There is a lot of ambiguity when it comes to writing semantic markup in HTML: to what extent should we markup data? How semantically detailed do we need to be? While there is no specific rule of thumb, I will say that the less the better. When writing markup, be as clean as possible without losing meaning. Much like how The Elements of Style emphasizes brevity in writing - a sentence should use as few words as possible without losing it’s meaning - an html document should use as little markup as possible without breaking the context of it’s content.
Letting The Page ‘Breath’.
I’m continuing my way through Robert Bringhurst’s book and at a slow pace. The Elements of Typographic Style is so rich with information that I can only read it in spurts of a few pages and often have to re-read to let the full lesson sink in. Lately, I’ve become very intrigued by how he describes rhythm in the text layout and the concept of how a page must ‘breath’.
It’s CSS Naked Day!
Today’s the big day! I’ve turned off my style sheets in honor of CSS naked day! Aside from the sIFR, which I’m not going to disable for this, you are seeing the pure semantic HTML markup of this site. This ties into a series of posts I started earlier this week on semantic HTML. More to come soon
Typography Basics.
Robert Bringhurst’s book “The Elements of Typographic Style” is an invaluable resource to any print or web designer currently practicing. I purchased this book a while back, and now sitting in the airport after SxSWi, I’ve finally gotten a chance to examine it in detail. Here are some important teachings I’ve gotten so far.