Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Colors Can Mean More Than Fonts
. While it is tempting to use different
fonts to create different looks inside your application, one should consider
if simply changing the color of text may be sufficient. Use of colors that fit
nicely together in a scheme (perhaps using a reference such as Color
appearance than can changing fonts. The same rules discussed
previously apply to color (i.e., color should consistently convey to the
reader the same message—is this a warning, an action, a description?);
however, the cost is less than the cost of using fonts in terms of loading
and configuration.
Now that we've discussed using fonts, images, and icons to create a look you would like
to have, we'll move into a broader context—that of CSS frameworks, where we can get
an entire 'skin' of CSS to wrap around our app, with far-reaching effects and
consequences!
CSS Frameworks
Love them or hate them, over the past few years, CSS grid frameworks have become
increasingly popular with newbie web designers and developers alike. I blame it all on
Blueprint, a CSS framework that became really popular around 2008. Blueprint was
created to reduce development time and to stop developers from ripping out chunks of
their hair
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in frustration when they forget what the difference between margin and
padding is. That last part might be a little jest on my part, but it isn't too far from the
truth.
As we discussed at the beginning on the chapter, a tool like Cascading Style Sheets is
widely used by developers, but is really intended as a tool to be used by designers.
Developers might not be comfortable with CSS—somewhat akin to asking a carpenter
to run the electrical lines in a home. He may know enough to do it, but then again, he
might make a bigger mess of it than if he hadn't ever started.
While that might sound a little ridiculous, there has been many a time that I have taken
on a project for a client that dealt with styling already coded by a developer or engineer
and it was painfully apparent that they had approached the whole method of writing
their CSS in the same way they would write logic in their code. Think of CSS as design
standards, not rules laid down in code.
If you sound like one of those people that just don't seem to "get" CSS, then you might
want to take a look at some of the frameworks out there that have been created to make
your life easier. In the long run, they will save you time and money by quickly helping you
solve a lot of those common problems that developers have when trying to style their
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For Rocco, this isn't much of a problem. For Jon, he needs all of the chunks of hair he
can get!
