fonts for my new site

[amythepoet]

Hi,

I'm redesigning my site and want to know what you think are the best fonts to use. I'm on a Mac and like Bernard Fashion, but don't know if all browers wold be able to see it and so forth. Please let me know what you think best.

thanks

Amy

[gcross]

I've studied this subject a great deal, under the umbrella of Accessibility. According to many sources, Times or Times New Roman, a serif font, is more easily read in print, whereas Arial and Verdana, both san serif fonts, are more easily read on a computer monitor. (According to Google, Bernhard Fashion is a san serif font.)

Using an external CSS file to control your page attributes, set your font code like the following:

body {
font-family: Bernhard Fashion, Verdana, san serif;
}

That way, if the surfer's software holds that font, it will be displayed, and if not it will default to the next selection, and if not that, it will default to the default san serif font in the their browser's options.

[amythepoet]

Thanks so much. I'm reading some about fonts too and just found a similar thing to what you just wrote. So, thanks!

Amy

[grahamstewart]

font-family: Bernhard Fashion, Verdana, san serif;

That last one should be sans-serif.
Also its a good idea to put quotes around the font with spaces in the name.

So the final line looks like..

body {
 font-family: "Bernhard Fashion", Verdana, sans-serif;
}

Always include a generic CSS font as your final option (any one of serif, sans-serif, cursive, fantasy or monospace) that way browsers always have something to fallback on.

[amythepoet]

Thanks so much again.

Amy

[mossimo]

Browser News has an excellent page on cross platform font usage, [upsdell.com ]
You can always use the The "@import" rule to specify a different style sheet for print, eg:

@media print {
BODY { font-size: 10pt }
}
@media screen {
BODY { font-size: 12pt }
}

[gcross]

Correct, Graham. Sorry for the typo:(

[gcross]

Mossimo:)

Accessibility standards recommend the pt size be avoided and em be used instead. This makes the font size relative in the browser to the surfer's setup, whereas the pt size is inflexible.

[amythepoet]

Thanks so very much again for all the info.

:)

Amy

[SinclairUser]

Amy,

You have a really good site with a very good pagerank - so why the re-design?

[Birdman]

One reason I would think would be to convert the text/images to real text. That will only help her rankings. I have redesigned high ranking sites too. There was no ill effect.

Amy, I would probably choose something a bit easier to read for your content font. I do like Bernhard Fashion alot, in fact I used it on a few logos but when displayed at smaller sizes it may get tougher to follow. Plus, I don't have it on my pc, so I'm sure there are many others who don't as well.

[edited by: Birdman at 11:05 pm (utc) on May 1, 2003]

[amythepoet]

Exactly so, to convert the images to text, Birdman got it right!

Amy

[amythepoet]

Right, I know what you mean about the Bernhard Fashion Font Birdman. So what do you think would be best to view on both pc's and macs?

Amy

[Birdman]

Hi amy,

I usually prepare a web page and then make a list of the most common fonts and just switch them in and out until I find what I like.

Be sure to use CSS to style your pages and then you can change your font site-wide in minutes, or less.

From the webstyleguide.com:

"Choosing typefaces

The most conventional scheme for using typefaces is to use a serif face such as Times New Roman or Georgia for body text and a sans serif face such as Verdana or Arial as a contrast for headlines...

...The most useful fonts that ship with the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating systems are reproduced here"

Typefaces [webstyleguide.com]

Hope it helps,
Birdman

[amythepoet]

Yes, that's great Birdman, it helped a lot!

Many thanks

Amy