Roel Nieskens

Computernerd FROM HELL

Public Key

npub1l40uqpa5k9u62v7wlak9w7yj6lyzjvnsr4dnep2l87pxxuuzfa2qjs38mq

NIP-05 Address

pixelambacht@typo-social.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs06h7qq76tz7d9x0807mzh0zfd0jpfxfcp6keus40nlqnrwwpy74qpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qmh7tc3

Publishing to

relay.ditto.pub

Author Public Key

npub1l40uqpa5k9u62v7wlak9w7yj6lyzjvnsr4dnep2l87pxxuuzfa2qjs38mq

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Last Notes

2026-04-18 11:07:38 UTC

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@nprofile…px8z Ik vind het echt zo gaaf om Moon Child zo opeens weer in de aandacht te zien. Moet genieten zijn voor jou en de HOIers! Tof man!

2026-04-15 20:15:29 UTC

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@nprofile…w44f When I wasn't yet all that font-literate, and the brief was of the level of "can we have something like [insert competitor]" I found that hard indeed. For more creative projects, or those where a proper design agency was at the table, it was easier, but slogging through scary licenses for a font with a price tag vs. "why not grab a free one from Google Fonts" is a battle I didn't often win. Exasperating indeed.

2026-04-15 06:51:24 UTC

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@nprofile…w44f Yes yes, what about, what about.

2026-04-14 15:19:06 UTC

“Designers described spending time in client meetings justifying why a font costs money at all, let alone why using it on a website requires a different license than using it in print. Many said they’ve simply defaulted to Google Fonts in those situations because the explanation is too difficult.”
☝️ This is precisely what I've done, and what I've seen my webdev peers do *so* often!
I'm curious to see how Fontstand will tackle this. Keeping an eye on this.
https://fontstand.com/news/design-news/survey/
#webdev #design #typography

2026-04-13 09:33:56 UTC

This is the only photo I took at the Fontstand conference, and it's crappy and blurry and also extremely perfect because it has old and new friends!
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/116/396/527/666/359/266/original/8de5ef86f5ebc686.jpeg

2026-04-13 08:47:33 UTC

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@nprofile…px8z Wat gaaf man!!!

2026-04-10 15:47:54 UTC

I am *deliriously* happy to announce that the new Wakamai Fondue is finally live!!
https://www.wakamaifondue.com/
Thanks for making do with the shoddy old version, for trying out the beta, for your patience, and for your support!
I will dive into all that's new and better very soon, but until then, I wrote a short introduction and why I am so happy this new version is finally out: https://pixelambacht.nl/2026/a-new-wakamai-fondue/
Happy fondueing!! 🫕
#webdev #css #fonts #typography
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/116/381/192/320/981/616/original/3f60d28694d1c66e.png

2026-04-10 13:27:19 UTC

I'm a huge Vulf Mono Code fan, been so since I saw @nprofile…9ng9 use it in code samples at Robothon 2018.
But I'm also a sucker for chonky pixel fonts. You read best what you read most, right? (And I read every diskmag, textfile, .nfo, BBS post, memory dump, 6502 source code and demo scrolltext in existence, almost)
So after reading https://korigamik.dev/blog/bitmap_fonts/ I'm considering trying a new coding/terminal font.
Anyone have a personal favorite?

2026-04-10 07:58:22 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk @nprofile…sd2l That's delightfully 90s! I know the song but never really listened to it, and this version is now giving me a nice mix of nostalgia and discovering a new-to-me song.

2026-04-02 08:21:42 UTC

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@nprofile…j074 @nprofile…t2td @nprofile…uvqd Hey Doug, same here! Both on the "looking forward to Berlin" _and_ the "talk about variable fonts" subjects!

2026-03-31 10:21:00 UTC

🤫 Tiny colorful update to Wakamai Fondue 🤫
You can use a color font's built-in palettes in the main tester!
https://wakamaifondue.com/beta/
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/116/323/277/879/143/459/original/eb5f047fb9f38775.png

2026-03-09 08:30:24 UTC

@nprofile…f33n I came across this when looking through some older archives I had bookmarked. Might be of interest if you hadn't already seen it: https://mediaburn.org/videos/john-mr-computer-1/

2026-03-06 16:45:52 UTC

How fast can you crash *your* Chrome browser with a simple variable font animation?
Test here! https://codepen.io/RoelN/pen/dPXqNjR
Takes about 15 seconds on my machine 😎
#webdev

2026-02-27 12:44:36 UTC

🥳 Wakamai Fondue is looking for a good try-out font!
Does your font have a nice set of OpenType features and variable axes that you want to show off in Wakamai Fondue?
If so, let's strike a deal 🤝 (For free) You'll get a banner to send folks to your site, too!
Gimlet has been serving us well for the past years on https://wakamaifondue.com/beta/ (thanks for your patience, @nprofile…4neu!) but for the new release we can use a fresh font.
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/116/142/637/528/369/156/original/8bd60f30c33c0a84.png

2026-02-05 08:00:44 UTC

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@nprofile…6jsh I'm at 255.255.255.254 and *now* you tell me?!

