I am currently putting together a new website based on the Freeway template Ambient that appears to use Helvetica Neue as the main font and it looks very nice in Preview mode but I’m wondering how safe this choice is across multiple browsers and platforms.
Does anybody know which html fonts we can use safely these days? Looking around on the internet there doesn’t seem to be any real agreement on which fonts are safe for Windows and Mac. Linux seems to be even less known.
Thanks David, by the looks of it Helvetica Neue isn’t a safe choice of font, though I may just upload it as a test and see how it looks on various computers. It seems you can’t just assume though that something suitable will automatically appear in the event that the desired font isn’t available.
If you create a good “cascade” of fonts, you can be just fine on a wide range of browsers. Start with Helvetica Neue, but the provide a number of good generic substitutes:
That way those who have the good computers will see it at its best, and those who waste their time and money on Windows will see something similar but not as good. Come to think of it, that’s all they ever see anyway.
Walter
On Oct 28, 2012, at 4:40 PM, Ashley wrote:
Thanks David, by the looks of it Helvetica Neue isn’t a safe choice of font, though I may just upload it as a test and see how it looks on various computers. It seems you can’t just assume though that something suitable will automatically appear in the event that the desired font isn’t available.
That makes sense Walter, though I’m not entirely sure how to implement this inside Freeway. I’m struggling at the moment simply because I only create about one site a year at most, so it always feels like I am starting from scratch with Freeway.
In Freeway, you use Edit / Font Sets to create a font set. The string of font names I showed in my previous message is just what you would enter in the Alternative Fonts field, and then you choose a screen font from your Mac to show in its place while designing.
Walter
On Oct 28, 2012, at 9:03 PM, Ashley wrote:
That makes sense Walter, though I’m not entirely sure how to implement this inside Freeway. I’m struggling at the moment simply because I only create about one site a year at most, so it always feels like I am starting from scratch with Freeway.