readingtype

Two updates

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:10:00 +0000

Firstly, to brag about the conference I helped to organise at St Bride Library on 7 November. Entitled ‘Letterpress: a celebration’ the idea of the conference was to bring together people from across the surprisingly broad field of letterpress printing and let them get to know more about each other. We were privileged to get great speakers and exhibitors, sell out, and receive lots of complimentary comments.

Secondly, to mention the new version of the Open Font Library site [current version] which I spent much of October working on. It’s not by any means finished, but it’s looking good; we have worked hard to explain what the site is for and how to get involved, and provided some guidance on font formats and licensing.

Ed Trager is making a character viewer that enables users to get a preview of each font using any one of a gazillion keyboard layouts, so we will be able to go far beyond simply supporting the Latin alphabet. We also have a very simple @font-face CSS rule generator. The credit for the site’s good looks (at this stage of development) goes to my brother James, who did the visual design and wrote the CSS. Internet Dave raised funding for the work and held the project together. To stay up to date with progress, watch this space, or join the OFLB mailing list.

Dear MEPs:

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:12:00 +0000

I am a resident of Reading, Berkshire. I am writing to ask you to oppose proposals to allow European industries to be given free carbon-dioxide permits after the year 2013. This would send out entirely the wrong message - of double standards - to countries outside the European Union and within the EU it would fail to support the initiatives of businesses which are striving to find more environmentally-responsible ways to generate energy and carry out manufacturing.

The EU parliament's industry committee has already voted to end the free carbon-dioxide permits after 2013, but now exemptions are sought that will totally undermine this decision and negate the progress already made.

Effectively it would mean Europe giving up on its strong lead on global pollution reduction before anything has been achieved.

I do understand that there is a risk that large manufacturing companies will relocate to avoid the legislation, but I feel that this should be mitigated with efforts to encourage enterprises that will deliver pollution-reducing ideas and techniques. Why not insist that the big polluters sponsor these companies, so that both can receive rewards in the longer term?

I look forward to your upholding of the EU parliamentary industry committee's decision.

AFP: WWF bemoans attempts to water down EU's green targets
FT: Climate change fears after German opt-out
EU Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee

Walking backwards for Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:09:00 +0000

I went looking for some info about tax (not yet found) and ended up reading a brilliant article about freelancing by Phil Gyford [thanks to fidothe's delicious delicious links for that]. I hopped across from there to Matt Webb, mindhacker, who wrote well on the strange business of working out what to charge and how it can be influenced by the degree to which you think your work might benefit yourself or humanity.

This brought me back to my own situation, freelancing as I do: I’m writing a little software – developing an lightweight home automation interface at the moment – then also polishing the work of others, slotting in features, occasionally tutoring clients or the employees of clients, and quite often overtly using the information design and typography skills I learned at university. This is what is turning cogs in my head. But most of the social contacts I have are in the world of graphics and print history, because I volunteer for St Bride Library and that takes up most of my free time, some of my work time and certainly all my conference time.

I seem to be walking into the world of software facing backwards into the activities that were the springboard for that work, rather than forwards into the possibilities ahead. Like the goon I am, I suppose. And for how much longer?

A little more on font linking

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:02:00 +0000

I've just been playing with HTML font linking* using the info in the 2002 W3C Web Fonts Working Draft. Works beautifully. You specify the weight, style (regular/italic), and stretch (condensed/normal/expanded) - and off you go! For example:

@font-face {
  font-family: "DejaVu Serif";
  src: url("http://example.com/free-libre-font-files/dejavu-fonts-ttf-2.26/DejaVuSerif-Italic.ttf") format("TrueType");
  font-weight: 400;
  font-style: italic;
  font-stretch: normal;
}
@font-face {
  font-family: "DejaVu Serif";
  src: url("http://example.com/free-libre-font-files/dejavu-fonts-ttf-2.26/DejaVuSerif.ttf") format("TrueType");
  font-weight: 400;
  font-style: normal;
  font-stretch: normal;
}

body {
  font-family: "DejaVu Serif", serif;
}

And by magic, regular and italic variants will be found and used. Note how the two @font-face at-rules have the same font-family value, thus grouping them as one typeface.

OK, it's a little bit of work, but the indirection gives scope for future flexibility. Just remember kids: always read the licence!

Browsers: Firefox 3.1 (font-linking build) and Safari 3.1 on OS X.

