Specimen

MeritWEB

What web design is doing right now, in the sites, typefaces and tools it is being done with.

Six things, set at the size they deserve.

180 ptInter and Söhne share a single-storey g, not a purpose Inter, drawn by Rasmus Andersson and given away. Söhne, drawn by Kris Sowersby at Klim in Wellington and sold. Both answer the same question — how a grotesque behaves at fourteen pixels — and they answer it differently. Type → 104 ptWhat the browser learned, and when Grid in March 2017, container queries and :has() in 2023, View Transitions still uneven. The Browser → 68 ptFigma kept shipping through fifteen months of acquisition shadow Announced September 2022, abandoned December 2023, and the file kept being where the work happened. Tools → 44 ptA page is not a container of links. It is a decision about what somebody should look at first 28 ptEverything here was argued out in public first 17 ptAnd the whole roster — MeritWEB named 47 subjects and indexed its own scope — laid out properly on one page. Archive →
A foundry specimen booklet open on a desk beside a laptopTYPE An engineer at a standing desk, laptop and a second monitor showing the same page side by side at two widths, devtools open. Shot from the side so both screens and the person are iTHE BROWSER A dark studio, one laptop lid covered in real product stickers, the laptop open showing a dense dark product page. A hand resting on the trackpadTOOLS A large monitor showing a dense marketing page, a person reading it at the deskPAGES Smiling man with glasses wears a gray dribbble t-shirt at a crowded eventIN PRINT A wall of printed page proofs pinned in a grid, a person standing in front reaching up to move one sheet. Wide, straight on, the wall taller than they areARCHIVE
Three designers around one large monitor in a working studio, mid-discussion, one standing and gesturing at the screen. The screen shows a real interface being picked apart. Faces

Type

Inter and Söhne share a single-storey g, not a purpose

Inter, drawn by Rasmus Andersson and given away, and Söhne, drawn by Kris Sowersby at Klim and sold, answer the same question — how a grotesque behaves at fourteen pixels — and answer it differently. Set the same paragraph in both and the difference is not decoration.

One file, every weight — readable by every browser since 2016

wght 400 · opsz 48

Handgloves

A variable font is one file with an axis in it. Most production builds still ship four static weights out of habit. Read the piece.

Also worth an afternoon

Tools

Figma kept shipping through fifteen months of acquisition shadow

Two screens showing the same component at different widths, a person between them
Three people, one screen, one interface being taken apart — which is the part of the job no file format has replaced.

THE BROWSER

CSS Grid landed in nineteen days across two browsers

Chrome 57 and Firefox 52, a fortnight apart.

IN PRINT

Marcotte's 2010 A List Apart article became industry method

Responsive web design is a specific idea with a date: fluid grids, flexible images and media queries, named together.

PAGES

Linear's dark page became half the industry's template

The dark product page is now a genre with conventions.

Shops, foundries, and browser teams worth knowing about.

Supporters

What the browser learned, and when

2016

Variable fontsOpenType 1.8, September

2017

CSS GridChrome 57, Firefox 52

2019

prefers-color-schemeDark mode becomes work

2023

Container queriesLast in: Firefox 110, February

2023

:has()December, all engines

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View TransitionsStill uneven. Enhancement only.

Moving between the pages of this site uses a view transition where the browser has one. The Browser.

A page is not a container of links. It is a decision about what somebody should look at first.