You may have noticed a small grey box saying “Fonts from” in the bottom right of your browser window, which links to a page describing the fonts which are used on this site. This is part of the new Typekit service, which is able to implement a wide range of fonts into a website, giving designers more varied options when picking an appropriate font.

Traditionally, the “safe” fonts to use have been limited to a small number of common fonts which are installed on the popular operating systems, namely Mac OS and the Windows systems. Websites use the font files on the user’s machine, which lead to designers using the “font-family” attribute to display the fonts that they wish to use on the page, and due to this restriction the number of fonts were limited to these few common fonts. Recently, a technique referred to as @font-face enabled designers to upload fonts to their servers and link to them, which enabled a wider range of fonts to be used on websites. But the main problem with this solution was that not all fonts were legally allowed to be used by this technique, and also it was very easy for people to look at the source code and then download the font for themselves. This meant that even if it was legal for a paid font to be used with @font-face, it could be illegally downloaded very easily.

Typekit however is a new approach entirely which has the backing of the major font foundries and uses some JavaScript to display the fonts onto the site, meaning that fonts are not stored on the site server and can’t be illegally downloaded. This approach is more appealing to the foundries as they are able to have more control over their fonts, and the subscription plans mean that they will get a financial reward for their efforts.

Typekit is still in an invite-only beta phase and after attending FOWD Glasgow, I received an invite last week and subsequently signed up for the free subscription and so far I’m impressed. It’s so easy to use, there are a wide range of few fonts even on the free package, although this number will increase in the paid packages. In order to use the service, a user just has to login and create a “kit” before browsing the available fonts to add to that kit.

Once the desired fonts have been added, and it’s possible to add several fonts to each kit, the user is given or can select CSS classes which the fonts will be applied to before inserting these into the site code. After adding the 2 lines of javascript to the page header which applies the fonts then that’s it complete and the new fonts are added to the page. As these are alternate fonts, by still using the font-family and @font-face attribute then non-JavaScript users will still see an appropriate font and their experience will still be attractive.

The only slight notice is that on the free account it’s not possible to remove the badge that can be seen, and there can be a slight “flicker” as the original fonts are loaded and then the Typekit fonts are added in later, although it’s only a split second and certainly worth it for the benefit that it brings.

Overall my first impressions are very good and will consider upgrading to one of the paid accounts in time and once it is worthwhile for me to do so.

This is just the latest tool in the fight to bring IE up to the levels of other browsers, although I wonder how much of an impact this will have on the web. I can certainly see how it might affect makers of web apps as it will help to bring a more consistent approach to their app if exactly the same features work in IE as the other browsers, and it will certainly save time in de-bugging IE but in terms of general websites I wonder how much of an impact it will have.

The biggest difference this will make is when used within IE6, but how many IE6 users will download this plugin. Home users who haven’t upgraded either aren’t aware that they can upgrade ordon’t know how, and if they haven’t upgraded their browser are they really going to download and install a plugin? I seriously doubt that they are, and although it’s easy to implement for all of us who build websites, I don’t think that it’s going to have a huge uptake amongst general web users. Corporate users of IE6 are probably still using that browser as they have no choice, and aren’t allowed to upgrade to anything else.

It will provide a useful tool to include in a site build to catch those users who do have the plugin installed, but it just feels generally like a solution that’s looking for a problem really.

What do you think about Google Chrome Frame? Good idea or bad?

The full story can be read over on his site and much better than I could explain it but it certainly something that needs highlighting in the hope that he can find a solution to his predicament.There’s also a defence fund being set up for him over at savejon.net

It just highlights that in this day and age people still think that if it’s on the internet it is free and can be copied whenever they want.

As can be seen in my sidebar, I have a twitter account and usually send several “tweets” each day. When I first started using Twitter I had much less followers and wasn’t following as many people as I am now, and I was happy with that as I was still working out what the service was and it’s uses. These days however, I’m following more people and having more conversations and it has proven useful in the past when asking questions and receiving advice both from people I follow and from others. However, I’ve noticed that some people I’ve had to stop following because of the sheer volume of their tweets has made all the other ones get lost in the crowd.

It’s not that I want to stop following these people, as they are useful people to follow but I find that I just can’t keep up with the sheer number of messages if I haven’t checked in a couple of hours. And if this is happening to me who is following around 30 people, how do others cope who follow a lot more than me? Is there a way to filter out and “seek” the tweets from people that you want insted of trawling through until you find them amongst the others? Is there a third party application such as Twhirl that could help with this?

