Useful Links

There are a tremendous number of Web-related resources available for free on the Web itself. While this is by no means an exhaustive list, I have compiled a list of links to several resources that you may find helpful or interesting as we progress through the course.

Some of these sites will be equally useful to all students in the course, while others are likely to be of greatest use or interest to students who are struggling to keep up or looking for ways to range ahead. If you find that a site listed below does not seem appropriate to your specific needs, move on and check out some of the others.

Please note that I am not responsible for the sites listed here, and I cannot guarantee the type, quality, or accuracy of the material you’ll find at any site over which I have no control. In fact, I can’t even guarantee that they’ll still be there when you try. So if you find one you don’t like, just leave. If you find that one of the links leads nowhere, please let me know by e-mail at amgilder@cs.unh.edu.

Software downloads

We will mention and use several different software applications throughout this semester. I have tried to limit the list below to products that are available for free. However, policies do change, so if you find one that is no longer free, please let me know.

FileZilla: http://filezilla-project.org/
FileZilla is an alternative to SSH Secure Shell Client that is available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux systems. It supports secure FTP and should be relatively intuitive.
SSH Secure Shell Client: http://www.wm.edu/offices/it/a-z/software/windowsweb/sshsecure/index.php
We will be using SSH Secure Shell Client to establish secure FTP sessions to manipulate our files on the server host. Although we will not be using it as such, it can also be used to establish secure terminal emulator sessions. Since you will be using this software non-commercially, the license agreement allows you to download and install it for free.
CyberDuck: http://cyberduck.ch/
CyberDuck is an alternative to SSH Secure Shell Client for Mac users. It supports secure FTP and should be relatively intuitive.
Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/
Firefox is a very popular, open-source Web browser that is available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux.
Web Developer Extension for Firefox: http://chrispederick.com/work/firefox/webdeveloper
A highly recommended extension to Firefox by Chris Pederick. It adds a toolbar to the browser chock full of useful tools for Web developers.
Microsoft Internet Explorer: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/default.mspx
Internet Explorer is currently the most widely used browser on the Web (by far). In all likelihood there’s already a copy installed on any Windows or Macintosh computer you use. However, it is possible to download and install the latest version manually.
Google Chrome: http://www.google.com/chrome
Chrome is a popular alternative browser from the folks at Google.
Apple Safari: http://www.apple.com/safari/
Safari is a popular alternative browser from the folks at Apple.
Opera: http://www.opera.com/
Opera is a small, fast, but very capable browser that has a limited but energetic following. It has traditionally been an early adopter of standards.
Araneae: http://www.ornj.net/araneae/
If you’re looking for a good, free text editor within which to write your XHTML and CSS on Windows, you may want to try Araneae.
Crimson Editor: http://www.crimsoneditor.com/
Another good, free text editor for Windows users.
ConTEXT Programmer’s Editor: http://www.context.cx/
Yet another good, free text editor for Windows users.
gedit: http://projects.gnome.org/gedit/
A free and fully capable text editor available for Windows, Mac and Linux systems.
TextWrangler 2 (for Macintosh): http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/index.shtml
A highly regarded (and free) text editor for writing code on the Macintosh. TextEdit should work fine for this course (once you set the preferences to create new documents as text files), but this option may appeal to those Mac users looking for somewhat greater flexibility.
VLC Media Player: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
A very capable and stable player for all manner of media. In particular, it is an excellent choice for viewing the video of your recorded presentation.
IrfanView: http://www.irfanview.com/
Although it is technically an image viewer, IrfanView has enough capabilities to do the basic resizing and file format conversions you will most likely need for your work in this course. It’s free and easy to use.
The GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/
If you want something free that is significantly more full-featured than IrfanView, you may want to try the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). It is roughly comparable to Adobe Photoshop in terms of features, but it also shares a rather steep learning curve with Photoshop.
Download.com at c|net: http://www.download.com/
If you’re looking for freeware, shareware or demo software that is not listed above, I’d recommend checking to see if it’s available at Download.com.

HTML5

Here are some resources that may be useful as you deepen your understanding of HTML5.

