
Guidelines and Conventions - Type and Page Layout
Fonts
A unified style of typography gives any publication a cohesive feel. The font family used for the Fermilab web site is the basic, sans serif Arial family, or a look-alike. This font, or a similar one, can be called by the linked Fermilab "style sheet." If a font name is called, either by a document-level style sheet or in the traditional manner using HTML tags, the linked style sheet will be superceded by these new attributes.
Font size is not called out in the style sheet and will be left up to the browser whenever possible. When a change is required, it is recommended that the tags <font size="+1"> or <font size="-1"> be used. (values other than "1" can be substituted for greater change) This causes the value of the font size to be incremented larger or smaller in relation to the standard font size that is rendered by the browser.
Please note that some older browsers do not support style sheets. Please use style sheet attributes with discretion. If a browser does not support style sheets it will render default settings for text and colors.
Layout and Subnavigation
The subnavigation for each main hub of the site is done with simple text links and a description for each. The subnavigation on the pages one level deeper is done with simple text links below the main site navigation. The main "hub" area name is built into the header graphics provided. The pages for the subsections of each hub area have a page title in blue type (#003399) that is bold and one font size bigger than the default. This page name is also in a one-cell table with a gray background. This helps visually separate the top links from the page content. If there is also another level of navigation necessary, text links should be placed in a row below the gray box containing the page title to help viewers associate those particular links with the section they are visiting. These layout and navigation conventions give the viewer visual cues as to where they are in the site and how they can get to the other content within that particular section.
Page Width
The Fermilab web site has a standardized maximum page width of 760 pixels for browser compatibility. We feel that this width is a reasonable maximum for a readable column. If an image larger than about 760 pixels wide must be displayed, open a new browser window to display it.
Link Colors
We recommend that link colors stay consistent throughout the site. The Fermilab web site style sheet uses a slight variation of the standard blue for non-visited and purple for visited. Use the standard blue and purple or a similar variation within those color families. The hexadecimal value used in the Fermilab style guide for non-visited links is #003399. The value for visited links is #663399.
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