Every Layout Is Released: Some Facts

In case you haven't already heard: the full version of Every Layout is now ready for purchase! You'll find all the information you need on the Every Layout site.

This post is just an opportunity to tell you that in a different channel (done!) and to share some fun™ facts about how Every Layout came together.

  1. Andy and I didn't actually meet IRL (in real life) until after the launch of our product.
  2. The site/book includes over 100 diagrams, all in black and white, and created in the superior (free!) SVG editor: Inkscape.
  3. The weird sounding phrases ("CSS is hard", "CSS is bad", "I hate CSS") from the trailer video were created using the Speech Synthesis API with randomized voice profiles and pitches for each word.
  4. Heydon promised to wear a pair of latex crab claws for his Patterns Day talk if the site took more than 5000 subscribers. On the morning of Patterns Day, the subscriber count was 5046. As many have pointed out, the claws—despite coming from the card game You've Got Crabs—are anatomically more similar to those of a lobster.
  5. The site, built using Eleventy, uses JSDOM to server-side render the layout components which, despite being custom elements, are therefore not dependent of JavaScript running in the browser.
  6. The book is created by hooking up Eleventy with pandoc to produce the EPUB file.
  7. We have an honour system, according to which you may qualify for a free copy of Every Layout. When you buy Every Layout, you help us give those who can't afford it free copies. We've given away more than 25 free copies already.
  8. At least one person uses the music from the trailer video (composed by Heydon) as their alarm clock.
  9. The development codename for Every Layout was Robert, which should be pronounced as The Alderman pronounces it on Athletico Mince.