Choice of Fonts

THE FONT OF ALL PERSONALITY

Graphology - the art of studying handwriting - has been used for centuries to try to analyse people's characters, but since the demise of personal handwriting, the experts have moved on to typefaces to look for clues to our identities. If the experts are correct, choice of font could prove important when writing a letter to your bank manager or a spurned lover.

Pychologist Dr Aric Sigman was commissioned by Lexmark printers to look at fonts. The study found rectilinear fonts were more appealing to men, while the more round and curvy fonts with prominent tails were favourites with women. He suggests there is a huge opportunity for people to express themselves through font style, which people should exploit more fully. Applying for a new job? Then choose Times for your CV for a traditional company and Verdana for a more contemporary firm. Dr Sigman said: "Using the wrong font may give people the wrong impression about you and could affect decisions that will shape your future."

Courier - the anarak of fonts used by boozy, chain-smoking, old-school journalists with goose-neck lamps. For "automaton-like" coldness, for writing computer code, or perhaps when resigning from a job on bad terms.

Lucida Sans - a curvy style used by fashion-conscious pop-chicks

Helvetica - modern style to show you are in touch with contemporary issues.

Times New Roman and Palatino - show trustworthiness and a compromise between old and new. A favourite of solicitors.

Sans-serif styles like Arial and Modern - are the sensible shoes of print.

WHAT FONT SHALL YOU CHOOSE?

You have a bewildering choice of fonts. And sizes. And colours. I have no time for these decisions; I use just three:

By the way, note the use of quotes on the fonts with multiple names. They normally work correctly anyway, but there may be browsers out there which will get it wrong else.

'Times New Roman', Times, serif - 12 point (which is my default) and good for large sizes

Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif size="-1"
- which is 10 point and good for smaller font sizes

'Courier New', Courier, monospace size="-1"
- which is 10 point; good for showing code

And I like black text on white background - how square can I get!
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000">

Other people prefer Verdana or Lucida

Verdana, sans-serif" size="-1"
- which again is best in a smaller size

'Lucida Unicode', sans-serif size="-1"
- again in smaller sizes

TEXT DISPLAYED IN IMAGES

You really should not display text in the form of an image, with the sole exception of a company logo perhaps, and even then you should have the words in text, and as the ALT= statement.

Using images, you could have whatever fonts you want. Using images you can completely control what the surfer sees. What you would do is to set up your text as a .GIF using all the power of your graphics package. But when you shove them into the website, they will take a long time to access, some users will not wait, others will have the graphics turned off and will see nothing, and the search engines will not understand what you are saying at all.

So if you must use GIFs for text, then please also fill in the ALT= statement. And if possible use text as well. Please!

WHAT ARE THE CHOICES

There are probably half a dozen text fonts that you could choose for your website. If you do not choose, then the default website will be assumed. Browsers are normally set up for Times New Roman 12 point (10cpi) for PCs and Times Roman 10 point (12 cpi) for Macs. Because of the smaller default size this is not so good on the Mac, and small sizes on the PC would generally be better in Arial.

Serif fonts are said to be easier to read in print. Some say that sans-serif fonts are easier on displays. I am not so sure - especially in the larger sizes.

THE USERS CAN INSIST

Users can change this default to suit their personal taste and eyesight. Windows has an Accessibility facility in the Control Panel. In which case their selection will be imposed, either for just the default or at their option, in all cases over-riding your specification.

Most users will not know that they can change their fonts and sizes, or perhaps do not know how to do this.

MACS AND LAPTOPS ARE IMPORTANT TOO

Different computers, operating systems, and older browsers, have their own particular selections of fonts available, and if you choose one which is not available on that computer then the nearest available font will be chosen. If you for example choose Comic Sans MS then it is difficult to predict what will be displayed if this font is not available on the surfers computer.

Cross-platform control of fonts is important. You ought to cater for PCs, Macs and Laptops. So a series of fonts should be provided, and the browser will take the first font specified if it can, then the second, then the third. If none of them are found then it will take the nearest guess.

PROPORTIONAL -V- Monospace

Most fonts are proportional spaced - the M is wider than the I.

Monospace fonts like Courier New, usually at 10-point are excellent when showing program code and this will normally be the user's default font in PRE statements

<pre>and appears like this</pre>

THE FONT STATEMENT

The font statement is of the form

and comes out like this on your chosen computer.

The proper names of Fonts are shown here with Initial Capitals, but will still work if you use lower case. The generic font families (serif, sans-serif, monospace) which are supported in NS4 and IE4 and higher are normally shown in lower case. Fonts with multiple names like 'Times New Roman' should have quotes.

If you are using style sheets, then the statements controlling fonts are different.

HERE ARE SOME CHOICES

What are the good sets of font faces on your chosen computer?

SERIF FONTS

'Times New Roman', serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

'Bookman Old Style', Georgia, serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

Garamond, Palatino, serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

SANS-SERIF FONTS

Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

Arial Black, sans-serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

Arial Narrow, Arial MT Condensed Light, sans-serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

Verdana, sans-serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

'News Gothic MT', sans-serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

'Lucida Unicode', sans-serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

'Lucida Console', sans-serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

'Lucida Sans', sans-serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

'Lucida Handwriting', sans-serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

MONOSPACE FONTS

Courier New, Courier, monospace - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

Courier, monospace - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

SPECIAL EFFECT FONTS

'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

Impact, sans-serif - comes out like this
with this in bold,
THIS IN CAPITALS, THIS IN BOLD CAPITALS

SIZE IS IMPORTANT

Fonts can be in larger or smaller sizes, and it will be more difficult to read if the lines are too long; 65 characters is said to be about right; newspapers generally have much less.

And it can be bold or italic, or I guess both, and the character of the font differs with different sizes.

ITS ALL REALLY JUST AESTHETICS

What to choose is up to you. But generally I believe

you should leave well alone and let the surfer choose his own face and size.
And certainly to have only one or two faces on any single document.
And the fonts should be consistent across the whole website to establish a corporate image.

MORE READING

http://www.wpdfd.com/wpdtypo.htm

http://www.will-harris.com/typoscrn.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/default.htm

Website by: Richard Waller
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