How to Overcome Font Rendering Issues in Browsers?

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Fonts play a crucial role in how quickly a web page renders. Fonts of large headings especially look different than what we see in design tools like Adobe XD, Photoshop, Sketch and so on since they have anti-aliasing engines to smoothen the fonts. The fonts look blocky on the web and nothing close to what it looks like in design tools. I believe most developers would stand by that fact.

 

The usage of custom fonts has steadily increased over the years.

Why do people use custom fonts?

Companies usually use custom fonts to stand out. However, custom fonts come with a cost. Some of the issues that usually tag along with custom fonts are performance issues and slow loading time. So custom fonts may not be the most ideal approach for most websites. Fonts need to be loaded quickly for optimal user experience hence it's a priority.

Now, why do issues occur?

Let's take a look at some of the reasons why

The fonts that the design team use are usually print-friendly and not web-friendly.

Custom fonts are quite heavy.

How does it work under the hood?

First, the contents will be rendered using default font family of the browser or device.

The chosen font family will be applied over the contents. If there’s no delay between applying the font family over the contents the user won't see any transitions over font family.

But if there is a delay in receiving the font family, the user will face font family transitions. And this is not a recommended approach.

 

Usually, all custom fonts were called using @font-face. When the browser encounters the font family it will check whether the custom font is locally available. If it's available, it will render the font or else it will download the fonts from the server.

 

Although it's a quick process, it takes a considerable amount of time for the browser to paint the font strokes into the DOM. So, the usage of custom fonts will jeopardize the performance If the recommended guidelines are not followed.

How to optimize the custom font rendering?

It's optimal If the design team provides the font files in WOFF format.

 

Why WOFF?

Usually, the custom font files take up a large amount of space, the WOFF format is optimised for the web.

 

Reducing the font file count :

The used font-weight files alone will suffice. The number of used font weight and font style variants in a font family will be enough. Doing so, the load time can be optimised considerably. To overcome this only load the font weight and font style variant required in the design.

 

Even after following this process, we can optimise 20% of the load time but the font rendering issue will remain.

WHY WEB FONTS :

Pros :

1. Easily available in google fonts and free.
2. The browsers can easily render these fonts since their sizes are significantly smaller when compared to custom fonts.
3. It supports shared caching.

 

Cons :

1. Limited amount of font choices.

Most supported fonts for web & mobile development:

1. Open Sans
Current use case - PayTM

2. Montserrat
Current Use Case - Knowing Design

3. Playfair Display
Current Use Cases - Vogue, Spain, BMW

4. Roboto
Current Use Cases - Almost all google products (Gmail, Youtube)

5. Proxima Nova
Current Use Cases - Buzzfeed, Mashable, CNET

 

If we want the most optimal solution with minimal effort, the design team has to opt for web-compatible fonts rather than the print friendly fonts.

by Excrin

How Travel Planner Changed The Travel And Tourism Industry

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Gone are the days when individuals used to travel around the world with maps, guidebooks and strange printed pieces of stuff for directions, general information or anything for that matter. People mostly used to rely on travel bloggers when it comes to researching new destinations and finding ideas or had to depend on the travel agents to make proper arrangements for the trip. But fortunately, those days have lapsed. Assembling trip details with an Excel travel itinerary template or a Google doc itinerary template can be time-consuming.

Technology has played a major role in uplifting the tourism industry. The revolutionary transformation in this industry is thanks to the handy mobile applications. Presently with the evolving situation, the cast majority of the tour operating companies have developed their own travel apps and constantly offer attractive discounts and other facilities to charm potential customers.

What does a travel planner itinerary do

Crafting an itinerary for your trip can be both fun and overwhelming. What are the places one must visit or skip? How much time one should spend at the museum, and how close is it to that cafe you want to check out? And how can one keep all the ideas and bookings neatly organized?

A travel itinerary planner app composes all travel itineraries and documents so that one can have everything in one place before reaching the destination. The app goes further in giving you a custom-fitted interface to make it simple to add accurate travel details for your trip and be done in just a few minutes. It also offers customized tours, guides and maps, and shows restaurants and/or landmarks that are close to your hotel. Simply have the reservations automatically sent to the travel planner app, which will let one view travel confirmations, flight itineraries, tickets, hotel reservations, and driving directions in one place. Based on the number of days you plan to spend at a destination, the app offers recommended sightseeing guides. The app consequently assembles nearby attractions together and lets you know how far apart they are. You can likewise book tours and get general travel information about the destination through the app.

