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5 Type Tweaking Tricks for a Sunday Afternoon

Filed Under Basics, Design, Successful Blog | 10 Comments

Tweaking IS Fun, Type Is Meant to Be Read

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It’s Sunday. The five minutes of Chicago spring is over. A young blogger’s fancy turns to thoughts of baseball and tweaking a blog. The easiest thing to touch and change in a template is the font size and style. Change a number and whoosh! we’ve got a new look. It’s so easy, that sometimes we do it without attention to how all of those changes work when we put them together.

Our readers live with the result. Sometimes it’s fabulous, sometimes not so much.

5 Type Tweaking Tricks for a Sunday Afternoon

Tweaking type is art of the highest form . . . um . . . or to say it another way, the look of our blog can need some serious tweaking. If we put it together without giving attention to the big picture, or if it’s time to freshen things up to get back in fashion, a few tricks, some perspective will do wonders to move us to a clean, readable, and magnetic result.

Choosing fonts and tweaking them is a form of expression. Taking the time to do it right, previewing as we go is critical, but so is knowing the basics of how people interact with type. Here are some tricks to give special attention to the type fonts on a blogs.

  1. Look out for too many typefaces and type fonts Try to keep to two type families please — three at the most. With a range of sizes, that should be enough to meet all of your type needs. More than that and eyes don’t know where to go or how to focus. Designers know that it’s less distracting to keep the number low — simple is elegant.

  2. In like manner, stick to 3 colors for your type and design. It’s hard enough to find 3 colors that go together well. Colors are more distracting than type fonts. Use a color generator tool to get a palette that defines colors that are made from the same base. If you have a photo in your header some color palette generators will actually pull colors right from it. This will help you avoid colors — red is one, bright blue is another — that can vibrate on dark backgrounds which can motion sickness to occur — seriously.

  3. When working with type, be as makthematical as you can. Make your h1, h2, h3, and h4 (if you use them) heads scale down in equal mathematical increments. The naked eye might be able to tell the difference between 1% em or 1 pixel, but a tension will occur that makes your blog feel slightly out of whack when people look at it.

  4. Define your type area to a readable width. A type area so wide I need to drive to read across and then need to drive back to continue on will wear out my eyes in no time. The width should get narrow as the type gets smaller, so that readers can find their way back to the next line.

  5. Keep your type in blocks. When you lean back and look at your overall blog, your type should hold together in bigger type blocks. For example, the post title, post and all of the after matter should hang as one item, despite the fact that they are many different parts. Adjust the space between the parts until the entire post looks to be a single unit. That will help readers actually see your blog in the way you have written it.

If you spend time today tweaking the type on your blog, these are five points to be vigilant about. Blogs with these problems slow us down as readers. When the reading is slow, we perceive it as work. Soon enough we move on to something that seems more fun.

Great type is like the shine on your shoes. It adds appeal and takes your brand up a notch. It’s a quiet way to let readers know that you care a whole lot about their experience.

–ME :Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: Tabblo

Filed Under Design, Great Finds, Successful Blog | 1 Comment

Create Books, Posters, Albums

Great Find: Tabblo

Permalink: http://www.tabblo.com/studio/

Target Audience: Anyone interested in sharing photos!

Content:

Tabblo logo

This site is another great way to share your photos and add words to make “tabblos” (web pages). There’s also a lively community. Here’s a Tabblo called Creation at its Best! (Click photo to see the page.) It’s easy to upload photos or import them from Flickr and Picasa. Click this screen shot or the next one to check it out.

Creation at its Best Tabblo


I’m not sure what I like better - the original Tabblo or the photo cube. You can select any five photos for your cube. There’s easy-to-follow directions. Then just print it out, make some cuts, and fold it up.



And, they have a printing service, so you can order a copy of your latest creation! Check it out yourself and let me know which is your favorite.

See you next time!

–Sandy, Purple Wren

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Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: CoolText
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Great Find: PictureTrail

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Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: Color in Motion

Filed Under Design, Great Finds, Successful Blog | 1 Comment

An Interactive Experience of Color Communication and Color Symbolism

Great Find: Color in Motion

Permalink: http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/

Target Audience: Anyone interested in color!

Content:

This site was created by Claudia Cortés as her thesis for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Computer Graphics Design from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Color in Motion

I’m not sure what’s more fun - the Stars, the Movies, or the Lab. I really like the Movies because it’s such a nice visual way to learn the symbolism of color. And the music is terrific. So many ways that color communicates.

Check it out yourself and let me know what part is your favorite.

See you next time!

–Sandy, Purple Wren

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Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: CoolText
Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: Pixel Ruler
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Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: Picturedots

Filed Under Design, Great Finds, Successful Blog, Tips, Tools | 1 Comment

Create Your Own Dot-to-Dot Pictures

Great Find: Picturedots

Permalink: http://picturedots.com

Target Audience: Kids of all ages !

Content:

Picturedots is a web-based tool for making dot-to-dot puzzles. The neat part about it is you can take a photo or image that has meaning for you and make it into a puzzle. They can be as simple or as complicated as you like. There’s a tutorial to get you started.

Sounds like a fun idea for a party! I can imagine the surprise on your friends’ faces when they see what the picture is.



Click on the images to see the finished puzzles.

Let me know how you use this tool.

See you next time!

–Sandy, Purple Wren

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Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: CoolText
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Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: The One Million Masterpiece

Filed Under Design, Great Finds, Successful Blog, Tips | 2 Comments

There’s still time to join in the creativity!

Great Find: The One Million Masterpiece

Permalink: http://www.millionmasterpiece.com/

Target Audience: Everyone!

Content:

This project has been underway for some time. There’s artistic contributions from almost 24,000 people in 174 countries. And they have raised over $17,000. Check out the charities that will benefit and the sponsors and supporters.

Here’s a picture of what it looks like.

And this is a close-up of my square. It’s a ‘work in process’ with just the eye and beak of the Purple Wren as a placeholder.

Why are they doing this? You have to browse the site and find out. Follow the news on the blog.

You can zoom in on any of the squares to get a close-up view. There are some amazing works of art out there - and some that are very simple. You can send the artist an email. This is our community.

So don’t worry about how artistic you are. Just join in!

I still get goose-bumps when I’m part of the larger projects going on with the new web. The ways we can connect with others is truly powerful.

Check it out and spread the word. If you can and you feel moved to do so, contribute a little cash.

I found this project quite awhile ago and have had it on my ‘to blog list’ ever since. This is good timing because they are now about to release a new version of the site with "significant upgrades."

Here’s a few random links you gotta see:

Some of the graphics are posted with a live replay feature so you can see how the picture evolved. It’s like an art lesson! And it’s fun to see the profiles - age, location, and about the author.

There’s so many great things about this project that I can’t stop talking about it - but I will. Go check it out yourself.

Don’t be shy - leave me a comment and let me know what your favorites are and where your square is.

See you next time!

–Sandy, Purple Wren

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Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: CoolText
Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: Pixel Ruler
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