I’m not complaining about Twitter as I do like the service but sometimes it can feel like information overkill if conversations are going on around me, and that can be off putting.

So how do others cope with a high volume of received tweets?

Yesterday I visited the local Software Freedom Day event here in Dundee, and I was impressed with what was available. I think that the whole web industry is moving towards open source software, and went along to see what things were on offer. We all know that the biggest and most common instance of open source software within the internet industry is Mozilla Firefox, but there is so much other items of software available.

It was interesting to see the wide range of software packages available, which ranged from graphics packages to office software and everything in between. The most interesting outcome of the day for me was when I received a Linux Ubuntu disk, as I’ve very little experience of that particular operating system. I’ve seen people use it and have obviously read about it over the years but I’ve little personal experience. One technique I picked up was to install it using a Virtual Box, which enables the new system to be installed on a machine virtually so that it doesn’t affect the original operating system. This seems like a good way of trying out Linux knowing that I can always revert back without too much risk.

What do the current Linux users think? Should I jump over from Windows?

As any web developer will know, trying to create aesthetically pleasing sites which fit into all these browsers is a challenge, with Internet Explorer 6 being the worst of the lot due to the way that it handles code and styles. As a beginner, I’ve had little experience of altering a site specifically in order to suit Internet Explorer 6 (lucky me!). Large organisations are often the last to change software due to perceived security issues but I feel that the time has come for us to help them along by refusing to cater for IE 6 users anymore, and if the majority of developers do likewise then slowly but surely Internet Explorer 6′s market share will begin to drop completely.

Do you support Internet Explorer 6?

I was a little daunted before I get there as I can be shy in new situations and these events are all about meeting new people and generating conversation so I wasn’t sure how it would go. As it turned out everyone was friendly and I met a range of interesting people who spoke to me about subjects ranging from mobile web development to producing TV adverts. A few of the people that I spoke to were also there for the first time and it was good to speak to other “newbies” as I felt like less of an invader to the event.

Overall I enjoyed going along to Old Broadcasting House and will be going back again next month.

It will be a topic that is covered when I go to University in Dundee this summer, but I’d be interested in using some PHP in a personal project this summer before I go. Nothing fancy, but just so I’m able to understand the principles. I already have this book which I’m slowly working through, and I’ve recently discovered this tutorial site which I will take a look at, but wondered if there were any other recommendations that people have?

1. Web Developer Toolbar

I couldn’t live without this toolbar in Firefox as it can literally analyse every part of a website from the image details, CSS styling and div order. It has come in immensely handy when developing sites as it clearly outlies the different areas of the site whilst still displaying the site.

2. FireFTP

What I consider to be one of the best FTP clients available at the moment, it couldn’t be simpler to use. Local files are displayed on the left and the server files displayed on the right, with transfers executed at the click of a button. Connections are created by entering a few simple details provided by your web host and each time that connection is required it requires only a single click. I use this plugin on a daily basis to manage a number of sites and can’t find fault with it.

3. Autofill Forms

This is a great timesaver when registering on new forums or websites, as all your personal details are stored within this plugin and entered into the relevant fields at the touch of a button. It saves on having to re-enter the same details time and again on each new website that we register for.

4. Firebug

Quite similar to the web development toolbar in that this allows for the display of the web pages structure such as HTML code and style attributes whilst looking at the site. One advantage that it has over the toolbar is that HTML and CSS are displayed simultaneously giving more of an overview of the page as a whole. However, I feel that it contains less features such as image manipulation and outlining capabilities of the web development toolbar.

5. Themes

OK, so not technically a plugin but if you’re like me and like to have your web apps all shiny and nice looking then themes are the best place to go for that! Almost any style can be applied from Mac styles to your favourite sports to retro styles. Easily downloaded and switches you could have hours of fun browsing the different themes available

With the release of Internet Explorer 8 recently could we see the start of a browser war between the two? I doubt it as Firefox appears more popular amongst the development community and individuals within the industry, but IE will always have a huge say due to it being packaged with the Windows Operating Systems and the majority of Internet users happy browsing with Internet Explorer.

I can’t see myself changing from Firefox though now that I am used to it and love the plug-ins which are available, such as FireFTP.