Smashing Newsletter: Issue #233

Editorial

As humans, we like stability, and so we tend to be resilient to change. How often do we see an idea dismissed just because it seemed a bit too far fetched? Perhaps it has been done before, or perhaps there isn’t enough trust in the team to support the idea. However, you never know for sure — until you try and fail, or succeed big time.

We had an idea a while back. An idea for an inclusive, friendly, and timeless new printed magazine for designers and web developers. Written by and for the community, and exploring topics that often get lost in a myriad of blog posts out there. Practical and approachable, useful and relevant. Not a magazine about design trends or fancy APIs, but something that would make us think more, and would remain useful as time passes by. The idea seemed a bit weird in times of everything moving digital, but we kept exploring it, and we wanted to see what a Smashing Magazine Print could be like.

It took us a bit more time than expected, but here we are — finally — almost ready with the very first pilot issue of a shiny new Smashing Magazine Print. Carefully designed by Veerle Pieters, edited by Rachel Andrew, and 60 pages dedicated to a topic that’s very close to our hearts: Ethics and Privacy. With articles by respected members of the community Trine Falbe, Heather Burns, Laura Kalbag, Cennydd Bowles and many others — content that will hopefully make you think more about the whys and the hows for your work.

As part of our Smashing family, you can download a quick PDF preview for free before it’s released. The pilot issue will be shipped worldwide in late July (it’s only a matter of days!), and if you are a Smashing Member with a $9 plan, you’ll receive it delivered to your footsteps as a part of your subscription (expect an email shortly!). So that’s a reason to subscribe after all. Of course, you’ll be able to purchase the magazine without being a member, too.

We don’t know how the magazine will take shape in the future, but we already can’t wait to hear your feedback. The details will be announced in the upcoming weeks — stay tuned! We’re very excited, and we hope you’ll be, too.

With warm greetings from London,
– Vitaly (@smashingmag)

Transparent JavaScript Bundles, One NPM Package At A Time
The Power And Meaning Of Serverless
Free Illustrations For Your Story
Learning Synthesis In The Browser
The Current State Of Italics In Variable Font Support
Generating Gradients Within Seconds
Degreeless Design For Everyone
Upcoming In Smashing Membership
Our Next Smashing Workshops

1. Transparent JavaScript Bundles, One NPM Package At A Time

JavaScript bloat is more real today than it ever was. To make it worse, websites are being piled up with redundant libraries that struggle to solve new problems. Thankfully, there are tools such as Bundlephobia that can help you understand the performance cost of installing a new npm package before actually adding it to your bundle. So, the next time you think of including an npm package in your app’s bundle, make sure to take a closer look at the performance impact. (il)

2. The Power And Meaning Of Serverless

If you’re a front-end developer, you’re probably wondering what the hype is around ‘serverless’. The term is a bit misleading: it still involves servers. Chris Coyier breaks it down with everything you need to know about running your code on a cloud of your choice — with a list of resources, services, and ideas on how to test the waters on all things serverless. (il)

3. Free Illustrations For Your Story

Do you know the story of the man and the blue robot? No? Well, we don’t either. That’s because no one has written the story just yet, and that’s a shame. We already have the protagonists, and all they’re waiting for is someone with a unique story to tell.

Illustrations are a great way to help you visualize scenes or characters in your story. Take a look at the Stubborn Generator — a great tool that allows you to combine 25 characters and 50 background objects. All components are free and editable with both Sketch and Figma. Nifty! (il)

4. Learning Synthesis In The Browser

With so many websites out there, the interative ones are among the ones that stand out the most. If you’re a fan of synthesis, you’ll love exploring through Learning Synths. It’s aninteractive website that puts a powerful but easy-to-learn synthesizer right in your web browser. It’s free, sounds great, and works on any internet-connected device. (il)

5. The Current State Of Italics In Variable Font Support

Not all browsers support variable fonts, and when it comes to Italics, there are still differences in how and when browsers decide to implement the axis that has been specified. This results to completely different combinations and ways to specify Italics. Jason Pamental shares his thoughts on the topic, and has created a CodePen example to help find some common ground. (il)

6. Generating Gradients Within Seconds

Coding a gradient by hand is no fun. Thankfully, there are tools out there to make such tedious work simpler. One of them is Gradient Generator, a great tool that generates 1 to 40 stepped gradients from two colors of your choice. Each gradient is automatically presented in HEX, HSL, and RGB formats — all you need to do is simply click on the value, and it will be copied to your clipboard right away. Nifty! (il)

7. Degreeless Design For Everyone

As with everything in life, start with the basics and add to that knowledge. If you’re interested in diving into the world of UX and design, there is a useful list of resources, books, and articles collected by Tregg Frank who shares his journey of learning design — all in one place. Not everyone has the access, or the ability, or the time to get a degree, so this comes in quite handy! (il)

8. Upcoming In Smashing Membership

Thank you for being smashing! Over the last months, we’ve been increasing the number of webinars (without increasing the price of membership — it still starts at just $5 a month!) and have also improved video quality since we’ve moved to Zoom. Also, the eBook version of Andy Clarke’s brand new book “Art Direction for the Web” is now available as a part of the Membership, too. Obviously.

Coming up next:

Smashing TV on July 9 at 16:00 GMT
“The Power Of Digital People” with Kristina Podnar
Smashing TV on July 11 at 16:00 GMT
“Inspired Design Decisions #3: Inspired By Ernest Journal” with Andrew Clarke
Smashing TV on July 16 at 16:00 GMT
“The Web of Things: The Story Of A Browser Escaping Into The Physical World” with Sebastian Golasch
Smashing TV on August 20 at 16:00 GMT
“Interactive Web Animation With SVG” with Cassie Evans

We are very grateful for your support which allows us to bring you great content, pay all our contributors fairly, and reduce advertising on the site. (You could become a Member, too! Join us in Smashingland where everyone is beautiful and you never get merge conflicts. )

9. Our Next Smashing Workshops

In our workshops, we are looking into the current state of front-end and interface design, covering advanced challenges and actual real-life solutions to front-end problems.