In June, I helped brought badòngthơ (tercets) by Physician-Poet Cao Nguyên online. At the time, the site only featured 15 selected poems. Today, the entire book, which features 119 poems, is available on the website.

When Cao Nguyên decided to publish all 119 poems, I made some changes. I added the alphabet listing as a way to navigate between the poems. I also added the poem numbers for permanent links. Readers can now share a particular poem they like.

If you can read Vietnamese or want to learn Vietnamese, you will enjoy the delightful poems in badòngthơ. Many thanks to the author for making this book available on the web. If you want to support his work, you can still purchase a print copy.

As my wife and I headed toward the exit doors at a Great Wall supermarket, we spotted a table with free books. Most of them were about Buddhism. What caught my wife’s attention was a tiny book that could fit into her palm titled Heart of a Buddha.

She handed the book over to me because she knew I liked to read. As I flipped through the pages, I found many words of wisdom such as “Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love,” “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection,” and “Overcome …greed with generosity, …anger with lovingkindness, …ignorance with understanding.”

After reading a few quotes I posted online, friends and family members would like to read the book as well. That sparked my interest to turn it into a web book. According to the book copyright, reprinting is allowed for non-profit use.

As much as I loved the content from the book, I was not too crazy about the type choice. The entire book was set in Papyrus. For the web version, I set the body in Rosarivo, designed by Pablo Ugerman. For the title, I selected Arizonia, designed by Robert Leuschke.

What took the most time was not only copying, pasting, and writing the HTML, but also styling the text to match the pages in the book. Each piece of text in the book was set to create a dynamic rhythm and I would like to retain that for the web version with CSS styling.

I invite you to give it a read. A Heart of Buddha is not a religious book and I guarantee you will find happiness, wisdom, and serenity. Spread the love.

For more enlightening reading, check out a collection of web books I designed.

When I agreed to design and develop the web book for The American Robin, I did not expect any payment. I wanted to help out my mentor who is a close friend of the author. Furthermore, I wanted to spread the idea of leaving a legacy that anyone around the world could access.

The web book version of The American Robin is a wonderful gift from the author because the website has no ad, no paywall, no popup, no gimmick, and no tracking. Because the web book was intended to be free, I did not want to charge for my contribution. Nevertheless, I took the project as if I was paid in full. I stayed up late on weekdays and spent my weekends working on the book.

When choosing Warbler, designed by David Jonathan Ross, to typeset the book, I used my own license from the Font of the Month Club. Even though DJR’s standard licensing agreement has no restrictions on how many websites can be used, clients should have their own font licensing. After I decided to use Warbler for the book, I contacted David about the font licensing and he was totally cool that I used my own licensing for the web book.

After the web book went live, I spread the word on my blog, portfolio, and social media. I even emailed my friends and family members who liked reading. My job was done and I thanked my mentor for the opportunity to work on the book. She informed me that the author loved the website and thy had been discussing about offering me an honorarium.

I must confess. This was the first time I heard of the term honorarium. I had to look it up in the dictionary. It was an honor to work on the website even without a payment, but I was more than glad to accept an honorarium. I was delighted that my mentor was still looking out for me.

As soon as I received the check for the honorarium, I purchased a license of Warbler. The web book now has its own font licensing. Since I got paid, the type designer should get paid as well. It just felt great doing the fair share.

Why am I revealing this information? It’s a proof how bad I am at doing business. I rather designed for free then getting paid. When not getting paid, I made no compromises in the design and development of the project. If I was getting paid, I had to get approval from the client. My best projects have always been not what my clients want, but what their audiences get out of the project. The ideal projects are when the client, the audience, and the designer are satisfied. This web book is an epitome of that ideal project.

In 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem, Nam Lê wrote a piece on Vietnamese diacritics titled “Dire Critical.” With lyrical prose, Lê explained the importance of tones. For example, ma has a completely different meaning depending on the accompanying diacritical mark (má, mà, mạ, mã, or mả). Since “Dire Critical” has some useful information, I decided to create a sample page to illustrate Vietnamese typography. Through HTML markups and CSS presentations, I designed the web page to resemble the printed page. The poem is typeset in Bono Nova, designed by Mateusz Machalski and Andrzej Heidrich. Read “Dire Critical” now.

In early July 2023, I was tapped to help redesign all the graphs for the fourth edition of Economic Analysis for Lawyers, by Henry N. Butler, Joanna Shepherd, and James C. Cooper. The book had over 60 graphs and I illustrated half of them. Another graphic designer did the other half.

I am thrilled to learn that the book is releasing soon. I can’t wait to hold a physical copy in my hands to see how our graphs turned out, but I am going to have to wait patiently for the complementary copy because it costs $172.

Dr. Joy, my lifelong mentor, reached out to me for help with creating a web book for her friend, Dr. Len Eiserer who is author of The American Robin: A Backyard Institution, published in 1976—two years before I was born. Dr. Eiserer is in his late 70s and would like to leave something behind for others to remember him by.

I loved the idea of leaving a legacy in the form of a web book; therefore, I offered to create the web site. Dr. Joy agreed and gave me a copy of Dr. Eiserer’s book. The print version of The American Robin was beautifully typeset complemented with witty line drawings by Martha R. Hall.

As I was flipping through the pages and marveling at the serif text face, Warbler Text, designed by David Jonathan Ross, came to mind. Although Robins and Warblers are different, they are songbirds. When I set Warbler for the book site, it was gorgeous and readable. I decided to go with it.

With Ms. Hall’s line drawings, I took pictures of them right out of the book and converted them to vector graphics using Adobe Illustrator. I was surprised how well Illustrator turned bitmap images into vector sketched arts.

