So You Want To Be A Web Designer: What You Should Know

I've been fooling about with HTML, CSS, and PHP for years as an amateur, setting up small specialist forums, then moving on to galleries, blogs, and other CMS (Content Management Systems). I even had a go at setting up a ZenCart ecommerce site but the owner wanted to tack on some pages and a gallery as well. The result was a multi-platform site that I could probably have done better on WordPress. When temp work dried up and I had to claim benefits, the benefits advisor suggested I turn my hobby into a business. This is what I learned.

Old Web Designers Never Die, They Just Volunteer

Web design never paid very well for me so I quit it and took a normal admin job. The thing is, I can't quit it. Not web design, not social media, not the great and groovy graphic design. I'm hooked, I tell you, and I don't want to give it up. Needless to say, when the opportunity to design the promotional literature for our church's women's discussion event came up, I simply couldn't resist the opportunity to stretch  my creative muscles in a professional capacity.

Fancy Font Effects: How To Make Them Look Good In IE

An issue came up in a Design Shack post about fancy font effects: the tutorials offered by the poster don't work in IE. The good news for designers is that there is code that we can use so IE users aren't stuck with plain, boring font effects.

Free Fonts And How To Use Them

I've heard it said that the best things in life are free. Thankfully, this also applies to fonts that are available to designers.

The arrival of typography

Gutenberg Bible

Ever since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450, there has been an interest in the way the printed word appears. Gutenberg designed his font in the Gothic blackletter of the time so his printed books would look hand-lettered. As more printing shops opened up, printers began to look at other lettering styles to use as models for typefaces. More thought was put into creating typefaces, and this gave rise to the art of typographic design, according to an article on vletter.com.