De Woof Type Foundry

De Woof is a fictional company I made up specifically so I could try imitating some of the functionalities commonly seen on type foundry websites.

This project was essentially the second part of my attempt to learn basic JavaScript (Mixology Simulator being the first part). It is the result of learning how to write native JavaScript code that is just a bit cleaner, efficient, and easier to maintain.

Please feel free to check out the website via the link below.

Otherwise, keep on scrolling to read up on the creation process.

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The Type Foundry

Aside from the usual interactive gallery of fonts, these websites have a number of other unique features, such as a portfolio of their typeface contributors and a section wherein the fonts could be tested by the user. These features seemed like a good starting point for learning and practicing basic JavaScript.

The website was left intentionally black and white to give it that old-school newspaper print feel. In fact, some of the page layouts were directly inspired by those used on newspapers.

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The JavaScript

The code is mostly just basic manipulations of common styles such as font size and color. Really, the hard part was in writing the code as efficiently as possible. My experience with basic code concepts such as variables and functions began with ActionScript. Although I'm sure many people have little good things to say about Adobe Flash and its language nowadays, I am actually highly appreciative that I was taught ActionScript first before being introduced to JavaScript.

The former is well known for being easy to learn and to get into. It was where I was taught concepts common in code writing. It was where I learned about booleans, if statements, arrays, and the like. These are what I used to help make De Woof’s code a bit more streamlined. Although there are probably better, more automated ways to recreate the functionalities that I wanted...

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