Yesterday, Cameron Koczon shared a link to the dingbat font, Pictos, by the talented, Drew Wilson. Cameron predicted that dingbats will soon be everywhere. Symbol fonts, yes, I thought. Dingbats? No, thanks. Jason Santa Maria replied:

@FictiveCameron I hope not, dingbat fonts sort of spit in the face of accessibility and semantics at the moment. We need better options.

Jason rightly pointed out the accessibility and semantic problems with dingbats. By mapping icons to letters or numbers in the character map, they are represented on the page by that icon. That’s what Pictos does. For example, by typing an ‘a’ on your keyboard, and setting Pictos as the font-face for that letter, the Pictos anchor icon is displayed.

Other folks suggested SVG and JS might be better, and other more novel workarounds to hide content from assistive technology like screen readers. All interesting, but either not workable in my view, or just a bit awkward.

Falling down with CSS text-replacement

A CSS solution in an article from Pictos creator, Drew Wilson, relies on the fact that most of his icons are mapped to a character that forms part of the common name for that symbol. The article uses the delete icon as an example which is mapped to ‘d’. Using :before and :after pseudo-elements, Drew suggests you can kind-of wrangle the markup into something sort-of semantic. However, it starts to fall down fast. For example, a check mark (tick) is mapped to ‘3’. There’s nothing semantic about that. Clever replacement techniques just hide the evidence. It’s a hack. There’s nothing wrong with a hack here and there (as box model veterans well know) but the ends have to justify the means. The end of this story is not good as a VoiceOver test by Scott at Filament Group shows. In fairness to Drew Wilson, though, he goes on to say if in doubt, do it the old way, using his font to create a background image and deploy with a negative text-indent.

I agreed with Jason, and mentioned a half-formed idea:

@jasonsantamaria that’s exactly what I was thinking. Proper unicode mapping if possible, perhaps?

The conversation continued, and thanks to Jason, helped me refine the idea into this post.

Jon Hicks flagged a common problem for some Windows users where certain Unicode characters are displayed as ‘missing character’ glyphs depending on what character it is. I think most of the problems with dingbats or missing Unicode characters can be solved with web fonts and Unicode.

Rising with Unicode and web fonts

I’d love to be able to use custom icons via optimised web fonts. I want to do so accessibly and semantically, and have optimised font files. This is how it could be done:

1. Map the icons in the font to the existing Unicode code points for those symbols wherever possible.

   Unicode code points already exist for many common symbols. Fonts could be tiny, fast, stand-alone symbol fonts. Existing typefaces could also be extended to contain symbols that match the style of individual widths, variants, slopes, and weights. Imagine a set of Clarendon or Gotham symbols for a moment. Wouldn’t that be a joy to behold?

   There may be a possibility that private code points could be used if a code-point does not exist for a symbol we need. Type designers, iconographers, and foundries might agree a common set of extended symbols. Alternatively, they could be proposed for inclusion in Unicode.

2. Include the font with font-face.

   This assumes ubiquitous support (as any use of dingbats does) — we’re very nearly there. WOFF is coming to Safari and with a bit more campaigning we may even see WOFF on iPad soon.

3. In HTML, reference the Unicode code points in UTF-8 using numeric character references.

   Unicode characters have corresponding numerical references. Named entities may not be rendered by XML parsers. Sean Coates reminded me that in many Cocoa apps in OS X the character map is accessible via a simple CMD+ALT+t shortcut. Ralf Herrmann mentioned that unicode characters ‘…have “speaking” descriptions (like Leftwards Arrow) and fall back nicely to system fonts.’

Limitations

1. Accessibility: Limited Unicode / entity support in assistive devices.

   My friend and colleague, Jon Gibbins’s old tests in JAWS 7 show some of the inconsistencies. It seems some characters are read out, some ignored completely, and some read as a question mark. Not great, but perhaps Jon will post more about this in the future.

   Elizabeth Pyatt at Penn State university did some dingbat tests in screen readers. For real Unicode symbols, there are pronunciation files that increase the character repertoire of screen readers, like this file for phonetic characters. Symbols would benefit from one.

2. Web fonts: font-face not supported.

   If font-face is not supported on certain devices like mobile phones, falling back to system fonts is problematic. Unicode symbols may not be present in any system fonts. If they are, for many designers, they will almost certainly be stylistically suboptimal. It is possible to detect font-face using the Paul Irish technique. Perhaps there could be a way to swap Unicode for images if font-face is not present.

