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Print-Inspired Layout on the Web
18.12.2019
I always love seeing people get inspired by print design and trying to port it over to the web. There is a much deeper history of interesting print work to draw from, and still a ton of modern work happening that eclipses most digital design work today. The web is fully capable of bold, interesting...
The Making of a “Special Series” on a WordPress Site
18.12.2019
We just ran a fancy article series here on CSS-Tricks with a bunch of different articles all answering the same question. By fancy, I mean two things:
The articles had a specially-designed template just for them. (Example)
The series has a specially-designed landing page.
One of the reasons...
css.gg
18.12.2019
I'm not sure what to call these icons from Astrit Malsija. The title is "500+ CSS Icons, Customizable, Retina Ready & API" and the URL is "css.gg" but they aren't really named anything.
Anyway, their shtick is:
The 🌎's first icon library designed by code.
The idea is that they don't...
Design APIs: The Evolution of Design Systems
17.12.2019
A clever idea from Matthew Ström:
[...] design APIs don’t seem like a stretch of the imagination. An API-driven approach is the natural extension of the work currently being done on design systems, including tokens and standardization projects.
If you buy into the idea of design tokens, that...
The Order of CSS Classes in HTML Doesn’t Matter
17.12.2019
That’s right! And I can prove it, too. Let’s look at some CSS first:
.a {
color: red;
}
.b {
color: blue;
}
And now let’s look at some markup:
<div class="a b">Here’s some text</div>
The text is going to be blue because .b is defined last in the CSS, right? But what if we...
The JAMstack Landscape
17.12.2019
It's no big secret that Netlify invented the term JAMstack. While it's possible to embrace the JAMstack without using Netlify, it's notable that Netlify is at the very heart of the whole "JAMstack landscape."
What does "JAMstack landscape" even mean? I like the term because it sets the stage that...
The Origin Story of Container Queries
16.12.2019
Container queries don’t exist today but a lot of web developers have been arguing in their favor lately. At first, the idea sounds relatively simple: whereas media queries allow us to make style changes based on the width of the browser, container queries would allow us to make style updates when...
“Link In Bio” is a slow knife
16.12.2019
Anil Dash:
If Instagram users could post links willy-nilly, they might even be able to connect directly to their users, getting their email addresses or finding other ways to communicate with them. Links represent a threat to closed systems.
On CodePen, we have a TextExpander snippet we use...
Domain-Driven Design With React
16.12.2019
There is very little guidance on how to organize front-end applications in the world of React. (Just move files around until it “feels right,” lol). The truth is that we can do better. Let’s take a look at one pattern you might consider using to architect your site.
At first, you might split...
Now You See It
16.12.2019
I recently accepted a teaching position at a local college here in SoCal where I'll be spouting off whatever I know (or more likely don't know!) about HTML and CSS. It's suffice to say I was all ears (well, actually eyes) when Rachel Andrew recently published a post on teaching CSS.
The display...
Blue Beanie Day 2019
13.12.2019
November 30th, the official "Blue Beanie Day," has come and gone. I'm not sure I ever grokked the exact spirit of it, but I've written about what it means to me. Last year:
Web standards, as an overall idea, has entirely taken hold and won the day. That's worth celebrating, as the web would...
Adam Argyle’s 2020 CSS Predictions
13.12.2019
I think Adam's first prediction is his boldest, even beyond his Hail Mary prediction. CSS grid is awesome and gap is perhaps one of its best qualities, but gap superseding spacing things out in other ways (e.g. margin) is a bold prediction indeed, especially with Firefox being the only browser...
Yap
13.12.2019
Interesting idea for a "chat room" from Postlight:
Create a Yap chat room.
Invite others to join and talk.
Share a URL of just about anything.
Everyone gathering can comment on what you’ve shared.
If you think your conversation deserves an audience, share the URL of your chat publicly.
Only...
Detecting Inactive Users
13.12.2019
Most of the time you don’t really care about whether a user is actively engaged or temporarily inactive on your application. Inactive, meaning, perhaps they got up to get a drink of water, or more likely, changed tabs to do something else for a bit. There are situations, though, when tracking...
lite-youtube-embed
13.12.2019
A standard copy-and-paste YouTube embed lands on your page as an <iframe> which loads a big ol' pile of other stuff to play that video. But the UX of it is still essentially an image and a play button. Click the play button and the video plays. You can build essentially the same thing with...
Weekly Platform News: Strict Tracking Protection, Dark Web Pages, Periodic Background Sync
12.12.2019
In this week's news: Firefox gets strict, Opera goes to the dark side, and Chrome plans to let web apps run in the background.
Let's get into the news.
Firefox for Android will block tracking content
Mozilla has announced that the upcoming revamped Firefox for Android (currently available in...
Dip Your Toes Into Hardware With WebMIDI
12.12.2019
Did you know there is a well-supported browser API that allows you to interface with interesting and even custom-built hardware using a mature protocol that predates the web? Let me introduce you to MIDI and the WebMIDI API and show you how it presents a unique opportunity for front-end developers...
How I’ve Improved as a Web Developer (and a Person) in 2019
11.12.2019
We’re sliding into the roaring twenties of the twenty-first century (cue Jazz music 🎷). It’s important that you and I, as responsible people, follow the tradition of looking back on the past year and reflect on the things that went right and wrong in the hopes of becoming the best version...
Freak Flags
11.12.2019
I don't see image sprites used that much anymore, but it's still a good technique for reducing downloaded decorative image assets when you have multiple on a page. The big idea is combining all the graphics into one and then shifting around the size and background-position to reveal one at...
Just Sharing My Gulpfile
11.12.2019
Seemingly out of the blue, the Gulp processing I had set up for this site started to have a race condition. I'd run my watch command, change some CSS, and the processing would sometimes leave behind some extra files that were meant to be cleaned up during the processing. Like the cleanup tasks...