Eric A. Meyer (1)

Using Fonts on the Web

In this thin, focused volume (68 pages in the print edition), the author tours the CSS font specification, explaining what the spec. means and describing how it’s implemented. He provides many mark-up examples demonstrating how to control the appearance of fonts on a web page, examples that cover most, maybe all, of the actual situations a working developer will encounter. Most of the book expansively explicates the @font-face rule which enables reliable (more-or-less) use of imported fonts, which is increasingly freeing us from prior typographic constraints.

The book helped me immediately, providing a detailed solution to a troubling problem a few minutes after downloading a copy. Besides being handy, it’s exhaustive treatment has made it an often-used reference after that first moment of glory.

A little distracting, without affecting the value of the content, this appears to be a single chapter from a longer book -- “Chapter 1: Fonts” shows up at the front but there’s no Chapter 2 (unless the separately published CSS: Text is Chapter 2) Also, there’s no sign of the publisher’s standard, and welcome, “Who is this book for?” preface, making me wonder a little what the game is we’re playing.

Even with that distraction and the short length, I recommend the book. Meyer knows the subject matter, theoretically and practically, has a straightforward and subtle sense of humor, and comes across as a friendly, helpful guy who happens to know more about the subject than you.

Designer/Developers interested in expanding their typographic skills will find the book useful, as will developers in collaborative relationships with designers. Designers without technical skills would probably find this hard-going, but with some effort it could provide a sound summary of what’s typographically possible these days.… (altro)