November 10, 2001
3:25 PM   Subscribe

Typographic56 has some interesting type experimentation geared towards the screen. Warrning: browser hijacking, though relatively well-done. More stuff at NoFont, and Bembo's Zoo. Know of any other places people are playing like this?
posted by Su (12 comments total)
 
Oh, geeze. Okay, before anybody says it, yes I have now found this thread while doing a backcheck on the Bembo site, which was added as an afterthought. Anyways, I'm after the experiments, not font archives, which was the focus there.
posted by Su at 3:42 PM on November 10, 2001


FYI: Bembos was a subject of this thread in the past.
posted by mathowie at 3:58 PM on November 10, 2001


at first, when you were asking if anyone was "playing like this," i thought you were asking about other browser-hijacking sites.. caught myself before i rattled off some... typographic56 has some very interesting navigation despite the usability problems that would make jakob cry. if only the type was larger... my apologies for whining.
posted by lotsofno at 4:39 PM on November 10, 2001


lotsofno, you're not whining. Its a rightfully appropriate criticism. I tried navigating the website, and some reason the links weren't working for me. If designers would consider usability before aesthetics communication would be easier. But oh well, that's life, eh? (life being made up of plenty good looking websites that waste your time trying to figure out how they work)
posted by crog at 4:43 PM on November 10, 2001


It took me a while to figure out you have to drag the little boxes into the bar to actually get anything to happen. I'd made a comment about the nav in the post that got lost in editing. My main problem with it here is that it just makes no sense in the context. I'm not sure where it WOULD be appropriate, but that's not the point. Someplace like Evil Pupil, maybe.

As far as the experiments go, the text city at NoFont is one of my favorites. Think of all the bad jones: "I live at the corner of Bugger and Off."
posted by Su at 5:17 PM on November 10, 2001


Thank you for the warning. ...Uh, I don't know as much as I should here. Could somebody please point me to a spot that will explain "browser hijacking" to me, so I know what I'm in for before I go mess up my system out of ignorance? (I'd love to go look at the link, because typography is a brand new obsession of mine. I'd just rather know if I can cope *before* I go haring off to look!) Thanks for your patience!
posted by realjanetkagan at 8:21 PM on November 10, 2001


realjanet, it's harmless, although inconvenient and annoying. Lots of sites do it in various ways, from disabling the "back" button, to hiding the navigation bar or popping up a new window every time you try to close one. This one is pretty benign, it simply opens up new windows that don't have the browser bars enabled. When you're done looking at the site, you can close the windows sequentially and the last one open will still have the standard bar enabled, so you can hit the "back" button and you'll come back here. At least that's what worked for me.
posted by JParker at 9:12 PM on November 10, 2001


You have to dray the links into that little 'bar' area to view them. It's an incredible pain in the ass. as was the fact that I had to lean in in order to read the text.

It looks nice. but not even counting the browser popups it's annoying and restraining to use.

The site should stick with a simple frames set with an index of links that you can CLICK rather then this insane drag+drop system.

Whats sad is how much time these guys must have spent making an un-usable system out of a useable one.
posted by delmoi at 5:00 AM on November 11, 2001


Oops, I meant "drag" instaid of "dray" in the first sentance of my last post
posted by delmoi at 5:01 AM on November 11, 2001


Hey, delmoi: dray was fine. I was very impressed. It meants to haul, drag, cart. And, as you mentioned the little bar area , I was reminded of the old "you can lead a horse..." drinking adage and thought: "Wow! Erudition! Gimme more!"
I guess this opens up a whole new MetaFilter amusement: When Corrections Are Not As Good As The Original Posts.
Since it's a slow Sunday can I just mention that, here in Portugal, this is something of an obsession? A favourite saying is: "The alteration was even worse than the original sonnet". No? OK, then. :-)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:24 AM on November 11, 2001


Serves me right. Merriam-Webster link doesn't work. So I quote:"3 entries found for dray. dray[1,noun]dray[2,transitive verb]dray horse. Main Entry: 2dray. Function: transitive verb.Date: 1857:: to haul on a dray : CART. "
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:30 AM on November 11, 2001


JParker: Thanks!

delmoi: My school of writing (sf) treasures its typos---they're often good for inspiration, or for use as a *pronounceable* name for that alien character. I'm with MiguelCardoso on this one though; I thought "dray" was quite apt in this context.
posted by realjanetkagan at 8:36 AM on November 11, 2001


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