2026-02-05 07:27:02 UTC

If you visited one IP address every second, starting at 0.0.0.0 and ending at 255.255.255.255, you'd be busy for 136 years.
#TheMoreYouKnow #KnowledgeIsPower

2026-02-04 10:28:38 UTC

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@nprofile…r3gs @nprofile…dd9w @nprofile…tm79 That looks so satisfying! The effect is even kinda fun in browsers that don't support the `sibling-*` stuff!

2026-02-03 18:07:02 UTC

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@nprofile…lwfy @nprofile…dd9w A match made in heaven!

2026-02-03 08:22:35 UTC

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@nprofile…uvqd @nprofile…lwfy Too easy.

2026-02-03 07:39:09 UTC

Digging this hires Commodore 64 pic by @nprofile…pw44
Don't we all wanna eject ourselves from planet Earth in a cardboard box with our favorite pet, sometimes?
https://csdb.dk/release/index.php?id=259081
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/116/005/550/069/215/075/original/f322f0f9b66b7a36.png

2026-02-03 07:29:27 UTC

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@nprofile…lwfy I wonder if they'll own up to being a company that happily helps you pick a font for your nazi shit, or they'll evade responsibility with an "oopsie, sorry, the computer did this"

2026-02-03 07:18:25 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk Excellent choice. Were those the limits between which the font should be used?

2026-02-02 22:04:23 UTC

Whatchyer favorite OS/2 value?

2026-02-02 09:20:29 UTC

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@nprofile…px8z Oh this looks dope!

2026-01-30 08:34:37 UTC

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@nprofile…wguy @nprofile…rpac @nprofile…vlma Seems like a very @nprofile…yeqj thing

2026-01-29 20:03:25 UTC

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@nprofile…j074 I was *just* looking at your blurb for Type Advisor! Man, I have my `--verbose` flag on, it seems. I wish I could pack that much to-the-pointiness in my blurb!

2026-01-26 13:43:19 UTC

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@nprofile…j074 Yes! Fingers crossed!

2026-01-26 11:20:35 UTC

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@nprofile…uvqd @nprofile…at0k Gezellig! :-)

2026-01-26 09:00:40 UTC

Fontstand tickets booked! 🥳
Who else am I gonna see there?

2026-01-19 10:15:26 UTC

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@nprofile…wguy @nprofile…4t5m This is super dope, and so much fun to play with! Congrats on successfully visualizing something *so* complex!

2026-01-14 12:31:09 UTC

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@nprofile…j074 Fonts *are* fun! Good call, and all the best!

2025-12-03 07:59:21 UTC

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@nprofile…t9uc Absolutely, and great to hear the fondue is useful!

2025-11-22 11:41:36 UTC

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@nprofile…548d Mooi he! HEX maakt sowieso heel toffe dingen, die ook goed in elkaar zitten. Die Nick weet wat 'ie doet!

2025-11-14 18:19:42 UTC

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@nprofile…plsf Thanks for the reminder!

2025-11-12 09:51:48 UTC

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@nprofile…t9uc I did! I just wondered if you'd consider a different approach if you were to make it anno 2025.

2025-11-12 08:13:03 UTC

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@nprofile…t9uc How would you remake this today? `FLIP` axis variable font?

2025-10-20 20:41:50 UTC

To get Wakamai Fondue v2.0™ ready for release I went through all open issues and labeled which ones definitely needed to be closed for the grand opening and subsequently started work on an issue not on that list: we now show the proper name for the OpenType features that have one!
No more "Stylistic Set 1", "Stylistic Set 2", "Stylistic Set 3", etc...
Check it out! https://wakamaifondue.com/beta/
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/115/408/407/461/679/235/original/e39bdefa64a6b956.png

2025-10-20 16:51:09 UTC

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@nprofile…ukmn Yes, this is in the works!