Customized services could include tour packages for several purposes, be it a corporate or a fun trip. Furthermore, travel agents have become quite conscious of paying attention to the specific needs and priorities of their clients. A strict eye is necessary on what the present interest of the market is and then design travel packages accordingly that suits different sets of people.

Advantages of travel planner apps

One significant change that mobile applications have offered to the tourism industry is that it has diminished the process of paperwork. Since smartphones are convenient and portable, one can save the soft copies, important documents and other things within your mobile. In addition, after the arrival of applications, the formalities related to travel booking has also reduced. Some of the top travel planner apps are TripIt, Google Trips, etc.

Closure

Here are some of the ways that artificial intelligence is transforming the future of fashion.

There is absolutely no doubt that mobile apps have become one of the most essential aspects of the travel and tourism industry. Being the seventh most downloaded mobile applications, it enhances it all the more. With all the information given instantly, a travel planner itinerary is a godsend for travellers and even an average user for that fact. Simply put, it does not get any easier than this to map out an entire trip.

by Excrin

The Evolution of Transcription

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Transcription is one of the most established, ancient forms of documentation. It refers to the process of converting audio or video material into text format for accessibility, indexing or archival purposes.

Understanding transcription

Technological advances have made transcriptions simpler and increasingly effective by giving added approaches to record the original material and to deliver clear, coherent transcripts for business use. Transcription services are a major model, where innovation aims to better human ability with translation and other complex errands. It plays a big role in nearly every industry. This allows companies, nonprofits, corporations, and government organisations to maintain records, comply with regulations, improve training, and boost sales.

Some transcription organizations can send staff to occasions, discourses, or classes, who at that point convert the verbally expressed substance into the content. A few organizations likewise acknowledge recorded speech, either on tape, CD, VHS, or as sound documents. With the constant advancement in technology, this industry is only getting bigger over time.

EVOLUTION OF TRANSCRIPTION

Past:

Scribes were found as early as 3400 BCE (Before the Common Era) This isn't something new, the process has just evolved over the years. Back then scribes would train for years in hieroglyphics and hieratic scripts, efforts culminating in govt. administration and commerce, contracts and inventories. A hundred years later, children would transcribe their ancient language onto stone tablets.

Much later, the invention of the printing press led to a decline in the need for scribes, and so transcription also fell. Scribes climbed back up during the 17th century but were generally used for manuscripts and other types of literature.

The transcription service didn't see much evolution again until the 19th century. At that age, the typewriter was invented and the number of typists grew steadily. Decades later, the reign of the typewriter came to an end in the 1980s. The truly digital way to type and transcribe information was out - word processor.

FUTURE OF TRANSCRIPTION

Pretty much every industry you could consider is asking itself what the future will look like as Artificial Intelligence and its related technologies develop.

A well-known theme in transcription is the development of speech recognition technology and how it might be the eventual fate of the business. The speech recognition technology is believed to triple over the next five years. Text-to-speech technology keeps on developing on phones, tablets, and PCs. No one can state where the transcription business is going, but it's worth considering the possibilities.

As speech recognition advances, there will be a decrease in the need for medical transcriptionists.

Similarly, as with most innovation, proficiency and convenience are the most significant things with regards to digitizing the transcription process. Recent times, great new advancements in AI and speech recognition that have changed the way audio is refined which in turn gave rise to automated transcription services. Using this automation, one can now transcribe audio files at a fraction of the time it takes a human. This helps tackle a once complex and inefficient workflow. One of the major issues with machine-generated is the accuracy rate of the transcription is that background noise can affect the accuracy of the digital transcription.

AI is not error-free, but it’s quick and helps individuals make corrections after. A major advantage with digital transcription is that it's a lot more secure The process is not taken up by several people, which keeps a lot of eyes and ears away from being exposed to potential data.

The market is currently flooded with audio to speech conversion but there are other types of transcription such as speech recognition, video and image transcription. These aren’t very accurate yet but they’re growing at a remarkable speed.

Conclusion

Automated transcription helps save time helps remove the pressure of media professionals so they can create required content quickly.

by Excrin