A quick guide to typography for the web

Feb

Typography is one of the most important aspects of web design, yet also perhaps one of the most overlooked. Anybody can choose a typeface, but choosing the right typeface and then displaying it correctly can be a crucial step to reaching your users. Here are some tips for enhancing your website’s typography:

Choosing the right typeface.

First of all, yes it’s called a typeface, not a font. Without getting into too many details, Helvetica is a typeface, 18pt Helvetica Light is a font. Moving on. Generally, when choosing a typeface for your website, the choice often comes down to serif vs sans-serif. There’s not necessarily a right or wrong answer here, but some people feel very strongly one way or the other. Recent studies have found that sans-serif may be slightly more readable than serif, but the margin is very slim and ultimately comes down to preference, and what you’re used to reading. Display fonts are fine for headers, but avoid using anything other than a basic serif or sans-serif for your body copy.

Font size and line-height.

The next step is deciding the right size and spacing for your chosen type. These values will need to change based on device type and screen size (see image below), but in regards to font sizing for a desktop the common rule is to choose something in the 16-21px range. Your line spacing (line-height) should be in the range of 130%-170% of your font size. For instance, if you have a font size of 16px, a line-height of 150% would equal 24px.

Line Length for maximum readability.

Another important aspect to typography for the web is setting a reasonable line length. There have been many studies on this, which all find that the ideal line length for maximum readability is somewhere in the range of 45-80 characters. This is probably one of the most easily overlooked topics of typography, but critical to retaining user attention. See the image below for examples of various character lengths.

A couple more things.

Anyone who has ever tried to read yellow text on a white background has experienced the importance of a proper contrast between your type and background color. A general rule is to shoot for a contrast of at least 4.5:1 between type and background, but this varies depending on the weight of your font. Finally, make sure to establish an appropriate visual hierarchy between headers and body copy. This will allow users to scan your content as needed to find what they’re looking for.

If you’d like some help figuring out the perfect way to reach your users by creating a beautiful, easily readable and scannable website, don’t hesitate to reach out. Let our design team help you out with that.

Check Out PSPinc Design Solutions

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru #PSPINC #PacificSoftwarePublishing #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #Typography #WebDevelopment #WebandEmailHosting

Announcement: Mail Server Update

Feb

Dear valued customer,

Thank you for choosing Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

We are always looking to improve the services we offer you.
As such, we will be conducting mail server update.

You may experience delay in incoming emails for a few seconds during the maintenance time below.

The schedule is as follows:

* USA Pacific Standard Time
- Feb 19th (Fri) 8:00am - 8:30am

* Japan Time
- Feb 20th (Sat) 1:00am - 1:30am

PSPinc provides services with uptimes of 99.9%

If you have any questions, please contact us at 1-800-232-3989 or email us at support@pspinc.com .

We would like to answer your questions by phone call.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#email #pspinc #update

Questions from Customers

Feb

Today we are going to answer some questions we have received from customers over time. We hope you find it informative! If you don't find an answer to a question you have please contact us - we may feature you in a future entry to the Questions from Customers series!

Who is PSPinc?

PSPinc is a full-service web hosting, design, and software development company headquartered in Bellevue, WA. We house close to 50 employees and provide service to thousands of clients worldwide. PSPinc has rapidly grown with the age of the internet over the past three decades. Our groundbreaking technology has aided in globalizing software solutions and driving innovation in the webspace. As an independent software design and development company, we use our technology to create software to help companies save and make money.

What is the meaning of “Web Hosting”?

A web hosting service (often shortened to web host) is a type of Internet hosting service that allows you to make your website accessible through the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies, like PSPinc, that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.

PSPinc Hosting Services

We offer a number of options at various price points and technical specifications each with its own advantages.

Our flagship hosting platform, Dreamersi provides reliable hosting services, and live customer support to give you peace of mind and allows you to focus on growing your company.