W3Schools’ HTML Reference: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/default.asp
An alphabetical reference to the elements of HTML5.
HTML5 Doctor: http://html5doctor.com/
A comprehensive reference to the HTML5 tags, plus a collection of interesting and useful articles.
Dive into HTML5: http://diveintohtml5.info/
A useful overview of the highpoints of HTML5 originally created by Mark Pilgrim
caniuse: http://caniuse.com/
Browser compatibility information for HTML5 elements and CSS3 properties.
html5shiv: https://github.com/aFarkas/html5shiv/
A JavaScript file that can be easily added to an HTML5 page to enhance support for its HTML5 in older versions of Internet Explorer. Scan the page for details, and use the “dist” link at the top of the page to get to the actual files.

Tools and resources

There is a tremendous wealth of free and useful tools and resources for Web authors available on the Web. Some of those I have found most accurate and useful follow.

The W3C Markup Validation Service: http://validator.w3.org/
The World Wide Web Consortium’s free tool for checking the validity of XHTML code. Note that this validator may be more or less specific in its guidance than the course coding requirements.
The W3C CSS Validation Service: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
The World Wide Web Consortium’s free tool for checking the validity of CSS code. Note that this validator may be more or less specific in its guidance than the course coding requirements.
VisiBone Webmaster’s Color Lab: http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/
Point and click on a color wheel arrangement of swatches in the browser-safe palette to visually select and compare colors for a color scheme. Each selected color’s corresponding hexadecimal code (along with other information) is shown clearly. This tool is best for developing color schemes consisting of multiple colors. If you are simply trying to pick a single color, try the Color Chart instead.
VisiBone Color Chart: http://html-color-codes.com/
See the swatches for the entire browser-safe palette simultaneously each with its hexadecimal code clearly displayed. This tool is most useful for picking an individual color. If you are trying to develop a color scheme consisting of multiple coordinated colors, try the Color Lab. If you find this resource helpful, there is a free “pop-up” version that you can download and install on your own computer.
VisiBone Table of HTML Tags: http://html-tags.info/
An accurate and up-to-date table listing all the tags in HTML 4.01 and their attributes. Since XHTML 1.0 uses the same tags as HTML 4.01, the material in this chart is applicable to this course. However, since we are learning the strict form of XHTML 1.0, you will need to avoid using any items marked as deprecated in the chart. Be sure you understand the meaning of the symbols used in the chart as explained in the key at the bottom! If you find this resource helpful, there is a free “pop-up” version that you can download and install on your own computer.
VisiBone Table of HTML Characters: http://www.visibone.com/htmlref/char/ceralpha.htm
A visual listing of the most widely used HTML character entities. Each character is shown as it will appear when rendered (in a representative font) and both the alpha and numeric forms of the character entity are listed below each character.
Creative Commons Find: http://creativecommons.org/find/
A search engine specialized for locating resources, including images, audio, text and video, that are freely available for online use. Also provides links to other useful resource clearinghouses.
Stock.xchng: http://www.sxc.hu/
A community of photographers who post their photographs to share with others free of charge. Over 150,000 free photos available as of this writing.
FotoSearch: http://www.fotosearch.com/
If you want to get a sense of what types of images are available to professionals (with budgets that can afford the licensing fees), check out this site which combines stock images from a multitude of publishers into a single, easily searchable site. All of these images require licensing fees of some sort before you can use them, so you probably won’t find that you use them in your projects for the course, but it’s nice to know what’s out there.
iStockPhoto: http://www.istockphoto.com/
An extensive collection of royalty-free images. Note that you must pay a small fee to obtain the right to use each image, but once that fee has been paid there are no continuing royalties. Registration required.

Web standards

The Web as we know it would not exist without some degree of standardization. And all of the standards documents we will reference throughout the semester are publicly available on the Web. When you want to resolve a technical question about what can (and cannot) be done with a particular Web technology, the appropriate standards document is often a great place to start.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3): http://www.w3.org/
The vast majority of the Web standards are published by the World Wide Web Consortium (a.k.a. W3 or W3C). You will find a tremendous wealth of information about the Web available from their home page. The specific standards documents that are most pertinent to our needs, however, are listed separately below.
The Web Standards Project (WaSP): http://www.webstandards.org/
WaSP is a leading advocate for the adoption and support of Web standards of all types. Their Web site is a useful resource for educating yourself about Web standards.
A List Apart: http://www.alistapart.com/
This online magazine “explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on techniques and benefits of designing with web standards” and is an excellent resource for aspiring Web designers and developers.
The Weekly Standards: http://www.weeklystandards.com/
A showcase of recently-launched corporate Web sites that demonstrate standards-based Web development.
Developing with Web Standards: http://www.456bereastreet.com/lab/developing_with_web_standards/
An article by Roger Johansson explaining why a Web designer should use Web standards and presenting standards-based techniques.

