by Oliver Boermans
Continuing my incremental NetNewsWire theme build. Version 15 ( Scratch – Random Webding ) added a little delight to NetNewsWire’s system message view. Sadly though, turns out that Webdings is not available on iOS by default. Apple Symbols Oops! By actually checking, I discovered another much more extensive symbols font – Apple Symbols, does come installed on both MacOS and iOS . This version of…
Continuing my incremental NetNewsWire theme build. Version 14 ( Scratch – XKCD restored ) fixed a bug that removed images from image only posts. This version adds a little delight to NetNewsWire’s system message view. This page left intentionally blank When no feed is selected or multiple articles are selected in NetNewsWire, the article pane displays a single line of text: “No selection” or…
Oops! Version 13 of my Scratch NetNewsWire theme (with JavaScript enabled) rendered the XKCD feed without the images. I could wait for Randall to fix his comic feed template to place the caption text in a <figcaption> rather than abusing alt attribute for the purpose. Or I could fix the logic in my code. Why not both!? While Randall works on writing alternative text for an astronomical number of…
Continuing my incremental NetNewsWire theme build. Version 12 ( Scratch – text measure ) improved reading by limiting line lengths and some other tweaks. This version too includes a collection of miscellaneous refinements. I’ll list them below. First though, I want to share the feature I’m most enthused about, responding to the shape of posts. The shape of a feed item The endurance of RSS as a…
Update to my NetNewsWire Template variables theme pushed. This theme remains useful as a template variable reference, I checked it recently for the date stamp options and discovered it was missing a variable I was already using in the theme I’m working on: [[datetime_medium]] . Fixed! Also, in a face-palm moment, I remembered <textarea> will render HTML markup as text. Makes much more sense than…
Continuing my incremental NetNewsWire theme build. Version 11 ( Scratch – post header ) styled the post header and finessed links and rules. I’ve been sitting on this new version, using it while I ponder the next focus. Well past due time to share the current increment. Back pedalling on the style overrides Previously I applied an aggressive !important to unset inline styles in feed content. This…
Continuing my incremental NetNewsWire theme build. Version 10 ( Scratch – version 10 ) added a responsive line-height, styled <aside> , post external link, and made a start on unordered lists. This version styles the post header, post title link, tones down the styling of links, and makes horizontal rules dotty. Post header Starting from the top, is the post header styling. I’ve kept it boring and…
Continuing my incremental NetNewsWire theme build. Version 9 ( Scratch – figure and blockquote ) styled figures, blockquotes, and figures in blockquotes. Alongside some fixes, this version styles the external link, aside elements, unordered lists, and applies a dynamic line-height. External link aside The external link is not strictly part of a post. It is data associated with the post, like the…
I’m sad to learn that Lyndon Whaite has died this month. A web search will reveal some of the beautiful graphic design he created. The web however will not show you the many designers he taught and inspired in his many years of teaching here in Adelaide. I count myself very privledged to have had his attention as a student in a small class for my Underdale years. Your excitement for the magic and…
Continuing my incremental NetNewsWire theme build. Version 8 ( Scratch – headings ) styled headings and vertical typographic spacing. This version styles figure and blockquote. Figures The job of a <figure> is to associate it’s subject with a caption, or more specifically a <figcaption> . As the caption text is self contained, it also needs some indication that it is to be read isolated from the…
Continuing my incremental NetNewsWire theme build. Version 7 ( The riddle of the NetNewsWire visited link ) made changes to handle feeds with no feed link. This version takes first steps to improve the type. Since the last version of Scratch I published, I explored some ideas around typography. Including using :has() to apply a heading hierarchy dynamically. I’ve used this idea to style headings…
The :has() CSS selector provides us with the means to apply a typographic hierarchy to heading elements dependent on which heading levels are present. Justifying the necessary added complexity demands some context. Reading and typography Presuming the website you are designing contains text you want readers to read – your primary job as a typographer is to keep out of the way. Reading requires a…