Now, next, and a caveat

I can’t recommend using dingbats like Pictos, but the icons sure are useful as images. Beautifully crafted icon sets as carefully crafted fonts could be very useful for rapidly creating image icons for different resolution devices like the iPhone 4, and iPad.

Perhaps we could try and formulate a standard set of commonly used icons using the Unicode symbols range as a starting point. I’ve struggled to find a better visual list of the existing symbols than this Unicode symbol chart from Johannes Knabe.

Icons in fonts as Unicode symbols needs further testing in assistive devices and using font-face.

Last, but not least, I feel a bit cheeky making these suggestions. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Combine it with a bit of imagination, and it can be lethal. I have a limited knowledge about how fonts are created, and about Unicode. The real work would be done by others with deeper knowledge than I. I’d be fascinated to hear from Unicode, accessibility, or font experts to see if this is possible. I hope so. It feels to me like a much more elegant and sustainable solution for scalable icons than dingbat fonts.

For more on Unicode, read this long, but excellent, article recommended by my colleague, Andrei, the architect of Unicode and internationalization support in PHP 6: The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets.

Fonterra has opened a new A$6 million ricotta manufacturing plant in north central Victoria that will deliver global opportunities for the Victorian dairy industry. Built with $250,000 grant from the Victorian Government, the Perfect Italiano Ricotta project demonstrates Fonterra’s ongoing commitment to maintaining a presence in northern Victoria and boosts the company’s Stanhope workforce to 126.

Google Fonts - Different emoticons are shown when no fonts are found.

/via Thomas Park

Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni had no sympathy for illegal miners trapped in a shaft in Stilfontein, saying it is not the government's job to retrieve the bodies of criminals, and law enforcement officers' lives should not be risked to help criminals.

Concerned residents of Stilfontein rolled up their sleeves under police watch, and by 13:00 on Wednesday had pulled out three illegal miners among the estimated thousands who are stuck underground at the closed gold mine.

Community leaders in South Africa met with SportsLink to discuss how coaches can impact the fatherless in Randfontein.

Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?

1 – A new form of ransomware centers on a fake font update.

complete article

If you use a font that the recipient is unlike to have, select Files > Proprties > Font > Embed fonts in the document before exporting to PDF. Note that embedding will vastly increase the file size if you you have a large number of fonts.

Lors de l'Exposition internationale d'importation de la Chine (CIIE) de cette ann�e � Shanghai, Ghazaryan Koryun, conseiller commercial � l'Ambassade d'Arm�nie en Chine, a pr�sent� aux visiteurs, dans un chinois courant, les vins et fruits de grande...