Cascading Style Sheets

There are many excellent resources on the Web to help you learn and explore Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). As I encounter those I consider worth special mention, I add links to the list below.

Selectutorial: CSS Selectors: http://css.maxdesign.com.au/selectutorial/index.htm
A well-written and far-reaching tutorial specifically focused on CSS selectors.
CSS Zen Garden: http://www.csszengarden.com/
There is no better way to get a sense of the power and flexibility provided by CSS than simply spending a few minutes at this site. They provide a relatively simple XHTML page and invite CSS professionals to write style sheets that will present that XHTML in different ways. As you explore the links, keep in mind that each one is the result of applying different style sheets to the same underlying XHTML! You may find it easier to explore the hundreds of collected entries using the Comprehensive Design List.
CSS Beauty: http://www.cssbeauty.com/
A showcase of real-world CSS designs.
Unmatched Style: http://www.unmatchedstyle.com/
A gallery of real-world CSS designs for inspiration.
CSS Vault: http://cssvault.com/
A gallery of real-world CSS designs combined with a collection of CSS-related articles.
Complexspiral Demo: http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/complexspiral/demo.html
A simple demonstration by Eric Meyer intended to show off what one can accomplish with CSS1 and educate Web designers with respect to how to achieve professional formatting effects.
CSS for Bar Graphs: http://applestooranges.com/blog/post/css-for-bar-graphs/?id=55
A practical demonstration of what is possible when you really understand how to apply CSS. It’s definitely worth a close look at the code.
Mandarin Design: http://www.mandarindesign.com/
This site offers a wealth of useful information on CSS and blogs, including a great selection of narrowly defined “copy-and-paste” tutorials for achieving advanced design effects.
css-discuss.org: http://www.css-discuss.org/
A popular mailing list for Web professionals dealing with CSS and related subjects.
CSS Panic Guide: http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/css/index.html
This is a well thought-out and nicely presented collection of links to a short list of very useful CSS resources.
Little Boxes: http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/boxes.html
Pick your desired layout graphically and see some CSS that you might use to produce it.
The Layout Reservoir: http://www.bluerobot.com/web/layouts/
Pre-fab CSS for common two- and three-column layouts.
CSS Layout Techniques: For Fun and Profit: http://glish.com/css/
A superb resource for honing your understanding of CSS layout techniques and learning how to the transition from table-based layouts.
Mike Rundle: Accessible Image Replacement: http://phark.typepad.com/phark/2003/08/accessible_imag.html
Presents a very simple and widely supported technique for replacing text with images (presumably that represent the same text in a graphical manner) using CSS.
Image Replacement - No Span: http://www.moronicbajebus.com/playground/cssplay/image-replacement/
Presents an alternative technique (commonly called Leahy/Langridge Image Replacement) for replacing text with images using CSS.
Replacing Text By An Image: http://wellstyled.com/css-replace-text-by-image.html
Yet another method for replacing text with images using CSS. This technique has the advantage of making the text visible any time the image meant to replace it is not displayed.
Revised Image Replacement: http://www.mezzoblue.com/tests/revised-image-replacement/
A page by Dave Shea dedicated to presenting various CSS techniques for replacing textual content with images. The pros and cons of each technique are briefly summarized and sample code presented.
Sliding Doors of CSS: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/slidingdoors
A page by Douglas Bowman describing the use of layered background images. Although the focus of this article is on using this technique for better looking navigation tabs, the technique is more generally useful. For additional variations, check out Part II of this article.
Floatutorial: http://css.maxdesign.com.au/floatutorial/
A series of short, clear tutorials on using the CSS float property for a variety of common tasks.
Containing Floats: http://www.complexspiral.com/publications/containing-floats/
An article by Eric Meyer offering tips and techniques for working effectively with the CSS float property and overcoming some of its common pitfalls.

