the forefront, and today it is possible to properly set
type in a manner that might even make Gutenberg proud. This is what we'll explore in this
chapter. Specifically, we'll look at
•
Understanding the various typeface classifications
•
Selecting typefaces with CSS
•
Assigning font weights
•
Sizing type
•
Choosing font styles
•
Transforming text
•
Understanding font variants
•
Setting blocks of text
•
Styling headings and subheads
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