Type looking a little flabby? Overweight? Want to give it a kick in the pants? Take a look at some of these tricks to really give your web type a workout.
Refine the Windows physique
Looking to make your type render a bit better for your Windows and Linux users?
Try text-rendering:
optimizeLegibility;. It
will enable ligatures and
kerning tables in the font file making
the type look extra nice. It takes the text a little longer to load which could
be a problem. It’s best to use it on headers, especially on those
@font-face fonts, and refrain from
using it on really large blocks of text.
Shed some Webkit weight
Everyone’s reversed Webkit type has a little extra weight in the hips.
-webkit-font-smoothing:
antialiased; will help
you lose a little of that weight around the middle by using
antialias rendering instead of the
default subpixel rendering.
It will make type just a hairline thiner when using light type on a dark
background. Read-webkit-font-smoothing
reloaded
and check out the test
page for more
information.
Remove those pesky widows
Have a problem with widows? Use jQWidont to zap those problem spots away. It will remove all those pesky widows for you by inserting a non-breaking space right before the last word.
Get some rhythm in your step
Create rhythm the easy way. Try using tools like typograph and Modular Scale to create a nice flow within your type. Both use traditional type scales to calculate sizes to help with your vertical spacing.
Feel Justified
Using justified type
on the web can sometimes be a disaster.
Hyphenator and text-justify:
newspaper;
(Only in IE - WHAT?) will help make sure that you’re shaping up the word-spacing
and not letting it get too big. Hyphenator adds in semantic soft hyphens for you
but it could be dangerous leaving your hyphenating up to a script.
text-justify: newspaper; will adjust the spacing between letters and words
instead of relaying solely on word-spacing.