Font linking comes to Firefox

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:31:00 +0000

After ~~eight~~ seven and a half years ;-)

You can try it out on Mac and Windows on a test build. Thanks :jtd!

Edit: can’t do maths.

Small worlds collide

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:27:00 +0000

http://www.myqsl.org/ vs http://www.mysql.org/. Amateur radio meets database development through the magic of the internet.

All your copyright are belong to us

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:46:00 +0000

Google Chrome Woops.

A look back at the Seeking Inspiration conference

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:06:00 +0000

I’ve just stuck this article, with very nice sketches done by the official conference illustrator, on the St Bride site. It might entice a few more folk along to the next event. We will then have to find more chairs. I don’t think that’s too much of a problem.

Type and Media students report

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:47:00 +0000

Nearly missed this one. My former housemate Gus has just completed the Type and Media masters at KABK in the Hague, and on Friday his classmates posted a rather good little roundup of the year’s activities with some atmospheric photos. Worth a look.

Party non-stop

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:33:00 +0000

I rather liked this status update from the Circle Line twitter feed.

Not just the ticket

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:36:00 +0000

It is sad to see that the last of the old ticket vending machines at Reading are being removed. Although even I can avoid being emotional over the loss of a ticket machine the truth is that the replacements are in some respects considerably inferior. From the software point of view, there is the decision to use an alphabetic rather than querty keyboard layout. Whatever its faults, to anybody who uses a keyboard the querty layout is far more familiar; I would guess the alphabetic layout is there because it means the ‘keys’ can be really big. I will accept that those who are fleet of vision should learn another skill if it means that those less able to see can use the keys, but I do wonder whether there was any user testing done, or if the mantra was simply ‘as big as will fit all 26 letters on the screen’.

The second thing that is bad – and much harder to fix – is the position of the card reader screen. It’s about four foot up and points directly forward. The rather dim liquid crystal display is behind reflective glass. If your eyes are four foot above ground, it is perfect. For the rest of us, it's very difficult to use. This is seemingly in direct contradiction of the spirit of that giant virtual keyboard on the main screen. And why can’t the messages from the card reader be shown there instead – why is a second screen needed?

A brief Apache 2.2.9/Subversion 1.4.6 diversion

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:04:00 +0000

If you read the SVN Book chapter on serving SVN via Apache 2 you will see very simple Apache 2.0 virtual host examples that are implicitly correct. They’re in a book, after all. Apache gives good error messages but the one I got when I set everything up following the second example, like so:



  DAV svn

  # any "/svn/foo" URL will map to a repository /usr/local/svn/foo
  SVNParentPath /usr/local/svn

read like this:

client denied by server configuration: /usr/htdocs

referring to a path that is nowhere in any of the .conf files for my Apache instance – it must be hardwired in somewhere, but I didn’t find out where.

I played about with permissions, to no avail*.

What I needed to do was add the conventional access controls, which of course might form part of the main Apache config on a given server (and therefore be inherited by the virtual host). In my case, and reflecting what’s happening gradually across all distributions and indeed the Apache source, there is much tighter security in the default configuration. Explicitly adding


Order allow,deny
Allow from all

(plus authorisation directives) got me back on track.



ServerName my.example.com

 DAV svn
 SVNParentPath /path/to/repositories
 Order allow,deny
 Allow from all
 AuthType Basic
 AuthName "Subversion repository"
 AuthUserFile /path/to/htpasswdfile
 Require valid-user

* this is Linux therefore whichever user will run the Apache process that serves the files needs to have read and write access to the repository and also read access to the parent directory, so check your group and world permissions on that directory.

Twitter: d’you follow…?

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:38:00 +0000

Is it just the wine, or is this genuinely incomprehensible?

Travel back to the eighties at Marylebone

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:31:00 +0000

In the eighties you would never have seen a rail operation like the Wrexham & Shropshire. But if blue and grey BR InterCity carriages make you nostalgic for your Hornby train set, how about a chance to ride in the real thing, on a ludicrously-short express train from Marylebone to the Welsh Marches and beyond. Three unprototypically-clean Mk3 coaches and a class 67 loco? OK, the engine's an anachronism, but Mr Hornby must have the boxed set ready to roll...

Are you the audiophile strain of geek? Stick this on your wishlist

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:13:00 +0000

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_transporter.html. Really rather nice piece of kit, I have to admit.