Lean and powerful web and email hosting. Our fast and secure YourHost platform allows you to manage all aspects of your hosting account through cPanel.

Robust web and email hosting designed to fit your needs. Parcom is perfect as a development platform for no-frills hosting.

VPS

If you have specific technical needs for your hosting environment, we have the technology and professional experts to build a VPS (virtual private server) environment for you. We can precisely match your technical requirements.

Does PSPinc have services other than hosting?

Yes, PSPinc offers not only hosting but a number of other services built to help businesses succeed online. For more information on our software as a service offering, visit our cloud services web page. You can click on any product name or logo to learn more about that service.

I want to create my own website, what should I do?

We recommend WebdeXpress for customers who are new to creating their own website. You can either choose to build a stunning website yourself or you can ask us to build it for you quickly and inexpensively.

I am starting my own business, should I create a website for it?

Yes! Your website is a very powerful and useful tool to communicate and share information with your customers. Whether you are starting a new business, want to stand out from your competitors, or have something to express - there is no better place to do it than on your website.

Can I sell my products on my website?

You sure can when you build your website with ShopSite. We can help set up and even develop a custom online eCommerce website using ShopSite on our YourHost web hosting platform. Did we mention we are a nationally recognized ShopSite hosting partner?

Contact Us

For inquiries about PSPinc services, please contact our Sales team who will provide the best plan for you with a polite and prompt response.
Call: 1-800-232-3989 / Email: psp_service@pspinc.com

For technical support, please contact our Support team. Not only will get help solving your problems but you can pick up technical tips and advice from our knowledgeable staff.
Call: 1-800-232-3989 / Email: support@pspinc.com

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#Customers #Hosting #PSPinc #Questions #SoftwareDevelopment #WebHosting

PSPinc What’s New Newsletter Vol. 51 "Restaurants Are Back"

Feb

Vol. 51

The industries that have been hit the hardest by the spread of the coronavirus are travel and restaurants. Now that the vaccine is being administered, the number of newly infected people seems to be decreasing a bit. Under such circumstances, travel and restaurant industries are showing some signs of recovery. To support these industries, Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is launching the Restaurants are Back campaign.

Restaurants are Back is an effort to provide PSPinc developed products to restaurant operators free of charge. PSPinc has been purchasing take-out lunches from local restaurants every day since March of last year for staff coming to the office. We hope to be able to help many more restaurants with this campaign.

If you have a service that you would like to offer, we would be happy to introduce it on our campaign website. For more information, please visit Restaurants Are Back.

https://restaurantsareback.com

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#RestaurantsAreBack #imamenu #marketing #newsmail #pspinc #webdexpress

Impact of Website SEO with Search Engines: Page Speed

Feb

Last time we spoke about the impact of keywords on your website SEO. If you didn’t get a chance to read that article, we encourage you to go back and check it out.

Today we are going to discuss the role page speed plays in SEO. Often, people put less value on the page speed of their website compared with the content, keywords, and design. However, if your page loads really slow, it will affect your search ranking.

What’s going to happen if my page speed is slow?

Users are looking to get information immediately when they click a link. If the page takes too long to load, they will most likely leave your website. This will increase your “Bounce Rate”, Google may also grade your reputation as bad for lack of usability. Google research in 2018 showed that if your page takes more than 2 seconds to load, the “Bounce Rate” would increase by up to 32%.

How can I improve my page speed?

Image file compression

Large file sizes of images make websites load slowly and will cause a negative user experience. Image compression is the process of using compression algorithms to reduce the file size of an image file. There are a number of tools online for compressing images that you can find by searching for ‘online image compressing tools’. Professional programs like Adobe Photoshop are also more than capable of handling advanced image compression.

Browser caching

A web browser’s cache is what web browsers use to save data such as images that are needed to view your website. Saving this data allows the browser to load your website faster and more efficiently. When building a website if you define a longer cache for your assets that don’t change frequently, your web browser will store the information longer and further enhance your browser’s loading speed.