कम्प्यूटर - मोबाइल चलाउने सबैले एकपटक पढनैपर्ने

हालै गरिएको एक अध्ययनले जनाए अनुसार
मोबाइलमा घण्टौं कुराकानी गर्नाले
तपाइँलाइ एग्रेसिव बनाउँने देखाएको छ ।
यदि तपाइँ
घण्टौं कम्प्यूटरको अगाडी बसिरहनु हुन्छ भने,
तपाइले स्वास्थ्य संग जोडिएका निकै
समस्याहरूको सामना गर्नुपर्ने हुन्छ ।
इन्टरनेट सर्फिङ गर्नु तपाइँलाइ
राम्रो लाग्छ होला, तर ध्यान राख्नुस यसले
तपाइँलाइ समस्यामा पनि पार्न सक्दछ । एक
ठुलो अस्पतालका आँखाका डक्टर डा. ए. के.
ग्रोवरका अनुसार निकै तिव्र टाउको दुखाइ,
आंखा रातो हुनु, आंखामा सुख्पन, गर्दन, पीठ्यु र
काँधमा लगातार पीडा जस्ता समस्याहरू
कम्प्युटर र ल्यापटप जस्ता इलेक्ट्रोनिक
ग्याजेट्समा लगातार काम गर्नाले भैरहेको छ ।
एक्सपर्ट्सका अनुसार त
कम्प्यूटरको स्क्रीनमा लगातार आंखा लगाइ
राख्नाले आंखामा ड्राई आई सिन्ड्रोम
नामको रोग पनि हुने गर्दछ ।
प्रयाजसो मानिसहरू टेन्शन, माइग्रेन
अथवा वर्क लोडको कारणले यस्तो हुने
सोच्दछन, तर यसको मुख्य कारण भने कम्प्यूटर
भिजन सिन्ड्रोम (सीवीएस) नै हो । खास
कुरा के भने यो समस्या हरेक बर्ष ६ देखि ७
प्रतिशत बढिरहेको छ ।
क्यालिफोर्निया यूनिभर्सिटीको एक
स्टडीलाइ हेर्ने हो भने, ७० प्रतिशत
भन्दा धेरै कम्प्यूटर यूजर्सलाइ बिशेष
किसिमको चस्माको आवश्यकता पर्ने गर्दछ ।
कुरा– कुरामा रिस उठनु यदि तपाइँ लगातार
मोबाइलको की- बोर्डमा औला दौडाइरहनु
हुन्छ भने, तपाइलाइ नजानिदो तरिकाले
‘कर्पल टनल सिन्ड्रोम’ नामको रोगले ग्रष्त
बनाउन सक्दछ । भलै तपाइलाइ म्यासेजिङले
अर्को व्यक्तिसंग कनेक्ट गरि राख्दछ । तर यस
कृयाकलापले तपाइको आंखाको साथ- साथै
औला तथा हातलाइ समेत नोक्सान पुर्याउन
सक्दछ । मोबाइलमा गेम खेल्ने
बेला वा एसएमएस गर्ने समय
मानिसहरूको औला निकै प्रयोग हुने गर्दछ ।
औलालाइ पटक पटक प्रेसरमा ल्याइरहँदा यसले
नसामा समेत असर पर्न सक्दछ । हात
झम्झमाउने,
कुनैपनि कुरा पक्रँदा कमजोरी तथा हात काँध
सम्म पुर्याउँदा पीडा हुने कारण
पनि यहि हो । हल्याण्डको एक
यूनिभर्सिटीमा २००
जना मानिसहरूमा गरिएको एक रिसर्च
पछि यो कुरा पत्ता लागेको हो ।
मोबाइलको प्रयोग धेरै गर्ने मानिसहरू निकै
चिडचिडेपनाको शिकार भएका छन् ।
यसो हुनुमा मोबाइलको धेरै प्रयोगनै मुख्य
रहेको कुरा डक्टरहरूले बताएका छन् ।
पेटको समस्या हुन सक्दछ एक रिसर्चमा देखिए
अनुसार मोबाइल फोनमा ट्वाइलेटको फ्लश
ह्याण्डलमा भन्दा पनि १८
गुणा बढि हानिकारक ब्याक्टेरिया हुने
गर्दछन् । समाचारपत्र डेली मेलका अनुसार,
जांचबाट फोनमा पनि निकै खतरनाक
ब्याक्टेरिया हुने गर्दछन पत्ता लागिसकेको छ
। यसै कारणले फोन प्रयोगकर्तालाइ पेट
सम्बन्धी गम्भीर रोगी हुने आशंका धेरै हुने
गर्दछ । रिपोर्टमा बताइए अनुसार
ब्रिटेनमा मात्र प्रयोग गरिएको ६.३ करोड
मोबाइल फोनमध्ये १.४७ करोड यूजर्सलाइ
स्वास्थ्य सम्बन्धी समस्या पाइएको छ ।
रिसर्च टीममा काम गरिरहेका केरी स्टेनवेले
बताए अनुसार मोबाइल फोनलाइ
यता उता राख्नाले त्यसमा ब्याक्टेरियाहरू
बस्ने गर्दछन् ।
त्यहि ब्याक्टेरिया हाम्रो हात सम्म
आइपुग्दछ । जसका कारण
हाम्रो स्वास्थ्यमा ती ब्याक्टेरिया सिधै
प्रवेश गर्न सक्दछन् । घण्टौं आँखाले नहेर्नुस यस
रिसर्चमा काम गर्ने हेल्थ एक्सपर्ट जिम
फ्रान्सिजले बताए अनुसार तपाइँ
आफ्नो आंखाको क्षमता भन्दा धेरै काम
गर्नुहुन्छ, यसले भिडियो डिस्प्ले टर्मिनल
(भिडीटी) हुने खतरा कयौं गुणाले बढ्ने गर्दछ ।
एक अध्ययन अनुसार
घण्टौं कम्प्यूटरको स्क्रीनमा आंखा लगाइ
राख्नाले हाम्रो आंखाका लागि अननेचरल
सिचुएशन हुने गर्दछ । हाम्रो आंखा र ब्रेनले
प्रिन्टेट चीजहरूलाइ जस्तो रूपले हेर्ने गर्दछन,
त्यसको तुलनामा स्क्रीनमा हेर्दा फरक
प्रतिक्रिया दिने गर्दछ । जसका कारणले
मानिसमा सीवीसी हुने गर्दछ । अर्का आई
स्पेशलिस्ट डक्टरका अनुसार लामो समय सम्म
स्क्रीन अगाडी बस्नाले निकै इनर्जी खर्च हुने
गर्दछ, जुन आंखाका लागी निकै च्यालेन्ज पूर्ण
हुने गर्दछ । दोश्रो कम्प्यूटरमा काम गर्ने
क्रममा आँखा कम झिम्कने गर्दछ ।
प्रायजसो एक मिनेटमा १४ पटक
आँखा झिम्काइन्छ । तर
कम्प्यूटरको प्रयोगका बेला
हामी ४ देखि ६ पटक मात्र आँखा झिम्क्याउने
गर्दछौं । यसका कारण आंखामा स्व्इलिङ र
मोतिबिन्दु जस्ता समस्याहरू आउँदछन् ।
केही कुरामा ध्यान राखौं आफ्नो कम्प्युटर
स्क्रीनको कन्ट्रास्ट र ब्राइटनेसलाइ नर्मल
राख्नुस । छिटो छिटो आँखा झिम्क्याउने गर्नुस
। केही बेरको अन्तरमा आंखालाइ
केही सेकेण्डका लागी बन्द गर्ने गर्नुस ।
यस्तो गर्दा तपाइँको आंखालाइ आराम पुग्दछ ।
यस्तो कार्य हरेक ३० मिनेटमा गर्ने गर्नुस ।
कम्प्यूटर यूजर्सका लागी बनाइएको स्पेशल
चश्माको प्रयोग गर्नुहोस ।
यो चस्मा ती मानिसहरूका लागी बनाइएको हो
, जो मानिसहरू लामो समय सम्म
कम्प्युटरमा बसेर काम गर्ने गर्दछन् । के भन्दछ
त रिसर्च ? लण्डन यूनिभर्सिटीको एक रिसर्च
अनुसार, जो मानिस कम्प्युटरमा ४
घण्टा भन्दा बढि समय बितउँदछन, उनीहरूलाइ
अन्य मानिसको तुलनामा १२५ प्रटिशत धेरै
हृदय सम्बन्धी रोगहरू लाग्ने सम्भावना रहन्छ
। रिसर्चबाट कम्प्यूटरमा धरै समय बिताउने
मानिसहरूलाइ मृत्यु हुने खतरा अन्य
मानिसहरूको तुलनामा ४५ प्रतिशत धेरै हुने
गर्दछ ।
यदि तपाइँ हरेक दिन ४ घण्टा भन्दा धेरै
मोबाइलमा कुरा गर्नुहुन्छ भने तपाइँको ब्यवहार एग्रेसिभ हुने गर्दछ ।