Revolving doors in the preservation of graphic communication

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:23:00 +0000

Two very loosely related news items to report.

Firstly the availability of a digitised archive of PS, the Preventative Maintenance Monthly, which was art directed by Will Eisner. The magazine, issued by the US army, is a fascinating and accomplished example of the use of comic book techniques in instructional materials. It is now available in digitised form through Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries. It’s not the only example of the use of this approach, but there are monthly issues over twenty years in the archive, giving a pretty big body of material. A gift for researchers and enthusiasts. Thanks to José de Souza, Infodesign-Café email list

Secondly the loss of the the Printing House Museum in Cockermouth, Cumbria, which has closed following the death of its founder David Winkworth about six months ago. The Printing House was an example of the kind of museum that you discover almost by accident; a private and fairly haphazard enthusiast’s collection rather than something put together along lines tramelled by formal collecting policies. Such museums can transform a rainy afternoon with a wealth of unexpected treasures. Perhaps because of the association with drizzly weather we like to think of these eclectic emporia as a very British institution, but of course they’re found all over the world.

When I visited about five years ago, the Printing House was run with timed tours throughout the day, so that the general public could learn (from David or one of his team, which I think included at least one member of the family) exactly what the selection of brooding machinery in the back of the stationery shop in the high street represented. The tour was concise and extremely well-informed.

It’s impossible to keep museums like this one going without the kind of determination and commitment that their founders possess, so naturally they perish in time. See them while you can; there are still hundreds around. And who knows when this kind of enterprise, which I think of as the preserve of a generation who grew up in the middle of the twentieth century, will be resurgent? The instinct to collect is strong, as eBay shows us. Matching this with the flair, creativity, enthusiasm and knowledge to display private collections is a much more rarified ability. Thanks to Paul Nash, Letpress email list

This kind of warning shouldn’t be needed on a web site

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:13:00 +0000

Validating your card details make take a few moments….. please be patient. Clicking the [submit] button again or refreshing the page will result in your card being debited twice.

Really, that’ s not good enough. Never mind the typo.

I love this title

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:30:00 +0000

The draft conference programme for ATypI 2008 has just been posted. It looks like a good one, and my favourite title has to be “...mean bastards, even though Matthew did some cool stuff for them...”. Matthew being type designer Matthew Carter – about whom attendees may learn more – while the chief subject of the talk is everybody’s favourite bête noir, Microsoft Corporation. Si Daniels (of Microsoft Typography) will not disappoint, I am sure.

Open Tech 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:19:00 +0000

I can’t do this because I’m at a wayzgoose in Witney, but it looks nicely varied, provocative and interesting.

My Del.icio.us tag cloud gets Wordled

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:48:00 +0000

Wordle seems to have done a good job of making my banale interests seem less so. Except for ‘imported’, a hitherto unsuspected tag category, which evidently got added to a whole load of bookmarks as they travelled between Netscape 4 and Safari – or was it Internet Explorer and Camino? – some years back…

Thanks to Jamie for the link to Wordle.

French ‘Moderne’ exhibition in Reading’s Typography department

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:38:00 +0000

This exhibition – curated by Ann Pillar – actually closed on 30 May, but it was still there during the annual students’ final displays of work. I took a closer look during the University’s open day the following weekend and, though it won’t be possible for others to see it, I’d like to record that it was a fantastic exhibition. The material shown was superb: it included a really lovely visual for a typical 1920s airbrush-style poster and enough magazines, books and type samples to give an excellent feel of the era. The captions were top-notch, always giving a good insight and context to the exhibits. A really great small show.
This link to the Department’s events page will eventually become irrelevant

Hypocracy 101

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:15:00 +0000

After lecturing people about not wasting money on large pointless projects, etc, etc, I have come into the ownership of an absolutely enormous and heavy pair of loudspeakers.

Sorry.

New fabrication from BMW

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:57:00 +0000

They’ve come up with a new concept car that offers a glimmer of hope to those who dream of a Chelsea tractor in tasteful burberry. With a zip.

Weekend activities

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:36:00 +0000

Shed freecycled.
JoLt brochure layout and typesetting begun, with Toby.
Web site updated (it's behind you!) with download links for current versions of my fonts.

Ban cluster bombs

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Weiner) — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:21:00 +0000

http://www.avaaz.org/en/ban_cluster_munitions/12.php?cl=91429987
(The UK, as ever, has dirty hands.)