Update to Preview Widget
Dear FontStructors,
We’ve updated the preview widget used on the gallery pages and elsewhere on the site:
(Above Example: “Penmanship” by “Thalamic” in the sample text mode.)
There are a number of new and improved features which we hope will help you to get a better overview of a FontStruction and to see how it works at different sizes.
Revised Menu
The preview widget now has a “VIEW” menu with three options:
- “All Letters” which is the default, displaying all characters within the FontStruction
- “Sample Text” which shows a standard sample text (for FontStructions with sufficient characters)
- “User Input” which turns the preview widget into a text entry field where you can try typing with the FontStruction
One-Click Pixel Preview
On the left there’s a “PXL” button which will give you a preview of your FontStruction at a one-brick-per-pixel resolution, whichever option you have chosen from the “VIEW” menu.
Interactive Zoom
Between the “PXL” button and the “VIEW” menu, there’s an interactive slider which you can use to view the FontStruction at a range of different sizes.
Vertical Scrolling
On the right, there are scroll buttons which you can use to scroll the text vertically line-by-line.
Larger Preview on FontStruction Homepages
On FontStruction home pages the widget is now taller and will usually show about four lines of letters. There is also an experimental feature: You can drag the bottom right-hand corner of the widget to resize it vertically.
Looking at FontStructions in the new widget is very revealing. The importance of setting an appropriate width for the space character quickly becomes clear. It’s also great to be able to see a more extensive character set more easily. Some designs which may have looked flawed or even dull as an “ABCDEF…” in the old sampler now reveal their true qualities more readily.
We’ve also simplified the embedded version of the widget. It doesn’t have a border anymore so it should be easier to integrate into the design of your blogs and webpages.
Please let us know what you think.
By Rob Meek (meek) | link | 15 Comments
Much better than expected!
Thanks Rob
Comment by Em42 — March 3, 2009 #
Hi there,
my preview widgets are bigger than before, but that´s the only change I see. There are no pxl or scroll-buttons. Do I have to change settings or what?
Comment by Magic Sam — March 3, 2009 #
And by the way, the embedded version on my website doesn´t work either: the letters are too small to read and the sample text doesn´t make sense (a quhck brown eox jumps over tge lazy dof spghnx etc.). Is it just me having these problems?
Comment by Magic Sam — March 3, 2009 #
Very nice. Thank you.
Comment by aphoria — March 3, 2009 #
this is tooo awesome.
what a major improvement!
all thumbs up!
finally u can get a closer view without downloading/installing or cloning. very impressive, very appreciated. thanks :)
Comment by kix — March 3, 2009 #
I really like the new preview window, it looks great with large fonts. I don’t see the pxl button, sliders, or view menu, either, although they sound like they will be nice, too :)
Comment by Loman — March 3, 2009 #
I figured it out, if you can’t see the new features, try clearing your browser’s cache, it worked for me :D
Comment by Loman — March 3, 2009 #
@Magic Sam. As Loman says, you may need to clear your browsers cache if you can’t see the new features.
Comment by Rob Meek (meek) — March 4, 2009 #
Really nice improvement, Rob. Much faster preview with the vertical scrolling. Although I kinda wish that the new preview had been augmented to the previous one, instead of supplanting it. I miss the horizontal scrolling already. I really like the bigger previews on the homepages too. Thanks!
Comment by geneus1 — March 4, 2009 #
@geneus1 Glad you like it. I hope you get use to the vertical scrolling. Although I can see DeTrayne rolled better the old way ;-)
Comment by Rob Meek (meek) — March 4, 2009 #
I just realized that new widget forced me to update and improve some older sets (that really looked ugly in Sample Text or User Input mode) with spacing control.
That’s great!
Comment by Em42 — March 4, 2009 #
Great work Rob. My latest was looking rather anemic and unsettled in the preview but now it really gets a chance to spread its wings and fly. Suggestion: The new preview controls make it super easy to create basic samples. Could the comment section be reconfigured to accept an image upload that’s the same (approx.) width as a screen capture from the preview window?
Comment by afrojet — March 4, 2009 #
Great work, Rob! Thanks for these improvements — like Em42, looking at some of my older work with the new preview makes me realize that I have to get in there and set the space width!
Comment by SquarePeg — March 4, 2009 #
The new preview enhancements are really helpful. I especially like the experimental feature allowing users to resize the widget vertically. Please make this a permanent function. Thanks, Rob!
Comment by fontcollector — March 7, 2009 #
i miss horizontal scrolling :^(
Comment by paul hunt — June 11, 2009 #