Clearing Floated Images in Body Text: http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200412/clearing_floated_images_in_body_text/
An article by Roger Johansson addressing the common problem of images extending beyond the bounding box of the elements within which they are floated, which can cause problems aligning subsequent portions of the page.
Creating Liquid Layouts with Negative Margins: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/negativemargins
An article by Ryan Brill presenting a technique for developing liquid CSS layouts using the float property and negative values for the margin property to allow properly structured XHTML code.
CSS Design: Creating Custom Corners & Borders: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/customcorners
An article by Søren Madsen describing techniques for achieving interesting and professional borders and corners.

Accessibility

Writing Web pages that are fully accessible offers a host of benefits. Not only does it increase your potential audience by including those with disabilities, it also includes those with different browsing needs and preferences. This includes users of text-only browsers, handheld computers, cell phones. It also includes automated browsing tools such as search engine gatherers. For certain types of Web sites, accessibility may even be required by law. Use the resources below to educate yourself on accessibility issues and test the accessibility of your pages.

Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI): http://www.w3.org/WAI/
The World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative is the best place to begin educating yourself on Web accessibility. In particular, the links to resources found on the home page are invaluable.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG): http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/
The World Wide Web Consortium’s official recommendation for implementing accessible Web pages, presented as a series of prioritized checkpoints.
Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT-TECHS/
The World Wide Web Consortium’s recommended techniques for implementing accessible Web pages. It is probably best to gain a basic understanding of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines before tackling this document.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/
The second version of the World Wide Web Consortium’s official recommendation for implementing accessible Web pages, presented as a series of prioritized checkpoints.
Techniques for WCAG 2.0: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/
The World Wide Web Consortium’s recommended techniques for implementing accessible Web pages using version 2.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It is probably best to gain a basic understanding of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 before tackling this document.
Section 508 Homepage: http://www.access-board.gov/508.htm
Section 508 is the federal law dealing with Web accessibility. Use this homepage as a starting point for educating yourself about the legal aspects of accessibility.
Dive into Accessibility: http://www.diveintoaccessibility.org/
A free online book by Mark Pilgrim offering practical tips for developing more accessible Web sites.
Watchfire WebXACT: http://webxact.watchfire.com/
This is a free online service to help you test the accessibility of individual Web pages. It analyzes your use of XHTML and brings accessibility issues to your attention. It also comments on code quality and potential privacy issues.
Cynthia Says: http://www.cynthiasays.com/
This is a free online service to help you test the accessibility of individual Web pages. It analyzes your use of XHTML and brings accessibility issues to your attention.
WAVE: http://wave.webaim.org/index.jsp
This is a free online service to help you test the accessibility of individual Web pages. You can test pages that have already been published on the Web by submitting their URL, uploading the page from your hard disk, or using a downloadable toolbar for your browser.
Hermish: http://www.hermish.com/
This is a free online service to help you test the accessibility of individual Web pages. You can decide which accessibility priority level you wish to meet and/or check against Section 508 requirements. Hermish also offers the ability to test the accessibility of aribtrary combinations of foreground and background colors.
Colorblind Web Page Filter: http://colorfilter.wickline.org/
A free tool to help Web designers approximate what their designs will look like to users with various types of color blindness. Keep in mind, however, that since every individual’s vision is unique, this tool can offer only approximations.
Recent Accessibility Articles on Accesskeys: http://www.wats.ca/articles/accesskeys
A collection of several articles on the subject of using the accesskey attribute.

Usability, interface and architecture

Fundamentally, all Web sites are interfaces to information. That information must be carefully organized and the interface must be usable in order for the site to make sense to the user. If a site does not make sense to its users, they will simply not use it. The sites listed below will help educate and enlighten you with respect to these essential components of Web design.

Boxes and Arrows: http://boxesandarrows.com/
A large and professional site dealing with all aspects of information architecture and user interface design.
Useit.com: http://www.useit.com/
Jakob Nielsen is a widely recognized, and occasionally controversial, thinker and expert in the field of Web usability. His Useit Web site is a treasure trove of educational resources in this area.

