On Tuesday 22 February 2011 05:51:35 S C ribus wrote: > > > MSWord it is easily recognizable as the product of an > > > > amateur > > > > > typographer. So I suggest something outside the > > > > Microsoft Windows > > > > > collection, such as Bitstream Charter, Minion, Adobe > > > > Garamond or > > > > > Sabon. > > > -- > > > > I would think that the work of an amateur typographer will > > look > > amateurish whichever font he uses. Similarly, I would > > expect the > > work of the professional to look professional regardless. > > totally agree.... as an example check out (not my work) > http://instudio.power.com.pl/wp-content/themes/simplixity/flash_ove >rview/overview.html > > It's Verdana through and through and that does not make it look > unprofessional
Well it is a very handsome site (much better looking than mine) but like any site it can be improved. It does not appear that Scribus was used. The PDF file was put together with Photoshop and not Scribus. IMO Scribus would set up the text better, given a fighting chance. Your html pages and their pdf version show that a lot of work went into them. But they can be improved with a little attention to the typography, including font selection. And if you use actual text instead of images on your html pages your SEO will be improved. First people need to find your pages, then you can impress them with the content. I note that in both versions the paragraphs are seriously gap toothed. Hyphenation is badly needed. Scribus can do an acceptable job of hyphenation if you turn it on. Otherwise use ragged right. I would suggest a serif face rather than non-serif. But whatever the typeface the questions of rivers of type and gap toothed lines need to be addressed. On the html pages where presumably you used Verdana bold a bit lighter serif face would do better. Georgia (a Microsoft face) is designed specifically for online viewing. In the paragraph titled "Efficient" the last four lines have a "river" of white space where the words "processes" "seconds." "browse" and "source" end. The gaps after these words all line up, but some are wider than the others. Again hyphenation will improve the situation. Some people shy away from hyphenation but any professionally laid out document will use it where justification is in force. In my test document referenced below some of the text is set ragged right and some is set justified with hyphenation. The Scribus examples are on page 11 and 17. http://wexfordpress.com/tex/compare2.pdf In short the problems I find with your site are not just the use of a sans-serif font like Verdana. The justification of the text is a much more serious problem. And on the pdf version at least I would have used Scribus plus a nice serif font, and hyphenation. On the html version I would consider using some "real" text somewhere on the pages as well as tags etc. to give your offerings a chance for some search engine rankings. Right now the Alexa rank is not bad (1,641,359) but the Google rank is nonexistent. My much cruder page http://wexfordpress.com is no thing of beauty but it gets a Google rank of 4. And if you use the two search terms "typesetting" and "indexing" together in a Google search it comes up first. Try it and see. -- John Culleton Create Book Covers with Scribus: http://www.booklocker.com/p/books/4055.html Typesetting and indexing http://wexfordpress.com book sales http://wexfordpress.net Free barcode: http://www.tux.org/~milgram/bookland/