क्यालिफोर्निया यूनिभर्सिटी बर्कलेको एक
अध्ययन अनुसार, ७० प्रतिशत भन्दा धेरै
कम्प्यूटर यूजर्सलाइ कम्प्यूटर चश्माको आवश्यकता पर्दछ।

हाम्रो पोस्ट मन परे लाइक शेयर गर्नु होला

Want to read faster and better? Switch to Lexend, a free font from Google that can significantly improve your reading speed without losing comprehension.

The post Want to Read Faster? Change your Default Font In Google Docs appeared first on Digital Inspiration.

20% off the font of the month

20% off the Font of the Month

A journey of transformation: creating a world-class landmark in Las Vegas.

Event date: November 24, 2024
Event Time: 10:00 AM - 03:00 PM
Location:
15556 Summit Ave
Fontana, CA 92336
Description:
Visit the Fontana Farmers' Market every Sundays! You can enjoy the many hot foods, produce, crafts, and unique accessories that are available.

Event date: November 21, 2024
Event Time: 03:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Location:
14501 Live Oak Ave
Fontana, CA 92337
Description:
Visit the Fontana Farmers' Market every Thursdays! You can enjoy the many hot foods, produce, crafts, and unique accessories that are available.

Event date: November 17, 2024
Event Time: 10:00 AM - 03:00 PM
Location:
15556 Summit Ave
Fontana, CA 92336
Description:
Visit the Fontana Farmers' Market every Sundays! You can enjoy the many hot foods, produce, crafts, and unique accessories that are available.

Event date: November 14, 2024
Event Time: 03:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Location:
14501 Live Oak Ave
Fontana, CA 92337
Description:
Visit the Fontana Farmers' Market every Thursdays! You can enjoy the many hot foods, produce, crafts, and unique accessories that are available.

When it comes to typing a message, font choice can sometimes add a creative touch to your work, but for mass media formats like newspapers, academic papers, TV and popular web sites, sticking to a legible font is often more important than the flourish of decorative fonts.

