CNN.com Switches to Comic Sans Font

It’s true. You read it here first. CNN.com has officially changed their site font to the black sheep of typography, Comic Sans.

Don’t believe me? Look for yourself:

Fooled you! Ha!

Actually, this little tweak was made possible by Firefox plug in, Firebug. If you’re a website designer, programmer, or wannabe hacker, Firebug is a must. You can learn how to code, at least in a “duct-tape-and-toothpick” kind of way, using Firebug. Essentially, it gives you access to the building blocks of a website t change and manipulate as you see fit, all without causing any permanent changes to the site itself.

Let’s say you find an element on a website you really like–say some PHP code on a blog. You want to know how to do the same thing for your website. This is where Firebug comes through huge. You simply navigate to Firebug console at the bottom of Firefox:

Pull up the Firebug console and click “inspect”:

And start, well, inspecting! You can change elements on existing website (see CNN.com example from above!) or change elements on your own site before making the changes permanently in the code. It’s one of the main development tools I use for this site and do not know what I would do without it!

Firebug takes the mystery (somewhat) out of web design and makes it less scary. Warning: It is a bit intimidating at first and you do need a basic understanding of how website coding works. Once you have that, Firebug does a really good job of showing you how web language works.

Want some more fun examples of the power of Firebug? Here’s Twitter Search with a “justify-right” text-align:

And here’s mighty Google with a giant logo:

Like I said, these are some silly changes but you can really harness Firebug to increase your website building capabilities:

Want to know how something is done on a website you like? Firebug it!
Want to preview changes to your own site before you pull the trigger for realz? Firebug it!
Want to amuse yourself for hours making useless yet humorous changes to other people’s sites? Yes… Firebug it!

What Firefox tools, plug ins, or add ons do you find helpful?