What Font?

From a different perspective

[tangor]

What seems like a zillion years ago, font discussion was right up there. WEB fonts, G fonts, embedding and more.

Personally made the choice back in 1996 to stick with "system safe" fonts and when CSS came out was glad I did. Worked out well for myself and clients over the years.

PERSONALLY, however, things began to change. I could not SEE as well. Other factors (such as stupid shades/colors/fonts) made reading even more difficult. I had to make a decision if the web was to remain useful FOR ME.

In my case? My computer/device is fixed in HIGH CONTRAST. In other words ignore all colors from websites: black page, white text (ie. 1980's CRT screens), yellow for unvisited, green for visited, FIXED font (Georgia in my case for serif, Calibri for san-serif, and Courier for monospace) and pixel/point size FIXED at 16, denying page font suggestions.

FOR ME this produced a VERY PLEASING and USEFUL experience on the web. It also surprised me a bit in that nearly 100% of all websites are usable! No weird margins, lengthy times to download a font...

My question to the WW gang is are you actively future-proofing your sites for ACCESSIBILITY? High Contrast is one of those factors for the vision impaired. Do you test for this with your layouts? Most users are not as savvy on how to take control for themselves, but they DO know that there's a function that can make things better and most system OS can provide that.

Do you take that into account when creating your product?

APPARENTLY some do---for that my eternal thanks!

Interested in your thoughts ... after all, we grow older day by day!

[lucy24]

You would not like my site, because I have a lot of borders that are intended to be low-contrast, just a suggestion of outset, so they would be hideously obtrusive if constrained to black-and-white. And some parts of the page use a slightly darker background-color. Not by way of conveying essential information, just stylistic preference.

I do specify a sitewide preferred font, but it's a pretty common one. Come to think of it, I also have a couple of customized fonts for decorative purposes, but they live on the site; users don't have to take a side trip to download more bloat. (And I've stripped down the font files so they only contain characters that are likely to be used.) We won’t talk about my /robots/ directory, whose header font is frankly unreadable. (But it looks fun, so to heck with it.)

I never ever force a point size.

What, never?

Well, hardly ever. I've got one or two places where for novelty effect I show what size something was in the original dead-tree book. (How the ### did Charles Cooke's typesetters in the 1790s set type equivalent to 7 points without going blind? and how did anyone read it by candlelight?) Other than that it's strictly proportional: percentage of the user's default size, whatever that may happen to be.

It's an interesting paradox that some elderly websites are more accessible than slightly newer ones, because they hadn't yet thought of forcing everything to an exact size in pixels. Except when you have a page that was conceived for, at most, 800px width, and now you can't read a line of text without turning your head from side to side like a tennis spectator. Which is why I set a max-width in ems.

Oh, yes, and I NEVER use gray body text. Loathsome idea that I devoutly hope will go out of fashion. Non-white background, sure, but the text is always black. And even my default background color has lightened a bit over the years (started at, I think, ABF and is now up to CDF) because if you're not comfortable viewing your own site, you can hardly expect others to like it.

There used to be a rule that web pages are supposed to use sans-serif for readability, but with higher-resolution monitors this seems really out of date. I personally prefer reading serif, so that's what I use. Readers who disagree are free to hunt down their browser's “Always use my fonts” option.

:: wandering off to explore Accessibility testing tools ::

:: returning in disgust five minutes later because they seem to be more interested in selling me things than in giving me information, and besides, if you want to convince me of your bona fides, start by not crawling from {redacted} ::

[tangor]

Took a look at the cuddly creature site. Works great! Note: no background color/images appeared, after all those are not text/image content. Will say some of the bespoke images used for "titles" did look a bit washed out since the images have transparency activated and the High Contrast system background takes over.

[lucy24]

For those who wonder what he’s talking about: The page in question is dominated by one large* image. For Responsive purposes I set it as a background, so the @media rule includes {background: none;} alongside {display: none;}. That way, viewers with small devices--some of whom would be on limited data plans--won’t be forced to download a file they won’t see. (It is possible that I am the last person on the planet who is concerned with filesize.)


* I checked the files. It's not really that big; four options ranging from 150k to 220k. I'd remembered then as being more in the MB range. But then, the page was created in 2011, so I’m allowed to forget.

[tangor]

(It is possible that I am the last person on the planet who is concerned with filesize.)

Not true as there are those that know that lean, clean and accurate ALWAYS wins. Will agree that older/evergreen sites seem to translate to accessibility needs (even those that still maintain TABLES for LAYOUT!) though text to voice is compromised in that format. I personally don't need a voice reader YET, and those who do already recognize that past layout stupidity and learned to live with it.

Regarding pixels/ems and BROWSER FORCED MINIMUM FONT (my case is 16) works AS INTENDED by most webmasters in that titles, headlines, sections, etc. are different and distinguishable. THAT SAID, in my personal experience, some sites with some FONT/TYPEFACE choices do not render properly. but because of that lack of foresight on the website's part they just lost a potential return visitor.

The MONEY on the web continues to reside in the older, mature, long time earners with a generation-equivalent worth of income to spend compared to the younger, more numerous, attention span of gnats without real jobs or spending power. Just wondering if those "next gen" webmasters are overlooking an affluent clientele while coding for smart phone teens with nickles in their pockets.

[Martin Potter]

... NEVER use gray body text. Loathsome idea ..

Absolutely!
I think this trend was born from someone's misguided attempt to save toner (or electrons?) in their display screen.

[Brett_Tabke]

I am doing so little design work these days - so I leave it up to the template for most cases. I do stress far-to-much over those though. I end up making bad choices and taking the path of least resistance.
That said, I try to use only fonts available with default windows and apple.

[Emman suarez12]

Hi
I find your points about high contrast and accessibility very interesting. From my experience, many websites underestimate how colors, fonts, and sizes affect users with visual impairments. Personally, when working on web design, I usually check that headings and important text have sufficient contrast and make sure font sizes are scalable without breaking the layout. Even small adjustments, like letting users choose their preferred font or adjusting spacing, can greatly improve readability. It's interesting how older sites, by not enforcing fixed styles, are sometimes more accessible than newer ones trying to be visually “perfect.”

[Marshall]

Some times the challenge to a site being accessible is the client's demands. i once had one that insisted on a pink font on a light pink background. No matter how much I tried to sway her from that using accessibility as an argument and how difficult it was to read with the poor contrast, it had a lot of text, she insisted. Then she wondered why her competitors did better than her. The site is no longer in business.

[lucy24]

Times like that, you need to fetch out the Against Designer’s Advice form and have them sign it in blood.