This week’s readings have peaked my curiosity towards typography. I didn’t even know there were specialized terms for letterforms, but I really should have expected it. I’ll probably go find some more readings on the history of typography when I have time. I also need to download the Arcade dingbat font. A question, though. Did the maker of that font get permission from the companies that own the characters in the font? I mean, there’s Mario, Pac-Man, Q-bert, the Galaga ship. . . I hope Nintendo’s lawyer ninjas haven’t, er, disposed of the creator.
Ugh, web rings. I always thought those things were horribly tacky and annoying to navigate through. I was pretty unsure about directories. They look rather, er, unimpressive, but after reading the chapter in the book, I’m more willing to give them a try. The sections on meta tags and search engines were a lot more helpful and interesting. Finding out how Google ads worked was very interesting. I didn’t know that AdWords was competitively priced. The last section on tracking visitors was a bit sparse. Since there were no links to analysis programs in the book, I’m assuming they’re easy to find? I’d rather have recommendations so I don’t have to sift through the dross.
I was rather surprised and relieved that creating forms can be that easy. I was also already familiar with Google groups, though I was disappointed there was no other sections on forums and message boards. I would have liked to have known what other free forum hosting services are available, especially those that won’t have overly intrusive ads.
Placing the more helpful of the links for last week’s lesson here:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/03/10/web-20-tutorials-round-up/
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/photoshop-tutorials-textures/