Web design resources

The links below lead to general resources for Web designers. They include online magazines, inspiration galleries and subject clearinghouses, articles and pretty much anything else that doesn’t fit under any of the other categories on this page.

Design Festival: http://designfestival.com/
A blog on topics of interest to Web designers from the folks at Sitepoint publishing.
W3Schools Online Web Tutorials: http://www.w3schools.com/
A huge collection of tutorials covering all aspects of Web design and development. This is a great resource for both beginning and experienced Web designers.
Website Tips: http://www.websitetips.com/
An educational resource for Web designers, including tutorials, articles and links.
Code Style: http://www.codestyle.org/index.shtml
Code Style is dedicated to acting as a resource to Web designers utilizing open standards.
StyleGala: http://www.stylegala.com/
An online publication dealing with Web design and standards. Includes an extensive gallery useful for design inspiration.
The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer…: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html
The full title of this article by Joel Spolsky is The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!), which pretty much says it all. Since it was written for programmers, it’s fairly technical, but if you’re interested it provides very useful background.

Hacks, tricks and workarounds

The process of Web design often requires the use of tricks or fixes to deal with various browser bugs, deficiencies and idiosyncracies. The resources below offer guidance with how to understand the problems and implement fixes.

Workarounds: http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/workarounds.html
A list of commonly encountered (often browser-specific) CSS problems and their workarounds (where available).

Position is Everything: http://www.positioniseverything.net/
A site dedicated to explaining CSS, with a particular emphasis on working around browser bugs and idiosyncracies.
Fixed.js Module: http://www.doxdesk.com/software/js/fixed.html
A useful JavaScript module for working around the lack of support for fixed positioning in IE/Win6 and earlier.
Making Internet Explorer use background-attachment: fixed: http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/fixedBackground.html
A JavaScript-based workaround for the lack of support for fixed background image attachment in IE/Win6 and earlier. Notable for the creative use of the fixed background image technique for the headings of the page itself.
Box Model Hack: http://tantek.com/CSS/Examples/boxmodelhack.html
Tantek Çelik’s famous work-around for the IEWin5 bug that prevents the proper sizing of element boxes in CSS. This hack can be generalized for just about any situation where you need to feed different presentation instructions to IEWin5.
Simplified Box Model Hack: http://www.info.com.ph/~etan/w3pantheon/style/modifiedsbmh.html
Edwardson Tan’s simplified work-around for the IEWin5 bug that prevents the proper sizing of element boxes in CSS. This hack can be generalized for just about any situation where you need to feed different presentation instructions to IEWin5.

Tricking Browsers and Hiding Styles: http://www.ericmeyeroncss.com/bonus/trick-hide.html
An article by Eric Meyer presenting a variety of tricks for hiding some or all of the CSS for a page from non-supporting browsers.
Flash of Unstyled Content (FOUC): http://www.bluerobot.com/web/css/fouc.asp
Some versions of Internet Explorer for Windows may briefly display pages without their CSS formatting before replacing them with their styled version. This article explains the problem and describes a simple fix.
Containing Floats: http://www.complexspiral.com/publications/containing-floats/
An article by Eric Meyer explaining the correct, though sometimes unexpected, behavior that can result from floating elements within their containing blocks and how to deal with it to achieve the desired effect.
Clearing a Float Container without Source Markup: http://www.positioniseverything.net/easyclearing.html
An article explaining how to clear content beyond floated elements without adding unnecessary structural markup to your code.

Color

Color is an essential component of Web design. You will find several color-related tools listed under “Tools and resources” above. But in this section, you will find some useful resources to advance your understanding of color.

Color Matters: http://www.colormatters.com/
A comprehensive site dedicated to understanding color and its role in human perception.
Causes of Color: http://webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/
An educational site dedicated to a better understanding of color in the world around us.
Death of the Websafe Color Palette?: http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/00/37/index2a.html
A careful and technical empirical analysis of the Websafe palette to see just how “safe” it really is. The results are somewhat surprising, but fortunately the authors offer up several suggestions on how to deal with their results.

Typography

Typography is the art of designing textual communications. As such, it has a tremendously important role in the design of Web sites. I have provided links to useful tutorials, informative sites and resources for fonts.

