Font family

[JAVAEOC]

What font family should i use on my website????

thanks

[bradyj]

Depends on what you like:) There are two types of basic font family's -- ones with Serifs (the little tails at the top and bottom of the letters like in Times New Roman, or Georgia) and Sans (Arial, Helvetica -- plain ones without the tails).

Serif Fonts are usually used for body text; meaning, the major amount of content being read. Sans fonts are used for the titles or headers of stuff. This is in print design, mind you -- like in a newspaper. The headlines are usually a thick font like Impact, or Compacta, or Helvetica, and the stories are in Georgia, Garamound, or Times New Roman. Atleast, for American print, some Eurpoean papers do it the other way around because it has a more 'modern' feel to it.

So there's a million fonts to use, pick which one you like best:) You can also download custom fonts for your images for free at places like http://www.acidfonts.com

[squirellplaying]

Do not use custom fonts. When a view goes to read the page they will either be asked to download the font or it will not be displayed correctly. Just stick with normal fonts that everyone has and you won't have any problems :).

[bradyj]

I agree -- like I said, I'd only use the custom fonts for images, it's annoying otherwise.

[mindlessLemming]

Whatever font you choose as your primary, please remember to provide alternatives as well as the family they belong to, eg:

font-family:Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;
OR
font-family:Georgia, Garamound, Times, serif;

[shlagish]

The advantage of serif is that all the little tails added to the letters for a line and it makes following that text line easier on the eyes.

That's why when you have lots of text, you might want to have serif to make reading easier. For titles, no need, but you can still add them just for looks

[JAVAEOC]

Do not use custom fonts. When a view goes to read the page they will either be asked to download the font or it will not be displayed correctly. Just stick with normal fonts that everyone has and you won't have any problems :).

What fonts would this include?

[me']

It's by no means a definite list, but my answer in the FAQ (http://www.codingforums.com/showpost.php?p=183780&postcount=14) should help.

[ronaldb66]

The advantage of serif is that all the little tails added to the letters for a line and it makes following that text line easier on the eyes.
This definitely is true for print; however, because of the way monitors work, serif text is often harder to read then sans-serif text, especially smaller font sizes. The serifs, because they have to be constructed with only a few pixels, tend to get sloppy and distracting, reducing the text's legibility.
It isn't for nothing that a font like Verdana, which is designed for use on monitors, is a sans-serif font.

For the larger font sizes such as headers, serif fonts are fine, and when a sans-serif font is used for body text, offer a nice contrast.

[JAVAEOC]

thanks for all the help...

[mindlessLemming]

There are other generic families to play with aswell (monospace, fantasy, cursive) but they're mostly pretty nasty :(

All this talk about fonts got me thinking about the following bit of CSS2..

<STYLE TYPE="text/css" MEDIA="screen, print, projection">
@font-face {
font-family: "Robson Celtic";
src: url("http://site/fonts/rob-celt")
}
H1 { font-family: "Robson Celtic", serif }
</STYLE>

...One day I'll bite the bullet and use it... but not today.

[bradyj]

Does that work well? Is it universal?

[JAVAEOC]

so, midlessleming, are u saying that i can use any font and my client doesnt even have to have that font????