Toon Title Text Generator Simplifies Cartoon Typography

Toon Title Text Generator

Andy Clarke has released a new tool that generates CSS for cartoon-style headings, offering customizable options for font, color, stroke, letter spacing, and shadows. The generator outputs ready-to-use CSS, and includes a companion library, Splinter.js, to handle individual letter styling.

Why This Matters

While CSS lacks a :nth-letter selector, achieving stylized text requires wrapping each character in a <span>. Traditional methods can create accessibility issues for screen readers. Clarke’s approach with Splinter.js proactively addresses this by adding ARIA attributes, preventing assistive technologies from misinterpreting the markup and ensuring a more inclusive user experience.

Key Insights

• SplitText.js: A traditional method for wrapping characters in <span> tags.
• ARIA Attributes: Enhancements like aria-label and aria-hidden improve accessibility for screen readers.
• Splinter.js: Clarke’s library provides accessibility-focused character splitting for cartoon typography.

Working Example

<h2 data-split="toon" aria-label="Hum Sweet Hum">
<span class="toon-char" aria-hidden="true">H</span>
<span class="toon-char" aria-hidden="true">u</span>
<span class="toon-char" aria-hidden="true">m</span>
</h2>

Practical Applications

• Website Branding: Creating unique and engaging headings for brand identity.
• Pitfall: Overuse of <span> tags without ARIA attributes can degrade accessibility for visually impaired users.

References:

• https://css-tricks.com/toon-title-text-generator/