# Site Design & Technology

## Structure

The site centers around exploration of “Hans Phaall,” Pym, and “The Man that was Used Up.” Topic pages describing each hoax are contained in a website folder, and each folder has:

- a description of the reading text provided

- separate subfolders for source texts, criticism, and additional sources referenced by Poe (usually PDFs).

For example, see the “Hans Phaall” section currently in development:

While always free to browse at random, the reader is gently directed toward the reading text first, then sources and criticism. Additional folders for Critical Theory, etc., are in development.

### Sources

Great care has been taken to locate and provide the source materials that Poe describes in each of the hoaxes. For convenient browsing, the sources are separated into pages and PDFs. One can click easily from webpage to webpage, but not from PDF to PDF by (Adobe’s) design.

One can, however, use the source texts themselves to bypass the professors squabbling over their comparisons, no interpreter-priest required. In fact, in each instance, Poe has arranged things such that you must inquire into his sources to appreciate the hoax.

The “Hans Phaall” Sources section is currently in development. Note that all sources are dated and arranged in ascending chronological order. Texts given are the closest possible match in time to what Poe would or could have known.

## Design

Designing is not a profession but an attitude.

— László Moholy-Nagy

### What Would Poe Do?

This website is built along the lines that I imagine Poe would have followed, according to his spare and exacting aesthetic. Never wealthy on his own, we know that his homes were always furnished tastefully, functional but also just right in appearance. He would have saved and hunted for bargains, but never for cheapness.

His proposed magazine would also be executed perfectly:

‘The Stylus’ will include about one hundred royal octavo pages, in single column, per month; forming two thick volumes per year. In its mechanical appearance — in its typography, paper and binding — it will far surpass all American journals of its kind. Engravings, when used, will be in the highest style of Art, but are promised only in obvious illustration of the text, and in strict keeping with the Magazine character.

An Edgar Allan Poe with access to website-building software would be a powerful force on today’s ‘net. He would explore every software trick he could, and push hard to develop his jeu d’esprits even further than a printed page could allow. I have decided not to try to replicate that dizzying display of what the hoaxes actually DO within the confines of this site. I would fall flat on my face trying to imitate this master’s inter-dimensional swaps by using CSS and JavaScript to perform a reification/recreation of the mechanism. Not even a CGI developer with an unlimited budget could replicate the moves Poe makes inside your imagination. Instead, I will try the explanatory approach, give you all the resources I can, and hope to help you believe just enough to catch the magic of the bouleversement as I have.

### Text

The fonts used here hint at quaintness, but do not scream it. Edgar Poe does not live in a “quaint” time, anymore than you do. He lives out his life as it comes. Adobe Agenda is used for body text because of its legibility and character; headings are in Adobe Poiret One, letter-spacing: 0.65px. Tints and shadings are meant to help integrate page elements, as extrapolations of the home page portrait tone, determined using a pixel color grabber and the specifications at colorhexa.com .

The body text color is not a pure black, which would be defined as #000 and result in a glossy, impenetrable look; #030303 is used to give a flatter tone to the on-screen “page.” It is friendlier, even though the impression is only subliminal. This would matter to Poe, and I believe he would have made this choice of digital ink.

All textual decorations and special effects are formed with CSS. In some cases, HTML special characters, which are always crisp and can be colored, styled, and resized easily, are used in place of images. For example, the ✑ (pen nib, an homage to The Stylus) at the bottom of this page is specified by entering &#10001; in HTML. We can use the extended HTML character &#8531; (vulgar fraction one third) to write “one picul (133 ⅓ lbs.)” instead of “one picul (133 1/3 lbs.),” which jangles the line spacing. This too would matter (very much!) to Poe.

### Images

Most but not all graphic images used are open source. Copyrighted images such as the home page portrait and manuscripts are under license (usually to a library, such as NYPL or The Morgan) and may not be downloaded. License information, wherever applicable and available, is given within the image caption.

All provided PDFs have been enhanced and sharpened, and their file sizes reduced as much as possible. However, they remain large and may load slowly, especially on mobile devices. The PDFs are all in the public domain, and may be re-distributed freely.

The “Voodoo in Harlem” video shown in Racism in Pym is available at Creative Commons: https://videos.criticalcommons.org/media/encoded/16/sammondn/c8d2e26d5dc14765975cf1ac7fcffc2a_3VHKylf.mp4.

### Page Layout

Wide white margins create a “phat” look. Poe could not have afforded this, but we can do it with a simple .body-container command.

### Navigation

Main menu navigation is positioned at the left side, to maximize page legibility. Navigation icons are described below:

Icon | Meaning
--- | ---
| Link to a page within this site. Open in the same window.
| Link to a page outside this site. Open in a new window.
| Link to a PDF within this site. Open in a new window. (Use Ctrl + f to find text within a PDF.)
| Select “Hoax” to show hoax text in blue; “Normal” to revert.
| After a successful search, found items are highlighted in chrome yellow. Click this icon to remove the yellow highlights (e.g., before printing).
| Back up to the previous page within this site only.
| Advance to the next page or PDF within this site only.
| Select to send feedback on this site. An email pops up, partially filled in.
| Print the current section.
| Select for information on the current section.

### Searching

The search bar at the top of the screen can be used to access all materials except PDFs on this site. To search within PDF files, open the file first and then use the Adobe search facility (Ctrl + f).

### Viewing

Best viewed on PC in a wide-open browser on a 25-inch or larger monitor. Google Chrome preferred. However, the site is designed for mobile viewing as well, with touch navigation. As always, the better your graphics card, RAM size, and Internet performance, the better your experience will be. This is a no-compromises site in which quality trumps load speed.

## Technology

The site sits on a commercial server with 60 GB of space; as of October 2021, less than 3 GB is used. It is built using MadCap Software’s Flare authoring tool , which offers project management control suitable for website development and automates time-intensive tasks such as menu construction and link verification.