Tags: variable

A Tale of Two Buttons

In defence of the cascade (especially now that we’ve got CSS custom properties).

I think embracing CSS’s cascade can be a great way to encourage consistency and simplicity in UIs. Rather than every new component being a free for all, it trains both designers and developers to think in terms of aligning with and re-using what they already have.

Remember, every time you set a property in CSS you are in fact overriding something (even if it’s just the default user agent styles). In other words, CSS code is mostly expressing exceptions to a default design.

Transform your type online with variable fonts | Creative Bloq

This is a great interview with Rich on all things related to web typography—including, of course, variable fonts.

I’m so lucky that I literally get to work side by side with Rich; I get to geek out with him about font stuff all the time.

Font Playground — Play with variable fonts!

A fun way to play around with the options in variable fonts.

Ampersand 2018 | Rob Weychert

Rob attended the excellent Ampersand event last Friday and he’s made notes for each and every talk.

Text Effects - a Collection by Mandy Michael on CodePen

Mandy’s experiments with text effects in CSS are kinda mindblowing—I can’t wait to see her at Ampersand at the end of the month!

How to start with variable fonts on the web – Oliver Schöndorfer

A nice intro to variable fonts.

Dark theme in a day – Marcin Wichary – Medium

On Ev’s blog, Marcin goes into great detail on theming an interface using CSS custom properties, SVG, HSL, and a smattering of CSS filters.

I was kind of amazed that all of this could happen via CSS and CSS alone: the colours, the transitions, the vectors, and even the images.

Super-powered layouts with CSS Variables + CSS Grid by Michelle Barker on CodePen

This article is about using custom properties and CSS grid together, but I think my favourite part is this description of how custom properties differ from the kind of variables you get from a preprocessor:

If you’re familiar with Javascript, I like to think of the difference between preprocessor variables and CSS Variables as similar to the difference between const and let - they both serve different purposes.

The Next Big Thing in Type

Over the course of a semester, students at UMPRUM Academy in Prague made variable fonts. I think Krabat might be my favourite.

Wakamai Fondue

A drag-and-drop tool for examining variable fonts (kind of like FontDrop but with more sliders to play with).

I didn’t get the name until I said it out loud.

What’s new in Microsoft Edge in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update - Microsoft Edge Dev BlogMicrosoft Edge Dev Blog

Service workers, push notifications, and variable fonts are now shipping in Edge.

Upcoming changes to the CSS you need for variable fonts | Clagnut

Rich enumerates some changes in how you set up variable fonts. So if you’re pulling in a font that has weight as an axis, you can now add this to your @font-face rule:

font-weight: 1 999;

I’m already very excited about variable fonts—I’m going to be positively giddy by the time Ampersand rolls around (which, by the way, you should totally go to—it’s going to be sooo good!).

Variable Fonts | DSType Foundry

Here’s an interesting twist on variable fonts: one of variable axes is serificity …serificousness …serifness. The serifs. The serifs, is what I’m trying to say.

One small point: it seems a bit of a shame that there are separate files for regular and italic—it would’ve been nice to have a variable axis for italicity …italicousness …ah, screw it.

Ampersand: Interview with Mandy Michael – Clear(left) Thinking – Medium

I’m soooo excited that Mandy is speaking at Ampersand here in Brighton in June!

Be there or be square.

Variable Fonts

A simple resource for finding and trying variable fonts.

How to use variable fonts in the real world | Clagnut

The gorgeous website for this year’s Ampersand conference might well be one of the first commercial uses of variable fonts in the wild. Here, Richard documents all the clever things Mark did to ensure good fallbacks for browsers that don’t yet support variable fonts.

Silly hover effects and the future of web typography – Pixelambacht

These experiments with transitioning variable font styles on hover might be silly, but I can see the potential for some beautiful interaction design.

mbeaudru/modern-js-cheatsheet: Cheatsheet for the JavaScript knowledge you will frequently encounter in modern projects.

A handy guide to navigating all the new-fangled JavaScript.

User Interfaces for Variable Fonts · An A List Apart Article

A good introduction to variable fonts, and an exploration of the possible interface elements we might use to choose our settings: toggles? knobs? sliders? control pads?

Using CSS variables correctly - Mike Riethmuller

Mike examines the real power of CSS custom properties compared to Sass variables—they can change at runtime.

I’m convinced that in almost all cases, responsive design logic should now be contained in variables. There is a strong argument too, that when changing any value, whether in a media query or an element scope, it belongs in a variable. If it changes, it is by definition a variable and this logic should be separated from design.