<font face= Mac Fonts, PC Fonts on that list

[EliteWeb]

Macintosh computer have their own fonts and there are the equivelents on the PC computers, for fonts how do Macintosh and PC webmasters compromise to handle this, what fonts are in the lists that are close to each others fonts on the OS.

[martinibuster]

Because of a monitors low rez, it is recommended that one uses a sans serif font, as the little serifs can become a strain to read (opposite of their intended function of guiding your eye into the "flow" of letters becoming words becoming paragraphs becoming a document).

I personally like the verdana, arial, helvetica combo.

[pageoneresults]

Arial = Arial
Verdana = Verdana
Times = Times New Roman
Garamond = Garamond

EliteWeb, I believe most of us are sticking with the tried and true Verdana and Arial. I see very few sites these days using serif fonts for text.

Here's a good starting point...
[w3.org...]

[pageoneresults]

One important thing to remember if you are transferring documents from Mac to PC is this; Mac fonts are normally PostScript and PC fonts are typically TrueType.

We usually try to stay away from blending Mac and PC fonts in documents. If it was built on the PC, it stays there, and vice versa. If it is absolutely necessary to convert a PC document to Mac, i.e. PC Quark to Mac Quark, then there is conversion software available to turn the TrueType fonts to PostScript fonts.

All of our systems have Arial and Verdana in the startup sets. I don't think I've ever used anything other than those two! My font declaration looks like this...

"verdana", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;

I of course keep the Mac users happy with Helvetica.

[nonprof webguy]

Glad to hear others point out that Helvetica is better looking than Arial. I believe it is easier to read at small sizes. Since some Mac users I have known had both Helvetica and Arial, but hardly any Windows users have Helvetica, I put Helvetica ahead of Arial in the font-family selector.

[mivox]

I have almost exclusively TrueType fonts on all my Macs. They're much easier to find, and I don't do any publishing that would really take advantage of Postscript.

[transistor]

I agree with the font selection. Verdana is for me the easiest font to read in any size.
However, I don't know what you think about this, but I feel it is more important the size of the fonts.
Usually Mac needs larger fonts than PCs, so I have a PHP script that identifies the platform and navigator and then chooses the appropiate CSS for each brower in each platform.

I just HATE when I browse a site with my Mac and see all those teeny tiny font that can't be read, so I have to increase the font size or text zoom or whatever.

[mivox]

One important thing to remember if you are transferring documents from Mac to PC is this; Mac fonts are normally PostScript and PC fonts are typically TrueType.

Not at all true any more. I've been using almost exclusively TrueType fonts on my Mac for over 10 years, as have most Mac using friends I have (and almost all my computer using friends have been Mac users...). TrueType is the #1 "free font" format available for download online, and most software comes with TrueType fonts as well.

I'd hazard a guess to say most serious Type 1 font users are professional print graphics designers, and computer savvy enough to be more than capable of dealing with the vagaries of web browsing.

<added>HAHAHAHA.... that's what I get for skimming a thread off the active list... I answered the same post twice! :) Hehhe. Oh well, I gave a more complete answer the second time around...</added>

[edited by: mivox at 7:17 am (utc) on July 20, 2002]

[pageoneresults]

Ah-ha, I had a feeling that was coming after seeing this topic resurface.

I guess I'm from a different school of thought, actually, more from the print media side. We typically purchase our fonts and are proud to have a collection of over a few thousands quality families, not fonts, but families.

For some reason, our Mac designers dislike TT fonts. Don't ask me why, I use them every day, on the PC. I stick to my Adobe and Bitstream PS fonts on the Mac. ;)

P.S. I also have a Fontek collection that most would drool over!

[mivox]

I come from the school of thought that drools over the mere thought of owning a large library of font families, but lives with a large collection of TrueType fonts instead. ;)

I'd wager that most casual surfers/browsers don't know a Type 1 from a TrueType from a hole in the ground, and as such will own almost all TrueType fonts... and if they use any MS software products, will own the basic MS font pack as well.

Verdana, Arial, Helvetica for sans serif is always safe. I think almost everyone, regardless of platform or browser, etc., has either Times or Times New Roman.

I don't have a Fontek collection at all... showoff. ;)

transistor: What browser are you using? I haven't had the "teeny font" problem at all since switching to Opera 5... I also haven't had that problem with Explorer for Mac. It seems to be a Netscape phenomenon...