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Thread: Web Fonts

  1. #1
    Ah, Mrs. Peel! mike_w's Avatar
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    Web Fonts

    Something else I've been pondering about to do with websites...

    What web font should you use? First of all, there is the decision of compatibility - you generally want to choose one that most people will have, although this generally isn't a problem since you can select more than one.

    The main problem, as I see it, is that fonts such as Verdana are well suited to using on the web. This is generally because they have a high aspect ratio (x-height divided by font size), but what if the user doesn't have Verdana?

    Let's say that we set the font size to 10pt, and use Verdana - most people can read this without a problem. However, if somebody doesn't have Verdana, it will default back to, say, Arial, which is a fair bit harder to read at 10pt.

    What about if we set the font size to 12pt? We (virtually) guarantee that people can always read the text, but our nice Verdana font now looks too big.

    What solution do you think is best? In CSS2, there is a nice attribute that creates a consistant x-height, which more or less sorts this problem out, but it hasn't been implemented yet in any (major) browser (so far as I'm aware).

    So, what fonts and sizes do you generally use?

    Mike.
    Last edited by mike_w; 21-02-2006 at 05:38 PM.
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  2. #2
    mutantbass head Lee H's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mike_w
    So, what fonts and sizes do you generally use?
    I like the look of tahoma size 12 and use this a LOT for IRC, MSN, AIM, and other messaging applications which allow customisation.

    Easier on the eyes - especially at high resolutions and when on the PC until the wee hours of the morning.

    Webwise, it depends on the website and its content to what fonts used, I used to use arial, tahoma, veranda (Sp?) on my old gaming teams websites - but size 10 or 12 is usually fine

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    Gaarrrrr! Dav0s's Avatar
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    on your font list, just put them in roder of what you want he user to see. if they dont have one font, it will default tot he next. at the end just put "sans-serif" or "serif" as they will definately have that.

    as for not having verdana, i think that is a font that everybody has...

    verdana, times new roman, arial, courier, tahoma and maybe one more which i cant remember.

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    Ah, Mrs. Peel! mike_w's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Davos
    on your font list, just put them in roder of what you want he user to see. if they dont have one font, it will default tot he next. at the end just put "sans-serif" or "serif" as they will definately have that.
    My point about doing this is that different fonts are easier to read at certain sizes. Verdana might look fine at, say 8pt, but Arial might not. The problem then arises when people don't have Verdana...

    as for not having verdana, i think that is a font that everybody has...
    Not everybody has it... for example, people on Macs and, especially, on Linux.
    "Well, there was your Uncle Tiberius who died wrapped in cabbage leaves but we assumed that was a freak accident."

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    Cable Guy Jonny M's Avatar
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    Verdana availability on Macs is like 92%

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    Quite high on Linux too (I get the MS core fonts through YAST on my SuSE boxes).

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    Civilian Nick F's Avatar
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    I use Trebuchet MS (10) on my website and it looks great and is easy to read. Best one IMO

  8. #8
    Gaarrrrr! Dav0s's Avatar
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    but not a failsafe web font

    I use it aswell tho, just because it looks nice and 99% of people will have it.

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