2025-10-17 15:57:56 UTC

Just updated Wakamai Fondue bętå again!
TL;DR did all this: https://github.com/Wakamai-Fondue/wakamai-fondue-site/pull/255
I think it's almost 💖 PERFECT 💖 now, so give it a whirl and let me know if something is off, wrong, stupid or weird. Or all four.
https://wakamaifondue.com/beta

2025-10-17 10:12:05 UTC

@nprofile…2fal It took a while, but the beta has it! https://github.com/Wakamai-Fondue/wakamai-fondue-site/issues/133

2025-10-07 08:47:01 UTC

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@nprofile…jzgx I suspected it would be! I was occupied around that time 🥲

2025-10-06 10:09:28 UTC

I miss techy type conferences 🥲
(Or at least, ones I can actually go to)

2025-10-05 13:46:05 UTC

Quick lazy Sunday afternoon update:
- Rolled back the complex named instances preview, and have simple previews now. Also, you can toggle them on/off.
- Optical sizing can now be tester properly: it's either on "default mode" (browser does the optical sizing, manual control of axis is disabled), or "overwrite mode" (use whatever the axis slider is set to, regardless of actual font size)
Feels a lot better. What do you think?
https://wakamaifondue.com/beta/
#WakamaiFondue #css #fonts #typography
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/115/321/848/895/330/110/original/d034e48274998101.png

2025-10-04 17:04:11 UTC

@nprofile…4m93 By the way, I don't know if you ever saw this, but David Bradley is a great Commodore fan and did the "special computer FX" for Hide & Seek, and I contacted him once asking for how that all went down. (I saw the German dubbed version as a kid and it impressed me very much). This is one of the videos where he talks about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcI5lVkGL5U

2025-10-03 14:49:22 UTC

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@nprofile…4m93 So many great (or so bad they're great) movies on there. Seen some of them, put the rest on my to-watch list!

2025-09-10 11:40:44 UTC

One thing I never anticipated as a young C64 hacker was that more than three decades later we'd have a whole wave of "Happy 50th Birthday!"-demos
#retrocomputing #commodore

2025-08-20 16:07:33 UTC

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@nprofile…ryax I can never find any specimens, thought I'm looking (maybe not hard enough). Found some other neat old type-related books throughout the years though! But sadly never from the early "type on computers" days, my preferred niche.

2025-08-05 08:12:22 UTC

🟦🟩🟨Gimme🟨🟧🟥, still going for the most bat-shit insane colorful variable font collection on planet Earth, just dropped a delicious update!
https://www.futurefonts.com/typearture/gimme
#typography
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/975/138/604/606/252/original/e300316399ff5f35.png

2025-08-05 07:14:13 UTC

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@nprofile…unvw
Go to Google Fonts
⬇︎
Sort by "most popular"
⬇︎
Pick from the top 3
😭

2025-07-02 18:09:29 UTC

The story of Boulder Dash is not that remarkable by itself, but I like that it spans just about the entire story of computers so far.
Peter Liepa got introduced to computers via big mainframes only accessible on universities, went on to program a very popular game in the 1980s, and today spends his retirement playing Candy Crush.
Here's an interesting inteview with the man himself: https://spillhistorie.no/2025/06/06/how-boulder-dash-was-created/
#retrogaming #retrocomputing
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/784/946/971/313/732/original/5198a0d3ddc721df.mp4

2025-07-02 14:24:23 UTC

Otherwhere Collective recently asked their customers on how to simplify their (already pretty good) font licensing. Right after their survey ended, they improved their licensing accordingly.
Check out their EOAW! “fonts-in-a-box” license, it webdev-friendly!
https://otherwherecollective.com/font-licensing-simplified/
#typography #fonts #webdev

2025-06-27 13:42:44 UTC

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@nprofile…avnq Wow, I didn't know, and I wouldn't have known if I heard that tune by itself.
I did nearly fall off the couch when I heard the opening tune of Koyaanisqatsi, as I only knew that as the Delta tune by Hubbard!

2025-06-27 07:39:13 UTC

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@nprofile…ryax He seems like an interesting and great person. Sorry for your loss.

2025-06-25 07:40:13 UTC

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@nprofile…ltf6 I thought that was DJR's Fit at first, but it isn't it seems. Is it a real font?

