The best font to use

[Cornish Steve]

In another message thread, Dean suggested that we use a different font at our website. Rather than hijack that thread, I thought I'd post a separate message about this topic.

Let me ask all the web designers in this forum: Which character fonts and font sizes create the most professional image at a website?

[Richard Conyard]

If you're not using images then you're font choices are rather limited.

For text the normal is verdana, helvatica (sp) - this is slightly wider than an arial for example and has been specifically designed to be viewed on screen.

In terms of sizing, use CSS and look between 0.75em and 0.9em for standard text. You might also want to look at zooming layouts.

[Andy @ BlueLight Creative]

Hi,

Our site uses Verdana, 8pt...

Verdana is the best way to go... 10pt max I think.

Andy

[kyber]

Hi Steve,

You might want to read this (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/sizematters/) once you have some suggestions on size so you can figure out how to achieve it. There is a decent amount of related information that you might find helpful as well.

Stuart

[Richard Conyard]

Regardless of size - drop the use of pixels :-)

[DuaneJackson]

Im actually ashamed that I know the answer to this yet I still often use px for font sizes.

The problem is with accesibility. If you define the size in pixels then tools and features for people that are visually impaired may not work on your site. Within Internet Explorer, on the View menu is an option for Text Size. If you have defined your font size in pixels then this will be ineffective - the text will always be the same size regardless of the users setting. Wheras if you use other measures then it will work.

Atleast I think that's what Richard is saying. I'm sure he'll correct me if I am wrong!

[Richard Conyard]

Nope,
You got the point spot on :-). As far as I am concerned the more designers learn about standards compliance and accessibility the better. Obviously there is a lot more to it than just stopping using px's, but it's worthwhile.

[Cornish Steve]

Regardless of size - drop the use of pixels :-)

This evening, I changed the font to Verdana and the font size to 10 point. I must admit that our website looks much better. Thank you for the advice!

We used Mambo to create our site. As an administrator, I am able to just go in and change details of the text. Not being a technical person, how can I tell if we are using pixels or not?

[kyber]

View the source of one of your updated html pages. It will be in explicit in the html/style.....

Looking at your home page, it uses this style sheet:
http://www.goldctr.com/templates/JavaBean/css/template_css.css

You can open that in your browser and read it.

Looks like most things are in px (pixels) but some in pt (point). Seems all over the place to be honest. Not an efficient style sheet.

Stuart
PS. For reference (edited from TopStyle help):
Both relative and absolute units are supported in CSS1. Relative units are preferred since they will better adjust to different media. The following relative units are available:

em (ems, the height of the element's font)
ex (x-height, the height of the letter "x")
px (pixels, relative to the canvas resolution)

Absolute units are highly dependent on the output medium, and so are less useful than relative units. The following absolute units are available:

in (inches; 1in=2.54cm)
cm (centimeters; 1cm=10mm)
mm (millimeters)
pt (points; 1pt=1/72in)
pc (picas; 1pc=12pt)

[Webstuff]

Now that says you should use pixels...

[kyber]

No, it says use relative. Which you use is up to you. Generally, ems is prefered I believe where practical.

The link I gave earlier to A List Apart has plenty of debate on this.

However, here (http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/font/index.html)is a very good article on this very subject by the author of one of the best books on CSS that I know.

Stuart

[sparklyscotty]

Nope,
You got the point spot on :-). As far as I am concerned the more designers learn about standards compliance and accessibility the better. Obviously there is a lot more to it than just stopping using px's, but it's worthwhile.

I apologize to gold for hijacking this thread, but is there a good place to find comprehensive information on this?
Thanks.
-Angel-

[Richard Conyard]

http://www.w3.org/WAI/

also

http://www.accessifyforum.com

[Cornish Steve]

I apologize to gold for hijacking this thread

Why apologize? Without meaning to, I seem to hijack other people's threads all the time. :)