With 20 years of experience and having designed hundreds of books, Debbie Berne covers every detail that goes into designing a completely book from start to finish. The primary focus is print. She dedicates one chapter on e-books, but nothing on web books.

On “Using Fonts Together,” Berne writes:

It’s certainly possible—and in type scholarship often considered admirable—to set an entire book in a single typeface. More commonly, I want two or three fonts for all the different situations inside a book. Usually, I will choose a serifed text type for the body text and a sans serif as a contrast for chapter titles and headings. Sometimes the diversity of text will make the addition of a third font appropriate- for sidebars or other distinctive passages, as display type in part or chapter openers, or for small areas of emphasis or little areas of flair. This is (usually) enough. Font choice isn’t the only way to differentiate kinds of text, and designers push type to show its many faces by using it bold or in all caps or larger or, when possible, in color. Keeping a font palette limited makes a big project feel unified and intentional.

This passage made me curious how many typefaces I used in Vietnamese Typography. It turns out 100 typefaces are being used for the book site. Oops! I broke the rule.

Nevertheless, this is a comprehensive, informative guide on designing a book that everyone who’s involved in publishing a book should read.

Từ ngày hai đứa quen nhau đến vài năm gần đây, hai vợ chồng chỉ quây quần bên gia đình nhỏ. Thỉnh thoảng tôi có ông bạn thân từ Canada qua chơi. Còn vợ thì chỉ ở nhà với con cái. Nhiều lần hai vợ chồng tâm sự với nhau: “Chắc hai đứa mình chẳng bao giờ quen biết bạn bè”.

Từ lúc cho tụi nhỏ gia nhập vào Liên đoàn hướng đạo Hùng Vương, tôi cũng quen được một số anh em cùng sở thích: ăn nhậu và nói xàm. Vài tuần hoặc vài tháng anh em tụ họp ngày cuối tuần làm vài chai whiskey và tầm xàm cho cuộc đời nó đỡ chán. Những lần đi ra ngoài mà vợ ở nhà trông con, lương tâm tôi cũng bị dằn vặt. Tôi hứa nếu vợ có dịp đi chơi cùng bạn bè, tôi sẽ trông đám con.

Thời gian gần đây vợ kết nối lại với bạn học xưa. Cũng may là có hai cô bạn khá thân thương ở gần. Mấy ngày vừa qua, những người bạn cùng trang cùng lứa tụ họp với nhau tung hoành vùng DMV. Cuối cùng tôi cũng thực hiện được lời hứa. Khi vợ vắng nhà, tôi chăm sóc đám con. Tuy nhiên, ham vui nên tôi cũng nhập vào ăn ké vào những buổi chiều. Có người nấu món cháo lòng quá chất lượng.

Mười mấy năm qua, hai vợ chồng bận bịu chăm lo con cái. Giờ đây thỉnh thoảng cũng phải dành thời gian riêng để chăm sóc bản thân. Nhất là cuộc sống hiện nay lúc nào cũng dồn dập và áp lực rất dễ bị lôi vào tình trạng trầm cảm. Có bạn bè tâm sự đôi lời hay than phiền về chồng con cũng thoải mái và nhẹ nhàng hơn. Thấy được vợ mở rộng ra hơn, tôi cũng vui và hạnh phúc. Cảm ơn những người bạn dễ thương của vợ.

Democrats in the Senate must kill the bill that aims at dismantling the checks and balances. The federal judges are our only lifeline left to defend our democracy. They have been hard at work to block the Trump administration from executing their reckless and lawless executive orders. They are protecting American citizens as well as American constitution. Without these federal judges doing their jobs, we will became an authoritarian country. Democrats and Republicans with conscience, you must vote against this outrageous and dangerous bill. Let’s not overstep the Judicial branch.

In the past 48 hours, Trump has demonstrated what an absolute idiot with absolute power looks like. This is the reason we need the division of powers between legislative, executive, and judiciary. When one man has all the power, he fails miserably as Trump has embarrassed himself on the world stage. We need checks and balances. We need to bring back democracy.

Our country is run by someone who had filed for bankruptcy six times. Yes, six times. You have to be a fucking idiot to believe that Trump was a good businessman. I know I am offending lots of his supporters. So what. It is what it is. China is whipping his ass on tariffs. If we don’t stop him now, he will bankrupt America.

Oops! I missed the anniversary of this blog two days ago. When I registered Visualgui.com on April 8, 2003, I didn’t anticipate that it would last this long. As of today, I have written 9,845 posts. It has been an incredibly long journey of writing down my thoughts almost everyday for 22 years.

The motivation to start blogging and to keep me going all these years is simple: to improve my writing. I am not great at anything, but I can improve at anything when I put my mind to it. I don’t need to make outstanding achievements. I just need to make a bit of progress each day. I will never become a professional writer. I just need to write better for myself.

The same way I approach reading. I read a bit a day just to gain some knowledge. The method also applies to skiing and snowboarding. I will never be a professional skier or snowboarder, but I can always improve my skills. Some people take a day or two to learn snowboarding. I took three weeks.

When I set my mind into something, I will put in the work to improve it. It’s true that “Rome doesn’t build in a day.” I will keep writing for as long as I can. Writing has been therapeutic for me. Writing relieves my tension. Writing helps me cope with depression. Writing improves my communications in my profession. Writing brought me my wife and one of my closest friends. On top of all, writing documents my ordinary life.

Wednesday morning, Trump hinted: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT”

At noon, he backed off his tariff tough talk. Nasdaq soared almost 12%, highest day gain since 2008. S&P 500 increased 9.5% and Dow Jones surged 8%, or about 2,800 points.

Trump manipulated markets and violated insider trading. He must be investigated and impeached. Of course, the Republicans in Congress are too cowardice to take action.

Trump shows his incompetence on the world stage. China is kicking his ass once again. I still can’t believe we have such an idiot as a president.

As the global trade war escalates, Trump supporters regret voting for Trump. During his presidential campaign, Trump said it low and clear, “Tariff is the most beautiful word in the dictionary,” and they didn’t want to believe it. Now we all paying for it.

Trump voters didn’t realized that they voted for the global trade war. They didn’t vote to put their small businesses at risk. They didn’t vote to lose their retirement and social security. They didn’t vote to lose their jobs. They didn’t vote to wipe out their savings.

There’s no time for regrets. It is time to end all of this shit once and for all and save our democracy.

Last night I took the kids to see A Minecraft Movie. The theater was packed with Minecraft fans. I intended to choose the third row from the back, but I selected the third row from the front instead.

After 10 minutes into the movie, my neck got tired from looking up to screen. I started to get motion sickness. I was glad Đạo was there with Xuân and Vương. I went to the empty seat in the back.

Needless to say, it wasn’t my type of movie. I was clueless about Minecraft. Jack Black and Jason Momoa offered some comic relief. I was glad the kids enjoyed it.

Trumps slaps tariffs on China. China slaps him back and he’s crying like a little bitch. Trump can bully his own country, but he can’t bully China. As much as I hate to see the economy collapsing and trillion of dollars evaporating, I hope our country can see how incompetent the current president is. He thinks he’s the only one with the taffif power. China has proven him wrong. I hope China will fight him to the end. I rather see that we are losing money than democracy. Many of you voted for him because you were duped into believing that Trump could do business. Now you know. He’s a fucking loser.