2025-06-17 07:08:30 UTC

Would you rather pay 💰💰💰💰💰 up front for a webfont and be done with it?
Or pay 💰 monthly/annually?
And would you like to receive the relevant CSS for your webfont, or would you like to figure it out yourself?
Please fill in http://fontstand.com/survey and help make (web)font (licensing) better!
#typography #webdev #CSS #fonts

2025-06-16 07:38:04 UTC

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@nprofile…avnq I hate this. I love lofi electronic stuff as background music, and while I don't listen to it with the same ears as the music I listen to "with attention", I hate the idea that it would be made by AI. The idea that some bedroom musician put (at least part of) their soul into those lofi beats, deliberately makeing the music sound like it does, is way more interesting than an AI barfing up emotionless music :-/

2025-06-13 17:24:48 UTC

This 5.25" floppy disk was stored in an uninsulated attic for the past 25 years, where the weight of the other disks made it bend over the diskbox edge.
It loaded with zero errors!
OId tech is awesome! 💖
#retrogaming #retrocomputing #commodore
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/677/216/470/353/348/original/8271358529912d9d.jpeg
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/677/216/491/543/626/original/7e53cddd46a0eded.jpeg

2025-06-12 10:33:07 UTC

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@nprofile…ryax I wish (again) that more people did it like that. I put *another* underline under my "write sth to help folks move away from big type" todo-item!

2025-06-12 07:44:48 UTC

Is there an overview somewhere of Monotype vs. foundry prices?
I'm trying to work out if "find font on myfonts, then seek out the foundry and buy it there" is good advice?
#typography

2025-06-03 06:34:11 UTC

Am I a sucker for variable fonts with melting pixels?
◉ Y
◯ N
https://www.future-fonts.com/fontspectrum/electric-blue
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/618/034/962/717/198/original/c1fd41c8552b9051.mp4

2025-05-22 06:33:03 UTC

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@nprofile…jlpt @nprofile…ryax @nprofile…lmuj It's already 6 years ago I wrote about not needing to follow advice that was *then* already a decade old... https://pixelambacht.nl/2019/youve-gotten-old-bulletproof-font-face-syntax/ 😭

2025-05-14 07:22:57 UTC

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@nprofile…qx50 Agreed. I bet you'll find plenty of recommendations for alternatives.

2025-05-07 07:02:12 UTC

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@nprofile…jlpt Your fonts are pretty lean already, and I know your stance on over-eager subsetting, so I would be curious to know if you consider it worth to apply subsetting through IFT! Or if that changes anything in which features you'd put in a font.
Good news is it'll take a while before IFT lands so we have plenty of time to think about it.

2025-05-06 12:15:17 UTC

Is anybody already thinking on how to apply/use Incremental Font Transfer for their own foundry or font hosting service?
IFT has the potential to change a lot in how we serve fonts (and their segments) and how we apply fonts on the web. From avoiding subsetting woes for simple Latin fonts, to making CJK webfonts a reality, or to making lean icon/emoji fonts.
#typography #webdev

2025-04-15 12:38:58 UTC

Aside from a copy of all your emails, what else to backup from Gmail before deleting your account?
My plan:
1. Download all email via IMAP
2. Remove all emails including attachments from Gmail interface
3. Closing my account
Anything I'm forgetting?
#google #email #megacorp

2025-04-15 12:07:43 UTC

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@nprofile…ryax @nprofile…c97y More than enough "yeps!" for a follow!

2025-04-08 19:09:45 UTC

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@nprofile…ryax I'd love to read that. There are different ways to explain what's going on and what alternatives there are, and I know you will be thoughtful about how to put that into words. The meme is an excellent placeholder for now!

2025-04-07 10:57:46 UTC

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@nprofile…jlpt No, these are already out there but do web developers know why to look for them? I feel devs know exactly why or why not to choose a particular JavaScript framework and thereby supporting a certain company or community. Plenty of discussions, posts, alternatives daily. I wish this knowledge was there for fonts, beyond "either choose between predatory company X and Y, or use some free knock-off or ditch webfonts altogether".

2025-04-07 07:51:43 UTC

What's a good resource for folks who just discovered they're getting fëcked over by Big Font MegaCorp™ and want an alternative that's not one of the big free font providers?
Alternatives to the obvious services seem to be very well hidden from "regular webdev folk".

2025-04-03 14:15:04 UTC

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@nprofile…avnq Die's leuk!!

2025-04-02 07:00:58 UTC

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@nprofile…qx50 They look beat up. I hope they brought many awesome ideas to life.

2025-03-31 09:27:41 UTC

I'm thinking of font features that could mess with calculating the width of a string of text.
The most obvious is optical sizing. This changes the width of glyphs at certain font sizes, so a text at font-size:16px might be 100px wide, but that doesn't mean it'll be 200px wide at font-size:32px.
Another could be `rand`, when supported: if you get different glyphs on your virtual canvas than on screen, calculations get borked.
Anything else? 🤔
#typography #fonts #css

2025-03-28 07:59:26 UTC

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@nprofile…ryax I don't know what it is about luxurious trains, but I could live on them for weeks. Just traveling, never mind the destination. Looks fantastic!

