recommended fonts & SSI includes

[matimer]

I was curious if anyone recommended any particular fonts for a more professional text look?

Also how do people feel about SSI includes, and their effects on search engine listings and usability among the different browswers?

Matt

[JamesR]

SSI shouldn't negatively affect anything except for increased server load.

I use Arial 10 or Verdana 10 usually.

[andreasfriedrich]

SSI stands for Server Side Includes, i.e. inclusion is done on the Server, i.e. the client is not affected by it.

[DiAMOndDavE]

>I was curious if anyone recommended any particular fonts for a more professional text look?

Serif fonts are regarded as being more 'professional' as, over time, they have proven to be easier to read - on paper at least. Special fonts have been designed to be readable on screens/monitors, eg: Verdana and Trebuchet which are sans serifs.

How about Georgia? It is a serif typeface but designed to be easily readable on screens. It is also widely available on PC/Windows machines as it was distributed with Microsoft products.

Regards
DiAMOndDavE

[HarryM]

I use sans serif fonts Ariel and Verdana for small sizes, say 10pt or less.

Ariel gets more words to the inch, has bigger gaps between the words, and is very legible. Ideal for legalise, Terms and Conditions, etc.

Verdana (IMHO) has a much more modern and slicker appearance. But it takes more space than Ariel, has less space between words, and therefore is not quite so easy to read. For use in short sentences where presentation matters most.

For larger sizes, say 12pt and over, sans serif can look clunky. Some serif fonts such as Georgia can look elegant.

But I think whatever you choose the golden rules are:

1) consistency throughout the site
2) usually no more than two styles on a page
3) use relative size fonts where there is anything lengthy to be read.

[amznVibe]

by the way, you can find out what fonts are supplied to what microsoft products here, its very interesting:

[microsoft.com...]

for example, Georgia was NOT supplied with windows95
[microsoft.com...]

or for that matter with any recent microsoft product, except for office 2000 premium:
[microsoft.com...]

[DiAMOndDavE]

Hmmm - thanks for that post AmznVibe. I thought Georgia was more widely distributed that that. I do know it used to be freely available for download from the Microsoft web site in MAC or PC format - along with their whole corefont pack. Unfortunately, since Aug 2002 they have taken down this page. I reckon we should all send a petition to Microsoft to put them back up online. I love Georgia and reckon it should be on everyone's machine so we could call it more reliably as a default font for web pages.

Peace to all
DiAMOndDavE

[amznVibe]

You're just not thinking deviously enough:

Georgia for Windows:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/downloads/georgi32.exe [web.archive.org]

Georgia for Mac:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/downloads/Georgia.sit.hqx [web.archive.org]

Sourceforge has also agreed to carry them, which means they will be around for a long time.
An easy way to install Microsoft's TrueType core fonts on linux
[corefonts.sourceforge.net...]
sourceforge MS corefont list [sourceforge.net]

But it's still not a good idea to use it as a web font.
People will not go install a font just because your web site requires it, they will go looking for another site.

[DiAMOndDavE]

amznVibe,

Geez - you're right, I'm obviously not thinking deviously enough! Looks like the fonts are still available?! I presume you can do the same for Verdana, Arial, Courier and Comic Sans?

Yes, you would be right if all I specified in my stylesheet was font: Georgia. What I meant to say was...

<dreaming>
it would be great knowing that most people out there had Georgia installed so web designers and developers could specify eg: font: Georgia, Trebuchet, Verdana, sans serif and be fairly sure that Georgia would display on users systems
</dreaming>

I have both Georgia & Trebuchet installed and when I come across a web page styled with one of these fonts it looks like a breath of fresh air after a sea of Verdana and Arial.

DiAMOndDavE