For those who have, from time to time, asked what fonts are safe for web site use, the link below goes to an article that simply and clearly states the limited choice of cross platform system fonts. It may be useful to those just embarking on web design.
However, the onset of embedded fonts is dawning, which will widen the scope and hopefully, in the next couple of years, life will get easier on the font front.
Sometime around 12/1/10 (at 04:59 -0500) ColinJA said:
the onset of embedded fonts is dawning, which will widen the scope
and hopefully, in the next couple of years, life will get easier on
the font front.
This is true. However, for small text it will always be important to
choose type that suits the low resolution of screens. Verdana and
Georgia are among the best for this, even if you consider all fonts.
I totally agree. I think the most important factor here is to maintain
the basics (particularly for FW novices) and use established print
and ‘designer’ fonts sparingly: for content emphasis (headlines,
subheads) and aesthetic decoration.The added bonus is that, unlike
graphic text, embedded type is natively readable by search engines.
It will never be a perfect world and I only highlighted the original
link because it indicates which are the ‘safe’ fonts and graphically
shows what they look like on screen - and I’ve seen the question
raised more than once in the last year alone.
Thanks for your comment, though. Colin
On 12 Jan 2010, at 13:01, Keith Martin wrote:
However, for small text it will always be important to choose type
that suits the low resolution of screens.
“As a Typekit user, you’ll have access to our library of high-quality fonts. Just add a line of JavaScript to your markup, tell us what fonts you want to use, and then craft your pages the way you always have. Except now you’ll be able to use real fonts. This really is going to change web design.”
Well… it is a paid-for subscription service. I’m not rabidly
against that, and it IS very interesting. But I think there’s a bit
of spin in the marketing.
Paul’s Caxton action
(Caxton) is a good
alternative based on the same underlying web technology, and he
includes links to sites with royalty-free fonts.
Careful with ColinJA’s suggestion as in the license agreement it states that you must put a mandatory banner on your site if you use their free service and it only lasts a year before they require you to update your service.
I only said it was interesting. I’m not saying I recommend it, particularly, but we all need to know what’s happening with fonts on the web. Just like DTP in the wrong hands, though, I agree that “unlimited typographic freedom” will probably result in some visually disasterous web sites.