Displaying Bold Text with the Google Font API`s b Shorthand
In this sixth part of the series, you will learn how to work with the “b” shorthand offered by the Google Font API, which can be used as a quick replacement for the “bold” option discussed in a previous part. The shorthand offers nothing especially difficult to grasp, so you shouldn’t have any problem using it when embedding bold fonts in your own (X)HTML documents.
Displaying Bold Text with the Google Font API`s b Shorthand (Page 1 of 4 )
If you’re looking for a quick and simple way to embed commercial fonts in your web pages without having to take a single cent out of your pocket, then you should take a peek at the Google Font API. It's a brand new web service implemented by the search engine giant that will let you use a decent number of commercial typefaces in your (X)HTML documents, which can be directly downloaded from Google’s servers by means of a set of simple query string arguments.
Of course, if you've read all of the articles that precede this one, it’s probable that you now have a more intimate background on how to utilize the API to define the visual presentation of your text-based HTML elements by using the commercial font families offered by Google. What’s more, over the course of those tutorials I also demonstrated how to take advantage of the “italic” and “bold” options provided by the API for downloading only the italicized and bold versions of a specified font family.
In addition, the Font API gives web designers the ability to use a shorthand when working with the two previous options. The “italic” argument can be directly replaced by the letter “i” within the query string, while the “bold” argument can be shortened by using the character “b.” That’s not rocket science, right?
But wait; even though its usage is very simple to grasp, the shorthand “b” hasn’t been covered yet, at least with a hands-on approach. To address this issue, in the lines to come I’m going to show how to work with the “b” argument, so you can learn how to use it within your own web pages.
Ready to learn the full details of this topic? Then let’s get started right now!
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