Lazy load images

Another solution is to delay loading images using JavaScript. Lazy loading images means you load images on your website asynchronously. After the above-the-fold content is fully loaded, the remaining images will only be loaded when they come into your browser’s viewport. This means that if users don’t scroll all of the ways down, images placed at the bottom of the page won’t be loaded. This lowers the time it takes for your page to initially load

Use fewer images and resource-heavy assets

The more images, videos, and 3rd party scripts/plugins you use, the longer it will take for your page to load. Try to have your website operate as leanly as possible. Using CSS to style text-based buttons instead of relying on images is an example of things you can do to make your site not only more accessible but run faster!

These are just a few tips for making your page load faster. A lot of these are best handled by professional Web Designers & Developers, so don’t be discouraged if these terms seem overly technical. At PSPinc, we have professional Designers and Developers who are knowledgeable of SEO and sophisticated web design! If you need help building a new website or updating an existing one, please let us know. We would love to talk to you about it further!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#PSPinc #PageSpeed #SEO #Website

Announcement: Mail Server Update

Feb

Dear valued customer,

Thank you for choosing Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

We are always looking to improve the services we offer you.
As such, we will be conducting mail server update.

You may experience delay in incoming/outgoing emails for a few seconds during the maintenance time below.

The schedule is as follows:

* USA Pacific Standard Time
- Feb 16th (Tue) 8:00am - 8:30am

* Japan Time
- Feb 17th (Wed) 1:00am - 1:30am

PSPinc provides services with uptimes of 99.9%

If you have any questions, please contact us at 1-800-232-3989 or email us at support@pspinc.com .

We would like to answer your questions by phone call.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#email #pspinc #update

How to avoid phishing spam

Feb

Phishing is a form of cyber attack in which scammers pretend to be a legitimate business entity in order to steal your personal information. These scams often come in the form of emails, although they could also come from phone calls or text messages. The goal of these scams is to trick unsuspecting users into providing their private login credentials or banking details. In this blog article, we will show you how to identify and avoid phishing scams.

What do phishing scams look like?

Phishing emails usually come as alert notices. These alerts tell you something is wrong with your email or banking account, such as your email box is full and must be cleared, or your credit card is frozen and must be unlocked. They will format the emails to look convincing in order to trick you into clicking on the login link and inputting your real login credentials. But what really happens in the background is they are simply stealing your login and payment details.

Here is an example of a real phishing scam we’ve received. It uses our company logo and name in the email, this email may look legitimate to average users:

This may seem like a legitimate email notifying you of your email storage being full. The URL link even looks real. But if you mouse over the URL without clicking on it, you will see the actual embedded URL goes to a completely different website run by the scammers. They will ask you to login, and if you logged in, you would’ve given them your private login information to your email account.

Once your email account is compromised, scammers will use your email account to send out mass spam so they can scam others. It’s a cycle that never ends. They will also steal any personal data you may have stored in your email account.

Here is another example, this one is harder to recognize:

The scammer copied every little details of a legitimate business email, including the footer and copyright notices. To unsuspecting eyes, this looks like a professional email from a legitimate company. But upon mousing over the Update Access link, it shows the link goes to a malicious foreign website that ends with .mx domain extension. If you were to login to this malicious website, you would’ve given scammers access to your financial investment account.

Let’s take a look at one more example:

This scammer copied the cPanel logo, they know cPanel is a popular control panel platform. By using cPanel’s logo, they hope you would be tricked into giving them your cPanel login information. With cPanel access, scammers would gain full control of your website and email accounts.

How to protect yourself from phishing attacks

Be vigilant. Always ask yourself this question, “do I have an account with this company?” If the answer is no, then the email is likely a phishing scam, and you should delete it. If the answer is yesstrong>, instead of clicking on the link in the email, you should contact the company directly. Go to the company’s website and login through the proper channels, or call in if you are unsure. It never hurts to ask questions.