Type Terms and Fundamentals: http://www.will-harris.com/type-fun.htm
A single page introduction to the essential typographic concepts you’ll need as a Web author.
Typographic: http://www.rsub.com/typographic/
It can be a little difficult to use at times, but this site is full of useful information. There are far more terms in the glossary than anyone but a professional typographer is ever likely to need, and a gallery of ideas on how you might employ type to better effect. The studies provided are definitely worth a look!
Counterspace: http://counterspace.motivo.com/
This elegantly concise interactive presentation will introduce you to the fundamental concepts and terminology of type.
Choosing and Using Type: http://www.will-harris.com/use-type.htm
This is an excellent article to guide you in choosing the appropriate typeface for a given task. It doesn’t attempt to tell you which typeface to use, but rather how best to arrive at an appropriate choice.
Font Size: http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=FontSize
Links to several other pages that discuss font sizing choices and techniques.
Relative Font Sizes and Inheritance: http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/relative/
An article by Russ Weakley explaining the ins and outs of relative font sizing techniques.
Size Matters: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/sizematters
An article by Todd Fahrner covering the ins and outs of font sizing with CSS.
Fonts, Font Resources and Programs: http://www.websitetips.com/fonts/
Website Tips’ main page for fonts and font-related resources. A wealth of fonts and information is available from this starting point.
Type: The Extra Mile: http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2004/01/18/type_the_ext/
An article by Dave Shea explaining how to optimize anti-aliased text by adjusting the kerning.
Fontastic!: http://rover.vistecprivat.de/~kikita/
If you are looking for the “perfect” font for a particular job but have little or no budget, try this index of freeware and shareware typefaces. Note that while all the typefaces listed in this index are free to download, they are not necessarily free to use. Be sure you understand the licensing agreements of any typeface you intend to use. Also, keep in mind that most of these fonts are not likely to be installed on an average user’s machine, so they’re probably best-suited to use in graphics. If by some chance you can’t find what you seek here, try the links page for even more resources!
Identifont: http://www.identifont.com/
A great set of tools. One attempts to identify a font by asking you a series of questions about it. This can be tremendously useful when trying to match a font in an existing image. Another lets you enter a font name and shows you a sample. There is also a collection of downloadable fonts available.
MyFonts: http://www.myfonts.com/
This site sells fonts, many at quite reasonable prices. They offer a font search tool as well as previews of the fonts in their extensive inventory.
Georgia & Verdana: http://www.will-harris.com/verdana-georgia.htm
Georgia and Verdana are the two most widely installed typefaces designed especially for on-screen using. This article provides you with a better understanding of why these two fonts work so well for the Web.
Kiwi Media’s Font Archive: http://www.kiwi-media.com/fonts.html
Several downloadable fonts from a variety of categories. Most are offered for very reasonable shareware fees and may be available for free to students for non-commercial use.
Code Style Font Survey Results: http://www.codestyle.org/css/font-family/sampler-CombinedResultsFull.shtml
Combined results of a survey of which fonts are installed on users’ systems. Includes results for Windows, Macintosh and Linux users. Useful for deciding the likelihood that fonts you choose will be available to users.
Microsoft Typography - Fonts and Products: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/default.aspx
Information from Microsoft about which fonts are typically included and installed with which products. Useful for estimating the likelihood of specific fonts being available based upon the popularity of specific software products.
The Trouble with EM ’n EN (and Other Shady Characters): http://www.alistapart.com/articles/emen
An article by Peter K. Sheerin that explains the technical aspects and proper use of many commonly useful character entities.
sIFR 2.0: Rich Accessible Typography for the Masses: http://www.mikeindustries.com/sifr/
Scalable Inman Flash Replacement uses a combination of JavaScript, CSS and Flash in order to allow the use of specific fonts for display type on Web pages without concern about whether or not those fonts are installed on the client machine.

Legal issues

Web designers must understand certain aspects of the law, especially copyright and accessibility issues. The links below will help educate you and/or get you thinking about the possibilities.

U.S. Copyright Office: http://www.copyright.gov/
A great resource for information about the copyright laws in the United States.
Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting creators with the legalities of publishing their works in a more open and accessible manner than is commonly utilized. They also provide assistance in locating works that have been published under this more permissive agreement.

Information Technology 502

Intermediate Web Design

Sections 1 & 2, Spring 2012