COAP:COAP-3120/week2

COAP 3120

COAP-3120

COAP-3120/week1

COAP-3120/week2

COAP-3120/week3

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COAP-3120/week5

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COAP 3120 Week 2 program

Main topic

• Web typography and formatting large simple texts

Main learning goals

• Be able to include CSS in an HTML document: external files, internal style sheets, @import, inline
• Understand CSS rules: Selectors and properties
• Be able to format longer text
• Be able to use HTML elements made for CSS (div and span)
• Use of text/HTML/CSS editors
• Use browser extensions for checking HTML and CSS validity, and analyzing pages
• Think about good style and good visual style

Monday

HTML principles

• The three dominant HTML families (HTML 4x, XHTML 1x, HTML5), a short introduction
• Handout: HTML

Selectors

1. Universal/global selector (using * or body selector)
2. Using HTML tag names
3. Using "position" of tags (children, siblings)
4. Using pseudo-tags
5. Basic cascading and inheritance principles (last rule found will win, children inherit from parents)

CSS properties for formatting text

• Web typography (in particular font-family, using web-safe fonts, using fallbacks)
• Units (pt, cm, %, em/x, font-size keywords)

Resources:

• Appendix C of the textbook
• CSS Selectors (Sitepoint)

Validation

Install (if not already done so)

• HTML validator
• For CSS, use http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator (you can install

Classroom activities

• Become familiar with Kompozer and Notetab

Wednesday

CSS properties for formatting text

• Web typography (in particular font-family, using web-safe fonts, using fallbacks)
• Units (pt, cm, %, em/x, font-size keywords)
• Line spacing: line-height property
• Negative and positive indentation of the first line: text-indent property
• Text filling: text-align property
• Underlining etc: text-decoration property
• Margins: margin-left, margin-right, etc.
• Shortcuts

Classroom activities

• Become familiar with Kompozer and Notetab

(1) Find a long text you want to work on. HTML must be clean and simple. Suggestions:

• http://www.gutenberg.org/

(2) Start working on homework 1, i.e. create a layout that is both visually pleasing and "readable"

Tip: Use Codeburner (SitePoint), the Textbook appendices, or another good CSS reference.

Homework 1

Subject: Styling of a text document

Task:

• Please style a text-centered HTML file
• You can choose any HTML text (or other source) you like, under the condition that you made significant modifications to the original CSS.

However, we suggest using an XHTML e-book from an online repository such as Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/)

Requirements

(1) Your min-project (homework) should include at least the following features:

• HTML An external style sheet (make sure that there are no internal unintentional overrides)
• Text indentations and margins
• Line spacings
• Appropriate font sizes and styles for various text elements (in particular for titles and paragraphs)
• At least one pseudo tag selector (e.g. p:firstline p:first-letter or :before)
• At least a sibling selector (A + B)
• A small universal/global margin

(2) A short report

• It should shortly explain your design, e.g. what you aimed to achieve
• It should include references/sources used (in particular to the original HTML file). Be careful to respect general Webster rules about plagiarism.
• It should shortly explain what you did in your CSS.

Due

• Wednesday week 3 (before start of class)

Submission

• Upload the HTML file, the CSS file and the report to the world classroom (hw 1)
• If you use other assets (e.g. pictures) you also must upload these. However, we suggest working with a text that doesn't include any ....

Evaluation criteria

• Requirements (presence of CSS elements) - 20%
• Visual design / originality - 30%
• Usability - 10% (is the text readable ?)
• Technical quality (CSS structure and documentation, valid HTML and CSS) - 20%
• Presence and quality of the report - 10%
• On time - 10 % (minus 5% for 2 days late, 10% for more)

Reading

Manual

• Install Codeburner for Firefox if not already done so and/or use

Textbook

• Chapter 2, The Bits that make up a Style Sheet
• Chapter 3, Selectors
• Chapter 5, Applying Font Faces (only 73-82)
• Chapter 6, Manipulating the Display of Text (only: “Line height” section)
• Chapter 8, The Box Model (only: Margins section)

About web fonts and web typography (optional reading)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_typography
• http://www.alistapart.com/articles/on-web-typography/
• http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css_websafe_fonts.asp
• http://nicewebtype.com/notes/2009/10/30/how-to-use-css-font-face/