Different Fonts and Displays

[Fortune Hunter]

When I first starting learning web design the instructor said to never use strange fonts on a page outside of the typical Ariel, Helvetica, Times New Roman, etc. He said there was a good chance that if someone visited the site and didn't have this font installed they wouldn't see it anyway.

I started using the font MS Comic on some pages and it is a standard font with Windows or Word or something and it had me wondering how true my old instructors thoughts were on this today (advice is about 5 years old).

I am a little bored with the standard fonts and wondered if this still holds true or if you can use different fonts more today and still have them show up to the majority of users.

Fortune Hunter

[Terabytes]

bottom line....if they don't have the font installed on their machine...they can't see that particular font...

there are options to have the font downloaded to the users machine and presented...however they are cumbersome at best...

it's best to stick with the standards...

(I did'nt see Verdana in your list and that's also a standard...)

Hope that helps...
Tera

[tbear]

Of course, they will see the text, but in the default font set on their browser/os.
Might as well design with that in mind, is how I tend to work.

[Wlauzon]

Do a search for "web safe fonts". Usually comic ms is OK, but many are not.

But with CSS that is not hard to get around, just give fallback options for the fonts. But some fonts have different em spacing so you have to watch that.

[rocknbil]

The advice is still true, the list is just a little bigger.

The most important approach to fonts is making your list reach the widest audience - don't eliminate font equivalents for "other platforms." I still use both Times and Times New Roman even though most Mac and Win systems these days have both or methods of handling either.

I'd be interested to know what Comic does on a Mac, never tried it. :-)

[Wlauzon]

Most macs have comic sans.

But the new Vista fonts use cleartype, which is apparently not compatible with macs.

[pixeltierra]

If you want to use a specific font, you could always use Flash. I personally am REALLY bored with standard fonts and have never understood why browsers haven't found a way to deal with the font issues. It seems that a font is a resource like any other. You put it on the server, and if the web site uses a font you don't have, the browser should say "this site uses a font you don't have installed. Install it now?"

The the world would look a lot better. It's probably a proprietary thing. Which is weird because many images are copywrited, but browsers don't make a big deal about downloading them.

[Fortune Hunter]

Thanks everyone for the response. I was sort of thinking this was probably still the rule. It just seems that not being able to vary the fonts outside the standard 7-8 fonts makes every web site look pretty much the same. At least it feels that way to me.

Maybe I need some creative inspiration.

Fortune Hunter

[pixeltierra]

creative inspiration:

csszengarden.com

[Fortune Hunter]

Yep, those are inspirational alright. Unfortunately I only know the very basics of CSS. I would have to get much better at CSS before I could create any those types of designs.

Fortune Hunter

[tedster]

At least for headings, you can look into Scalable Inman Flash Replacement [mikeindustries.com] (sIFR). It's free and it's been in use on several major media sites for a few years.

[pixeltierra]

sIFR is good for displaying the font you want, and is still cut/pastable. Unfortunately my experience is that the browers search function doesn't pay any attention to flash.

It's pitty. With FF you can set the browser to "start searching when you start typing." I've learned that it acts very similarly to a unix command line. I type the first two letters of a link I want and hit <enter> and boom, I follow the link, and I'm there. I can navigate through bunches of pages blindfolded. With real fonts this works but images and sIFR you can't do it.

I have a dream... Martin Luther King anyone...