If you happen to have clicked on a link and entered your login information, and you notice something is off or suspicious, you should immediately change your passwords. We have a great article explaining how to create a strong password in 2021. Even if you are unsure, changing your password first and asking questions later is always a good option.

Be aware of random billing invoices you receive, as opening them could expose you to malware/virus. Be very careful when you receive domain renewal notices from companies you do not recognize. Scammers can steal your domain name, then put your domain up for ransom. Your domain name is your identity on the web, it is everything for your business. Never respond to or renew your domain through a 3rd party you do not recognize.

In conclusion

Generally financial institutions will not ask you for any personal information through emails, or lock your account if you do not update personal details within a short amount of time. If you want to verify your email account quota status, you can simply login to your WebMail directly from the company website. Before clicking on a link in an email, it is always a good idea to mouse over a link and look at where the link goes to. If the link address looks unfamiliar, discard the email immediately.

Looking for secure Email Hosting? Dreamersi can host your emails for as little as $8.25 a month. Contact us to setup your own secure email accounts today. 800-232-3989

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#Email #PSPinc #Phishing

PSPinc What’s New Newsletter Vol. 50 "Digital Transformation (DX)"

Feb

Vol. 50

We hear the term "digital transformation" a lot these days. What exactly is it? The phrase "digital transformation" is becoming more prevalent without knowing how to incorporate or tackle it within a company. Today, I would like to talk about digital transformation.

IT is used to change people's lives for the better in every way. Companies will use IT to create better work environments, which will lead to advanced products and increase their competitiveness.

For example, businesses that used to have physical stores in many areas to support the act of going shopping can use digital transformation to their benefit. They can eliminate these stores by replacing them with online shopping experiences. This will reduce costs and increase the company's profit margin.

The next step is to use videos to explain the products that salespeople have been selling. Doing so will allow the sophisticated techniques of professional salespeople to be digitized and used again and again. Digital transformation is a service that can scratch the itch even online.

This is the era of digital transformation in education. What used to be the norm, going to school and taking classes, will be replaced by online classes. At that time, regional and national borders will no longer exist. The ability to earn a Japanese degree while abroad is another example of digital transformation.

Remote work, which has advanced due to the coronavirus, is also a form of digital transformation. In fact, if you work remotely, it doesn't matter where the company is located. It doesn't matter if you choose to live and work in an area where prices are lower and salaries are lower.

Digital transformation requires us to think about the benefits of what we are doing before we think about what we are doing. That is the basis of digital transformation. In your company, are you able to think beyond the boundaries of intellectual training, common sense, and customs? I believe that digital transformation is not a tool, but a way of thinking and a new way of doing business.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Create a contact-less digital restaurant menu for your customers with ImaMenu

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#mobileweb #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter

Announcement: NewsMAIL Social Media Icon Update

Feb

Sample newsletter template with updated SNS icons ↓

Dear valued customer,

Thank you for choosing NewsMAIL email broadcasting services by Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

We will update NewsMAIL services with the following changes:

- Support more social media links to YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Yelp, Foursquare and Ameba
- Update the look of all SNS icons

Please note that there will be no downtime for NewsMAIL services during this update.
If you have saved newsletters with previously set social media links, only the icons will be updated and the links will remain the same when broadcasting.

The release schedule is as follows:

* USA Pacific Standard Time
- Feb 10th (Wed) 9:30am-10:00am

* Japan Time
- Feb 11th (Thu) 2:30am-3:00am

PSPinc provides services with uptimes of 99.9%

If you have any questions, please contact us at 1-800-232-3989 or email us at support@pspinc.com.

We would like to answer your questions by phone call.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#marketing #newsmail #pspinc #sns #update

What is a "Secure Password"?

Feb

Passwords have been around forever. You use them to log into everything you access online.

Is your password secure?

We used to be able to create a 3-5 character passwords without any complexity and this password was good. Nowadays with everyone having an online presence creating a secure password will ensure your accounts aren't compromised. So what is a "Secure Password" exactly.