NZMP, Fonterra’s dairy ingredient and solutions brand, has launched a new carbonzero certified Organic Butter to the North American market.

Fonts from Graphicsauce.co will make your business to look more attractive and independent

The easy and compliant way that every theme developer should know.

Do you need some new fonts? Of course you do! I’ve just picked up this new fonts bundle at 90% off, reducing the $304 price to just $29 for all 17 typefaces. This is a great opportunity to upgrade your own font library with a range of new typefaces that you can call upon in […]

The post Just snagged this ‘Fontastic’ Fonts Bundle at 90% off! appeared first on Spoon Graphics.

View and Vote

View and Vote

Before we know it, the Christmas season will be here. Use our Top 39 Christmas Fonts for Festive Graphic Design to add some holiday cheer to your designs!

Selina Kyle returns to Gotham City as new socialite Holly Vanderhees, but she needs to outsmart rival Batwing to rise to the top of the city's criminal underbelly.

Applications of ITU-T G.9960, ITU-T G.9961 transceivers for Smart Grid applications: Advanced metering infrastructure, energy management in the home and electric vehicles
[Superseded]

Operation of G.hn technology over access and in-premises phone line medium [Superseded]

QSTP-TEST-UE-MS - Guideline for general test procedure and specification for measurements of the LTE, 3G/2G user equipment/mobile stations (UE/MS) for over-the-air performance testing [Withdrawn]
Withdrawn and transferred to ITU-R for further enhancement

FSTP-ACC.WebVRI - Guideline on web-based remote sign language interpretation or video remote interpretation (VRI) system [Superseded]

LSTP-GLSR Guide on the use of ITU-T L-series Recommendations related to optical technologies for outside plant [Superseded]

Read the book, Typographic Firsts

Steven Heller takes a closer look at the Sisters font family, designed by Laura Meseguer.

The post Steven Heller’s Font of the Month: Sisters appeared first on I Love Typography.

Read the book, Typographic Firsts

Steven Heller takes a closer look at the Doublethink font family, from Barnbrook Fonts.

The post Steven Heller’s Font of the Month: Doublethink appeared first on I Love Typography.

Read the book, Typographic Firsts

Steven Heller takes a closer look at Jamie Clarke’s 3D Rig Solid font family.

The post Steven Heller’s Font of the Month: Rig Solid appeared first on I Love Typography.

Read the book, Typographic Firsts

This month, Steven Heller takes a closer look at the Exentrica font family.

The post Steven Heller’s Font of the Month: Exentrica appeared first on I Love Typography.

Read the book, Typographic Firsts

How important are fonts in user interface and user experience design? We have the answers in this monster edition of Expert Lists authored by typography expert Johannes López Ayala. Johannes shares 16 font families that he recommends for use in UI/UX design.

The post Expert Lists: Fonts for UI/UX design appeared first on I Love Typography.

Read the book, Typographic Firsts

This month, Steven Heller takes a closer look at the Roadhouse font family.

The post Steven Heller’s Font of the Month: Roadhouse appeared first on I Love Typography.

Durante la mañana de este sábado se ha localizado la cabeza y las extremidades del torso. Leer

Los investigadores barajan como móvil del crimen un motivo económico y no descartan más detenciones Leer

El equipo de Pedro Martínez lució crespones negros y unas camisetas de calentamiento con el lema 'Estem amb vosaltres' (Estamos con vosotros). Leer

She came in last out of nine in the 100M race.

In this co-curricular workshop series with Vivia Font, develop your acting chops! Geared towards students who want to continue developing their acting practice, as well as beginner students who are acting-curious. Drop-in; students may attend 1 session or all 8.

The SAS 9.4M4 (TS1M4) Hot Fix D7G004 for ODS Templates installs national language support (NLS) content regardless of whether the languages were installed during the initial deployment. Having sparse

Hi Cadence, 

I use simvision 20.09-s007 but my computer screen resolution is very high. As a result, the texts are too small. 

In ~/.simvision/Xdefaults I changed that number to 16, from 12. But the signal names in the waveform traces don't reflect the change. 

Simvision*Font: -adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--16-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Other .font changes seem to reflect on the simvision correctly, except the signal names. 

How do I fix that? I dont mind a single variable to change all the texts fonts to 16. 

Thank you!

PS: I found the answer with another post. I change Preference/Waveform/Display/Signal Height. 

Thanks to Sivakumar ji for the ID

The flowers of the snakeweed plant are popular with many butterflies, including the

Thanks to Sivakumar ji for correcting the ID.