Go to main content

Textpattern CMS support forum

You are not logged in. Register | Login | Help

#1 2007-06-09 19:27:09

ardilla
Member
From: California, USA
Registered: 2007-06-09
Posts: 11
Website

[textile] Ampersands in headings.

I remember reading somewhere (probably webtypography.net) that article titles/headings should use the “best possible ampersand.” I suppose Textile could have an added feature that converts all ampersands inside h1~h6’s into <span class="amp">&amp;</span> automatically, maybe even go so far as to convert all the “and” (as in the word) into ampersands too.

Last edited by ardilla (2007-06-09 19:27:38)

Offline

#2 2007-06-09 19:41:42

Jeremie
Member
From: Provence, France
Registered: 2004-08-11
Posts: 1,578
Website

Re: [textile] Ampersands in headings.

Erh….

Why?

Offline

#3 2007-06-09 22:32:14

ardilla
Member
From: California, USA
Registered: 2007-06-09
Posts: 11
Website

Re: [textile] Ampersands in headings.

Um… so that people can specify a different typeface (for the better ampersand) in their stylesheets?

Same reason why Textile adds <span class="caps"> — so people can add kerning to their uppercase letters.

This is to allow acronyms, initialisms and the like to be uniquely styled. Many typographic guides recommend using additional letter spacing in strings of capitals. Textile, being a typographically rich markup syntax, is intended to make such things possible.

(from the FAQ, emphasis mine)

Offline

#4 2007-06-09 23:39:39

Jeremie
Member
From: Provence, France
Registered: 2004-08-11
Posts: 1,578
Website

Re: [textile] Ampersands in headings.

There isn’t enough font safely usable on the web already as it is, why would you change one for one character among all other, and confuse the reader by using mixed faces?

And why & and not @ or æ or ¥ or € or whatever?

I don’t understand…

And as far as changing the string and to &, not likely. There are good reason why the two exist, and there are also other language than English you know…

Last edited by Jeremie (2007-06-09 23:42:42)

Offline

#5 2007-06-10 00:56:49

ardilla
Member
From: California, USA
Registered: 2007-06-09
Posts: 11
Website

Re: [textile] Ampersands in headings.

Palatino has a decent ampersand (in the italicized form). Constantia (one of new Vista fonts) as well.

The string is pretty far-fetched (hence “maybe” in the first post).

And I found the source: http://webtypography.net/sxsw2007/

Last edited by ardilla (2007-06-10 01:04:05)

Offline

#6 2007-06-10 11:41:01

Jeremie
Member
From: Provence, France
Registered: 2004-08-11
Posts: 1,578
Website

Re: [textile] Ampersands in headings.

ardilla wrote:

Palatino has a decent ampersand (in the italicized form). Constantia (one of new Vista fonts) as well.

Two fonts that most current users don’t have. If you really want to do this for a specific website or intranet or a specific client, maybe Textile isn’t

And I found the source: http://webtypography.net/sxsw2007/

Too bad it’s just a slide, I would like to get the full thing to see if it took everything under consideration.

But for one example, I don’t see the same ampersand as his at the Simplebits homepage. And for that limited usage, I would think of other way to achieve this, like sIFR. Because right now, the one I saw at Dan’s place is pretty ugly, and destructive to the rhythm of reading that sentence.

But to do that on a general basis… I’m still not convince.

Last edited by Jeremie (2007-06-10 11:50:39)

Offline

#7 2007-06-10 15:39:38

ardilla
Member
From: California, USA
Registered: 2007-06-09
Posts: 11
Website

Re: [textile] Ampersands in headings.

Two fonts that most current users don’t have. If you really want to do this for a specific website or intranet or a specific client, maybe Textile isn’t

Palatino Linotype comes with Windows XP and on a Mac in my school library (which is very old) I remember using Palatino as well. We’re not exactly the type that would go around spending money buying fonts for computers…

From the SimpleBits stylesheet

font-family: “Goudy Old Style”, “Palatino”, “Book Antiqua”, serif;

It’s meant to degrade. Goudy Old Style isn’t exactly popular—but from their perspective it’s the “best.” Palatino and Book Antiqua are there as backup, as the next best alternatives.

Offline

#8 2007-06-10 17:59:05

Jeremie
Member
From: Provence, France
Registered: 2004-08-11
Posts: 1,578
Website

Re: [textile] Ampersands in headings.

ardilla wrote:

Palatino Linotype comes with Windows XP

My bad.

What about popular *nix OS?

Offline

#9 2007-06-11 02:56:42

Mary
Sock Enthusiast
Registered: 2004-06-27
Posts: 6,236

Re: [textile] Ampersands in headings.

I can’t say I see this one being oft-used, and it may be a little tricky because &amp; is also used in URLs not just plain text. I’m not inconvincable, though. I do know that you could do this in a plugin if you really wanted to.

Offline

#10 2007-06-11 08:58:52

sthmtc
Member
From: CGN, GER
Registered: 2005-01-17
Posts: 586
Website

Re: [textile] Ampersands in headings.

I haven’t tested it yet, but maybe this is something that can be achieved with Adam’s port of Jeff Croft’s Typogrify…

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB