Best of the Web: October 2012

Happy Halloween! Below is my list of the best and most useful stuff that I’ve found during my travels on the information superhighway this month.

• Web fonts are becoming more and more popular every day.  Before loading a web font, how can you as a web developer check if the user already has the font installed?  It is an interested question, and something I never even considered before I read this article.
• Before you bid on your next freelance project, be sure to read 3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Bidding on a Freelance Project. It outlines the three most important factors to look at in any project to make sure you’ll keep your sanity and make some money on the project too.
• I’ve always found that trying to show a client all the various iterations of a responsive design is a tricky thing to do.  Nobody wants to have to keep resizing the browser window when presenting a design to a client.  I finally found a solution – Responsivator. Just plug-in your URL and the site will load up a series of iframes to show your website at the most common sizes, and you can add more if needed.
• I keep finding new things I can do with CSS 3.  One of the nice additions to CSS 3 is the new selectors, including the :not selector.  The interesting thing about this selector is that it does the opposite of every selector you’ve used. If you need an introduction, or refresher, to the :not selector, check out this video tutorial.
• Speaking of CSS, there are so many cool new ideas that developers are showing off using CSS 3. If you want to try out some new ideas yourself, check out this list of 60 Useful CSS Tutorials.
• If you are still trying to find a way to think about your design workflow in the modern, multi-device world, check out these Responsive Sketchsheets by Zurb.  These are a great way to quickly plan your web designs.