For the design of the book site, I focused on readability, legibility, and accessibility. Of course, the layout is responsive so the book can be read on any device. I read from cover to cover and loved it. I invite you to read it. Thank you Dr. Eiserer for this wonderful gift.

I am in the process of creating a new web book for an author. I can’t wait to share it. In the meantime, I put together a landing page on my portfolio site to showcase web books I had designed. Crafting a long-form reading experience on the web has become my favorite type of design. If you have a book and wanted to bring it to the web, hit me up.

With over 25 years of experience, I have designed and developed all kinds of websites. In the past 10 years, however, what I enjoyed crafting the most were web-based books.

With the adoption of responsive web design and web fonts, web-based books can be accessed anywhere and read on any device. Furthermore, web books can be preserved. All of the books I have coded using HTML and CSS; therefore, I still have all the files if my books go offline.

As I was reading about Writebook, a tool from 37signals for writing and publishing online books, I realized that I had created a handful of web-based books on my own. I wanted to collect them here for your reading pleasure.

Pro Web Type was published as an independent study for one of my graduate courses in graphic design. This book combines theory and practicality on the emerging support of web fonts. My goal is to prove that typesetting is fun and rewarding—not intimidating. Web typography remains a craft that is honed, nurtured, and acquired over time, with patience and practice. Join me in a journey to explore this craft.

Thơ Mưa is a poetry collection written by Cao Nguyên. To celebrate the book’s twenty-fifth anniversary, the author wanted to release a digital edition to share with his friends, family, and readers around the world. To reach as many readers as possible, making a responsive website for the book was the ideal solution. Anyone with an internet connection can access the book.

Vietnamese Typography was published as my final thesis for my MA in graphic design from George Mason University School of Art. This book had quickly become an essential guide for designing Vietnamese diacritics. For the second edition, I turned the online book into a rich visual experience. Completely redesigned, the new website offers prominent illustrations, in-depth references, and new typefaces.

The Familý Stories was written by my mother’s youngest sister, Lý Minh Anh. She wrote about her parents and siblings as if she was sitting next to me and telling me our family stories. I loved her writing so much that I asked her to allow me to put it together in a web book so our family around the world could learn about our family stories. Since the stories are personal, I had to password protect the book.

Cây cối quê hương is a children book of poetry on homeland trees. These beautiful, innocent, and poetic words will light up the young readers’ souls, bring them closer to nature, and help with their language development in Vietnamese and English.

Truyện Kiều, by Nguyễn Du, is recognized as the masterpiece of Vietnamese national literature. Structured in lục-bát (six-eight) couplets, Truyện Kiều, which consists of 3,254 lines, is not only a literary Bible but also a national epic that has inspired political debate, social critique, and revolutionary spirit. The book has been translated into English by Vương Thanh.

Cổ Tích Nhi Đồng is a collection of Vietnamese children folk tales with English translations.

Pete the Cat’s Groovy Guide to Life, by Kimberly and James Dean, collected inspiring quotes to live by. I translated the quotes into Vietnamese and created web book for fun.

Làm Đĩ is a novel about prostitution written by Vũ Trọng Phụng. Although it was published in 1936, the book is still a refreshing read. Vũ Trọng Phụng was such a great writer who was ahead of his time. Even though I only read it in recent months, I loved the book so much that I decided to create a one-page web book to preserve it.

badòngthơ, by physician-poet Cao Nguyên, is a collection of three-line poems. The form is similar to the Japanese haiku, but Cao Nguyên also plays with three, five, and seven syllables. When he asked me to bring badòngthơ to the web, I jumped at the opportunity. As of this time, only 15 poems are online, but the printed book can be purchased on Amazon.

Vũ Thành An is a talented Vietnamese songwriter whose music is well-known for his series of nameless love songs. In 1997, he published his first book, Chuyện tình không tên (Nameless Love Stories), in which he shared stories behind his nameless songs through personal letters.

Even when I was a kid, I always marveled at the beauty of cursive handwriting, especially through letters. In the Vietnamese culture, honing cursive handwriting has been an essential, life-long skill. I have been wanting to create a sample page to showcase a quality handwriting typeface that supports Vietnamese and Vũ Thành An’s letters fit the bill. I chose “Tình thư thứ ba” (Love Letter #3), in which he included the original version and the updated version of “Bài không tên cuối cùng” (The Last Love Letter).

After playing around with a handful of cursive typefaces, I settled on Playwrite Việt Nam, designed by Veronika Burian and José Scaglione. Playwrite Việt Nam is based on the Mẫu chữ thảo tiếng Việt (Vietnamese official cursive script) provided by the Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo (Ministry of Education and Training). Take a look.

Physician-poet Cao Nguyên, the author of Thơ Mưa (Rain Poems), follows up with badòngthơ (tercets). The form for badòngthơ is similar to the Japanese haiku, but Cao Nguyên also plays with three, five, and seven syllables.

As someone who is rediscovering his native language, I appreciate Cao Nguyên’s simple wordplay. As a designer, I appreciate his generous use of white space. When he asked me to bring badòngthơ to the web, I jumped at the opportunity.

Since the web has plenty of white space, I decided to keep it to one page. Readers just scroll to read the next poem. For the book title, I kept the web version the same as the print version, which is set in SVN Conqueror Didot, a Vietnamese-supported version of AW Conqueror, designed by Jean François Porchez.

In the print version, the body text is set in Microsoft Sans Serif, which is clean and legible. The Vietnamese diacritics for Microsoft Sans Serif, however, are a bit off, especially the circumflex-acute and the circumflex-grave combinations. For the web version, I set the main text in Inclusive Sans, designed by Olivia King, instead.

The website started off with 15 poems. The print version has 119 poems. If you can read Vietnamese or want to learn Vietnamese, you will enjoy these delightful poems. Go ahead, give badòngthơ a read.