A secure password is between 8 - 16 characters long and includes upper case letters, lowercase letters, a number, and a special character. You start to think though, "How am I ever going to remember this!?!"

Well there are several solutions but right now we will talk about mnemonics (neh-mon-nics). Mnemonics is defined as, "the study and development of systems for improving and assisting the memory." You might remember this from school. For example, in IT, there are the 7 layers of the OSI model:

Application
Presentation
Session
Transport
Network
Data Link
Physical

We used the first character of each word to to write out a simple sentence that was easier to remember.
"All People Seem To Need Data Processing"

The same can be applied to passwords. Do you read poetry? Do you have a favorite book or phrase that stands out to you? You can use this to create a secure password. Let's try it out.

I enjoy poetry so I will base my example off of that. One of my favorite poems is The Tyger by William Blake.
(https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43687/the-tyger)

We will use just one of his stanzas to create our password:

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

With this we can use the first or even second character in every word to create a password:

ttbbitfotn (first character in each word)
yyurnhofhi (second character)

This doesn't seem very secure though so we have to salt it up a bit using our secure password rules, so we can for example do:

TtbBitfoTn
uppercase and lowercase but still not secure enough, lets pepper it some more:

1TtbB2itfoTn!
13 characters long, uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers and a special character.

With the above password I only used the first 2 lines of the stanza and already created an easy to remember password. If I ever forget the password I know it was based off the poem so by reading the poem it will help me to remember this password.

Thank you for choosing Pacific Software Publishing inc., your Dreamersi provider.
Technicians are standing by Monday - Friday 9am - 6pm (PST) ready to assist your technical issues. We can be reached at (425) 957-0808 or 1-800-232-3989

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

#TechTips

PSPINC Official Company Blog

freespace

A quick guide to typography for the web

Choosing the right typeface.

Font size and line-height.

Line Length for maximum readability.

A couple more things.

Announcement: Mail Server Update

Questions from Customers

Who is PSPinc?

What is the meaning of “Web Hosting”?

PSPinc Hosting Services

VPS

Does PSPinc have services other than hosting?

I want to create my own website, what should I do?

I am starting my own business, should I create a website for it?

Can I sell my products on my website?

Contact Us

PSPinc What’s New Newsletter Vol. 51 "Restaurants Are Back"

Impact of Website SEO with Search Engines: Page Speed

What’s going to happen if my page speed is slow?

How can I improve my page speed?

Image file compression

Browser caching

Lazy load images

Use fewer images and resource-heavy assets

Announcement: Mail Server Update

How to avoid phishing spam

What do phishing scams look like?

How to protect yourself from phishing attacks

In conclusion

PSPinc What’s New Newsletter Vol. 50 "Digital Transformation (DX)"

Announcement: NewsMAIL Social Media Icon Update

What is a "Secure Password"?

introduction

bloguru friends

calendar

latest comments

hashtags

history

freespace

Sign up for our newsletter

Choosing the right typeface.

Font size and line-height.

Line Length for maximum readability.

A couple more things.

People Who Wowed This Post

People Who Wowed This Post

Who is PSPinc?

What is the meaning of “Web Hosting”?

PSPinc Hosting Services

VPS

Does PSPinc have services other than hosting?

I want to create my own website, what should I do?

I am starting my own business, should I create a website for it?

Can I sell my products on my website?

Contact Us

People Who Wowed This Post

People Who Wowed This Post

What’s going to happen if my page speed is slow?

How can I improve my page speed?

Image file compression

Browser caching

Lazy load images

Use fewer images and resource-heavy assets

People Who Wowed This Post

People Who Wowed This Post

What do phishing scams look like?

How to protect yourself from phishing attacks

In conclusion

People Who Wowed This Post

People Who Wowed This Post

People Who Wowed This Post

People Who Wowed This Post

introduction

bloguru friends

calendar

latest comments

hashtags

history