Reading is transitioning from print to the screen. For many, the convenience and transportability of devices like the Nook, Kindle, iPad, and even smartphones outweighs the pleasure found in the tangible aspects of a physical book. They are willing to trade the smell of a new book, the texture of the paper, and the subtle warning of closure as the weight of the open book shifts to its left side in exchange for a slimmer option that includes more reading choices and other useful or entertaining functions. But as Andreas Carlsson and Jaan Orvet have pointed out, there is another thing being sacrificed – and unnecessarily.
Typography has also long been a part of the reading experience. But even with all of the technological advances and the move of so much text from paper to screen, Web typography seems to have been pushed to the back burner.
In their article on SmashingMagazine.com, Carlsson and Orvet point out that Web typography is subject to “many unknown and fluctuating parameters, such as operating system, system fonts, the device and screen itself, the viewport and more.” They go on to identify the modern Web browser as being one of the must crucial in displaying typography, and its lack of support the “single biggest hurdle to good Web typography.”
So they began an open source project to solve this problem: Open Typography. Using JavaScript and a custom font-file, open typography gives designers a way to adjust some of the things that they’ve identified as absent in most screen reading experiences, such as:
· Kerning and spacing of individual characters;
· Basic ligatures (fi, fl)
· Lining and old-style numerals;
· True small-caps;
· Replacing uppercase with small-caps for abbreviations;
· Language-based quotation marks;
· Spacing of ! ( ) [ ] / ; :.
(See the complete list here)
See Carlsson and Orvet’s article for more details on how it works.
It is an open source project, so it admittedly may be a bit “buggy right now” and need more development. It is a step in the right direction though, and while it may only be a work around we can all take some comfort in knowing that the problem is not only recognized, it is beginning to be addressed. Hopefully Web browsers will take the hint soon. Now if we could only make it feel like paper…
Image from 'BustedTypewriter' on Etsy
