I was hoping there would be a magical and contradictory answer to my realization that there are not many typefaces available when designing for the web and using CSS.

The realization, if memory serves, happened while searching for themes for this wordpress-powered blog. Not only did I notice very quickly that themes used a limited list of typefaces I also had a hard time finding a theme that I thought used typography well.

My two major pet peeves: Extreme negative tracking of type (letter-spacing) and oodles of reversed out type (white type on a dark background) seemed to be used often.

Our second Dreamweaver class confirmed that while it is true that I could basically use any licensed typeface for a design, there are no guarantees that everyone would see what I see or am hoping they will see. Not good for me and not good for the audience.

Drat, there are so many extraordinary typefaces out there!

But, it reminds me of a layout class where the instructor forced us to use what is only in the library for all assignments. And even on staff at a magazine, typefaces are limited for variety of positive reasons. Preference is a different thing and there are many good lessons to be learned from this kind of restriction. The challenges apply once again when using XHTML and CSS. (Flash apparently is a different story and that is later in the year for me.)

Lucky for me and any of you interested in learning more about typography or perhaps just admiring it from afar, there are some great resources on the web. One recent discovery (for me) was just last night: I Love Typography or iLT for short.

I’m not sure what keywords I plugged into Google to find John Boardley’s blog and what I found was this great post: 15 Excellent Examples of Web Typography. It was such a hit with readers that his dedicated server crashed. Not good.

I’m hopeful this weekend I’ll have more time to explore the wealth of information on iLT. In my book, another opportunity to look at and study more typography and its use is time well spent.

In fact, here are a few more sites I visit often for inspiration, facts, news to be used, or a refresher:

• typographica.org
• designing {with} typography
• typemuseum.org
• Type for You
• Typophile
• Type Director’s Club
• ATypl

And, just for fun: Bembo’s Zoo.

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