Typography is the art and techniques of type design, modifying type glyphs, and arranging type. Type glyphs (characters) are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques. The arrangement of type is the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing) and letter spacing.
Typography is performed by typesetters, compositors, typographers, graphic artists, art directors, and clerical workers. Until the Digital Age, typography was a specialized occupation. Digitization opened up typography to new generations of visual designers and lay users.
In traditional typography, text is composed to create a readable, coherent, and visually satisfying whole that works invisibly, without the awareness of the reader. Even distribution with a minimum of distractions and anomalies are aimed at producing clarity and transparency.
Choice of font(s) is perhaps the primary aspect of text typography—prose fiction, non-fiction, editorial, educational, religious, scientific, spiritual and commercial writing all have differing characteristics and requirements. For historic material, established text typefaces are frequently chosen according to a scheme of historical genre acquired by a long process of accretion, with considerable overlap between historical periods.
Contemporary books are more likely to be set with state-of-the-art seriffed "text romans" or "book romans" with design values echoing present-day design arts, which are closely based on traditional models such as those of Nicolas Jenson, Francesco Griffo (a punchcutter who created the model for Aldine typefaces), and Claude Garamond. With their more specialized requirements, newspapers and magazines rely on compact, tightly-fitted text romans specially designed for the task, which offer maximum flexibility, readability and efficient use of page space. Sans serif text fonts are often used for introductory paragraphs, incidental text and whole short articles. A current fashion is to pair sans serif type for headings with a high-performance seriffed font of matching style for the text of an article.
The text layout, tone or color of set matter, and the interplay of text with white space of the page and other graphic elements combine to impart a "feel" or "resonance" to the subject matter. With printed media typographers are also concerned with binding margins, paper selection and printing methods.
Typography is modulated by Orthography and linguistics, word structures, word frequencies, morphology, phonetic constructs and linguistic syntax. Typography also is subject to specific cultural conventions. For example, in French it is customary to insert a non-breaking space before a colon (:) or semicolon (;) in a sentence, while in English it is not.
Readability and legibility are often confused. Readability is most often and more properly used to describe the ease with which written language is read and understood – it concerns the difficulty of the language itself, not its appearance. Factors that affect readability include sentence and word length, and the frequency of uncommon words.
In contrast, legibility describes how easily or comfortably a typeset text can be read. It is not connected with content or language, but rather with the size and appearance of the printed or displayed text.
Studies of legibility have examined a wide range of factors including type size, type design (for example, comparing serif vs sans serif type, italic type vs roman type), line length, line spacing, colour contrast, the design of right-hand edge (for example, justification (straight right hand edge) vs ranged left, and whether hyphenated). Legibility research was published from the late nineteenth century on, but the overall finding has been that the reading process is remarkably robust, and that significant differences are hard to find. So comparative studies of seriffed vs sans serif type, or justified vs unjustified type, have failed to settle the argument over which is best. (Serifs are the small cross-strokes at the end of letters in fonts such as Times; sans serif fonts, such as Arial, lack these cross strokes). Unfortunately, the fashion for legibility research was over by the time that revolutionary changes in printing and display technology (ie, laser printing and PC display screens) made it actually of potential interest.
Legibility is usually measured through speed of reading, with comprehension scores used to check for effectiveness (ie, not a rushed or careless read). For example, Miles Tinker, who published numerous studies from the 1930s to the 1960s, used a speed of reading test that required participants to spot incongruous words as an effectiveness filter.
These days, legibility research tends to be limited to critical issues, or the testing of specific design solutions (for example, when new typefaces are developed). Examples of critical issues include typefaces (also called fonts) for people with visual impairment, and typefaces for highway signs, or for other conditions where legibility may make a key difference.
Much of the legibility research literature is somewhat atheoretical - various factors were tested individually or in combination (inevitably so, as the different factors are interdependent), but many tests were carried out in the absence of a model of reading or visual perception. Some typographers believe that the overall word shape is very important in readability, and that letter by letter recognition (sometimes known as parallel letterwise recognition) is either wrong, less important, or not the entire picture. Studies that distinguish between the two models have favored parallel letterwise recognition, and the latter is widely accepted by cognitive psychologists (citation?).
Some commonly agreed findings of legibility research include: text set in lower case is more legible than text set all in upper case (capitals), presumably because lower case letter structures and word shapes are more distinctive, having greater saliency with the presence of extenders (ascenders, descenders and other projecting parts); regular upright type (roman) is found to be more legible that italics, contrast, without dazzling brightness, has also been found to be important, with black on yellow/cream being most effective; positive images (eg, black on white) are easier to read than negative or reversed (eg, white on black); the upper portions of letters play a stonger part than the lower portions in the recognition process; legibility is compromised by letterspacing, word spacing and leading that are too tight or too loose. Generous vertical space separates lines of text, making it easier for the eye to distinguish one line from the next, or previous line. Poorly designed fonts and those that are too tightly or loosely fitted can also result in poor legibility.
]]>The argument of baking and frying is determining where and when to apply presentation to your information.
The baking vs frying argument has been around for some time now. When I was first introduced to content management I was taught that the baking approach was the best although I have come to the conclusion that the best approach to templating is dependant on your requirements. In this article I will describe some of the pros, cons and selection criteria of baking vs frying templates.
The baking approach is common in systems that consists of static non-dynamic data. The baking approach generally consists of a presentation template, data files, a merge process (baking) and output files. The merge process pulls the data and presentation together to generate output files that are a combination of both information and formatting. The output files are generally ready to be consumed by users as is. The baking process usually takes place before a user consumes data in an external system.
