[Pro] Font Question

Freeway
1

Have a Mac/Windows font question.

Have been using an Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif font set for a site I’m working on. My client has some concern that the black body font appears a bit light (thin?) and hard to read on a darker background green I am using. Site: (http://www.beanrunnercafe.com/test2/)

When viewed on Windows I can see somewhat what she is talking about (don’t totally agree on legibility) vs when viewed on my Mac (font definitely heavier on Mac). This is true both on IE and Firefox.

I have tried some variations with fonts, but all appear lighter on Windows (I’m viewing using a MAMP install and VirtualBox Windows 7 install). In the course of trying fonts, I tried bolding my navigation menu at the top and noticed uploaded to my MAMP install and viewed through my VirtualBox install – nothing changes (font looks same no matter how I bold (either as links or with style.

So my question is, is there something going on I’m not aware of. Is this just a Windows thing, ???

Jeff

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2

is there something going on I’m not aware of. Is this just a Windows thing, ???

I think it is

I have looked using IE8 and FF under VMWare Fusion and I do see the font being ‘lighter’ / not so well defined compared to Safari on the Mac but it is pretty subjective.

Does she prefer the definition that is shown on your Mac compared to what she sees on the PC?

I presume that you have tried Verdana with her.

If anything it gives you a chance to evangelise about a Mac!

David

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Yes she likes the way it looks on my Mac. Any idea why my bolding the top navigation items don’t really show as bold in Windows?

I tried Verdana on my MAMP install, but haven’t shown my client yet. To me it’s not much heavier, but a bit “larger.” We’re meeting tomorrow so I’ll have a better sense of what she can live with.

Jeff

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I believe it’s related to at least two things.

First is the way that Windows is rendering the font choice as that seems to be prevalent in quite a few sites. Secondly, it could come into also whether a person has Clear Type enabled or not. I know a few clients who use XP and they have Clear Type enabled, in their Display setting, which can thick or thin out your font appearance.

So those two things are what I have come across.

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5

Hi Jeffery,
If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty with a bit of CSS you could have a play with some custom CSS to embolden the fonts just in IE with a conditional comment.

For example;

<!--[if IE]>
<style type="text/css">
<!-- 
.mainpagebodycopy { font-weight:900 }
-->
</style>
<![endif]-->

The code above (when placed in your page’s head will display the body copy much bolder than normal (400 is normal so 900 is over twice as bold).

You can read about CSS font weights here;
http://www.w3schools.com/Css/pr_font_weight.asp

and conditional comments here;
http://www.quirksmode.org/css/condcom.html

Given enough tinkering you should be able to get the font weight in IE to match that of Safari.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Tim.

On 13 Nov 2010, at 23:04, Jeffrey Stern wrote:

Have a Mac/Windows font question.

Have been using an Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif font set for a site I’m working on. My client has some concern that the black body font appears a bit light (thin?) and hard to read on a darker background green I am using. Site: (http://www.beanrunnercafe.com/test2/)

When viewed on Windows I can see somewhat what she is talking about (don’t totally agree on legibility) vs when viewed on my Mac (font definitely heavier on Mac). This is true both on IE and Firefox.

I have tried some variations with fonts, but all appear lighter on Windows (I’m viewing using a MAMP install and VirtualBox Windows 7 install). In the course of trying fonts, I tried bolding my navigation menu at the top and noticed uploaded to my MAMP install and viewed through my VirtualBox install – nothing changes (font looks same no matter how I bold (either as links or with style.

So my question is, is there something going on I’m not aware of. Is this just a Windows thing, ???

Jeff

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6

Thanks Tim

Would I add this through HTML Markup menu? and if so, before Head, after head…???

I might be willing to try this so any additional enlightenment might be helpful.

Thanks again for the suggestion

Jeff

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7

Before End Head, or

Before </head>

in the picker.

Walter

On Nov 15, 2010, at 9:36 AM, Jeffrey Stern wrote:

Thanks Tim

Would I add this through HTML Markup menu? and if so, before Head,
after head…???

I might be willing to try this so any additional enlightenment might
be helpful.

Thanks again for the suggestion

Jeff

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8

Thanks Walt

Jeff

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