2025-03-25 07:23:40 UTC

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@nprofile…mjt5 For some reason I thought OTMaster was Windows-only, but now I see there's a Mac version. I'll try this, thanks!

2025-03-24 19:10:08 UTC

What tools are suitable to debug font binaries? Like the actual .ttf or .otf file?
I have a font in which certain GSUB features are seemingly hidden or removed. But when I decompile with ttx, they're there. A recompile to a new binary solves the issue — the GSUB features all work.
OTS, ttx and FontBakery each see nothing wrong with the font. So I'm suspecting something wrong at byte level — wrong offsets, something like that.
Is there a better way to debug this than a hex editor?
#typography

2025-03-24 08:25:41 UTC

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@nprofile…ryax That looks absolutely beautiful! I would love to just chill there on that balcony, beer in hand, watching the landscape go by while the train chugs along. It doesn't look crowded, I would expect everybody to hang there. Enjoy the rest of your journey!!

2025-03-21 18:07:59 UTC

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@nprofile…4m93 I enjoyed the thread, thanks!

2025-03-09 09:59:14 UTC

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@nprofile…dqr7 @nprofile…rnt9 Wikipedia suggests that the source word is "maagd" (virgin). Funny thing, in my local dialect, "maechtje" is still very close to "maagd", it's basically that word + tje.
(But I learned that some words that seem to have obvious sources sometimes had a few weird an unexpected twists before they got to today's version!)

2025-03-09 07:55:15 UTC

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@nprofile…rnt9 I had to look that up. While "meis" never existed, "meisje" grew from a different word. But as the "tiny rule" suggests existence of a "meis", apparently we're slowly starting to use that too now. (I hope English Wikipedia does a better job of explaining 😂)

2025-02-06 10:31:29 UTC

Fonts and "fair use", are there examples of that?
I mean the way where showing a very short clip of a movie in your own video is accepted as "fair use", while including 20 minutes of that same movie is not.
Would I be able to, say, create a "Recognize The Ampsersand" game by _somehow_ gathering the ampersands of all digitally available fonts?

2024-09-18 07:16:24 UTC

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@npub1xed…yg9w The uncertainty and unfairness must've been exhausting. So good to hear you're still excited and happy to work on 11ty! ✊

2024-07-22 12:18:46 UTC

My #CSSDay talk "Problems Solved By OpenType"* is on YouTube!
I try to show the awesome things that fonts can do, the problems they can solve, and how you can figure out what YOUR font can do. Also, schwoopies.
* Full title: "Details Subjectively Improved By OpenType Layout Features And CSS"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TreBK-EyACQ
#CSS #typography #webdev

2024-07-19 08:05:46 UTC

For those unaffected by the CrowdStrike thing, here's a pure CSS recreation → https://codepen.io/RoelN/full/XWLdWOx

2024-06-08 14:12:15 UTC

While I miss rummaging through brick-and-mortal second hand bookstores, I also appreciate the various online "search engines".
In NL we have https://www.boekwinkeltjes.nl
Do you have a "local" version of this where I can hunt for old computer books?
#bookstodon

2023-11-22 10:31:06 UTC

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@npub16mu…qy4m I think the hard part is that most magic happens in the combination of CSS and the font. I can't think of a general purpose font tip that's 100% CSS (other than boring old best practices!)

2023-11-21 11:56:55 UTC

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@npub16mu…qy4m @npub19qc…zcnq There's so much magic in there! Gets me thinking, what'd be some font/type related tips that would fit nicely among all that magic? 🤔

2023-11-21 10:51:50 UTC

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@npub16mu…qy4m @npub19qc…zcnq I fricking love these little tricks. I'm always afraid I won't remember them when the time comes that I need 'em. Hopefully all these 14 open tabs, 31 bookmarks and 17 mails-to-myself will remind me!

2023-08-30 07:48:05 UTC

Font pirates are apparently scouring Github for fonts in progress, and publishing them on their pirate sites: https://typo.social/@velvetyne@mamot.fr/110977401652280278

2023-08-29 06:26:22 UTC

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@npub1urz…39sc @npub1nrr…fss8 You'd know the first 80% a song by heart, and the last 20% was completely alien when you'd finally hear the full song. Good times! Also, nice setup and collection there, Vasilis!