The frying approach is common in systems that consists of dynamic non-static data. The frying approach generally consists of a presentation template, data files, and a merge process (frying). The merge process pulls the data and presentation together and stores the output in memory or cache at the time of the request. The frying process usually takes place when a user requests a the information.
This section of the article will hopefully help you choose between a frying or baking system. This criteria is dependant on many factors but here are a few to get you started thinking about which approach is best for you.
Answer yes or no to the following questions?
If you answered yes to number 1, 4, and 6 I would reccomend selecting a baking templating approach. If you answered yes to 2 ,3 , and 5 I would reccomend selecting a frying templating approach. The selection criteria is only a simple set of questions that at a high level may point you in the right direction.
On several projects I have found myself somewhere in between the lines of baking vs frying. There is no rule that limits you to only selecting one. The best solution for you may be a blend of the two approaches. For example imagine part of your system is an archive of static information and baking is the best approach but the other part of your system is a highly personalized dynamic application. In this case I would reccomend blending. At the end of the day you must carefully analyze the requirements for your system and prioritize them. Take the highest priority requirements and see if they fall within a baking or frying approach.
Hopefully this article was informational and helped you better understand the difference between a baking and frying approach. This is a subject that will be visted and revisted when dealing with presenting information. Always remember that systems evolve and so do the people consuming it. There are often waves of popularity between the two approaches based on the hot technolgy that is out there. In my opinion it is important to remain objective and develop a solid approach that works and keeps your users and customers happy.
]]>The main implementation is produced by The PHP Group and released under the PHP License. It is considered to be free software by the Free Software Foundation. This implementation serves to define a de facto standard for PHP, as there is no formal specification.
Currently, two major versions of PHP are being actively developed: 5.x and 4.4.x; on July 13, 2007, the PHP group announced that active development on PHP4 will cease by December 31, 2007, however, critical security updates will be provided until August 8, 2008.
]]>JavaScript is a dynamic, weakly typed, prototype-based language with first-class functions. JavaScript was influenced by many languages and was designed to have a similar look to Java, but be easier for non-programmers to work with. The language is best known for its use in websites (as client-side JavaScript), but is also used to enable scripting access to objects embedded in other applications.
Despite the name, JavaScript is unrelated to the Java programming language; though both have a common debt to C syntax. The language was renamed from LiveScript in a co-marketing deal between Netscape and Sun in exchange for Netscape bundling Sun's Java runtime with their browser, which was dominant at the time. JavaScript semantics is much more similar to the Self programming language.
"JavaScript" is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. It was used under license for technology invented and implemented by Netscape Communications and current entities such as the Mozilla Foundation.
The CSS 1 specicifcation for level 1 of the Cascading Style Sheet mechanism can be found here(CSS1). CSS1 is a simple style sheet mechanism that allows authors and readers to attach style (e.g. fonts, colors and spacing) to HTML documents. The CSS1 language is human readable and writable, and expresses style in common desktop publishing terminology.
One of the fundamental features of CSS is that style sheets cascade; authors can attach a preferred style sheet, while the reader may have a personal style sheet to adjust for human or technological handicaps. The rules for resolving conflicts between different style sheets are defined in this specification.
The CSS 2 specification defines Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 can be found here (CSS2). CSS2 is a style sheet language that allows authors and users to attach style (e.g., fonts, spacing, and aural cues) to structured documents (e.g., HTML documents and XML applications). By separating the presentation style of documents from the content of documents, CSS2 simplifies Web authoring and site maintenance.
CSS2 builds on CSS1 (see [CSS1]) and, with very few exceptions, all valid CSS1 style sheets are valid CSS2 style sheets. CSS2 supports media-specific style sheets so that authors may tailor the presentation of their documents to visual browsers, aural devices, printers, braille devices, handheld devices, etc. This specification also supports content positioning, downloadable fonts, table layout, features for internationalization, automatic counters and numbering, and some properties related to user interface.
The CSS 3 specification is still being developed at this point. Learn more about CSS3.
]]>A versioning file system is similar to a periodic backup, with several key differences. First, backups normally go to separate media; versioning file systems write to the same hard drive (and normally the same folder, directory, or local partition). Second, backups are normally triggered on a timed basis; versioning occurs when the file changes. Third, backups are usually system-wide or partition-wide; versioning occurs independently on a file-by-file basis.
Versioning file systems provide some of the features of revision control systems. However, unlike most revision control systems, they are transparent.
]]>Compliance in a regulatory context is a prevalent business concern, perhaps because of an ever-increasing number of regulations and a fairly widespread lack of understanding about what is required for a company to be in compliance with new legislation. In the financial sector, SOX was enacted in response to the high-profile Enron and WorldCom financial scandals to protect shareholders and the general public from accounting errors and fraudulent practices in the enterprise. In the healthcare sector, HIPAA Title II includes an administrative simplification section which mandates standardization of healthcare-related information systems.
As compliance has increasingly become a concern of corporate management, corporations are turning to specialized software, consultancies, and even a new job title, the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO).
]]>BPM covers activities performed by organizations to manage and, if necessary, to improve their business processes. While such a goal is hardly new, software tools called business process management systems (BPM systems) have made such activities faster and cheaper. BPM systems monitor the execution of the business processes so that managers can analyze and change processes in response to data, rather than just a hunch.
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