Why Not Just Any Font Will Do
It used to be that simply having a website was enough to get you noticed. Now, having a website is expected, and it better be interesting enough to grab someone's attention. Having the right content is only a start. Content also needs to be presented in an interesting way. So why then, are there not more websites featuring splashy, never-seen-before fonts? Believe it or not, the technology isn't there yet.
There are only a handful of what are known as browser safe fonts out there at the moment. Large blocks of text on a website (the body text) need to be presented in a common enough font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, so that the majority of web browsers recognize it, and present it as what we want it to look like – letters and words that have meaning. That is why fonts don't change much from website to website. Similar considerations ensure viewing pages is the same between both Windows or Mac computers. Playing around with fonts, therefore, should be reserved for design accents around the peripheral of the body text. These fonts, the ones above and beyond the body text, can be whatever is chosen by the designer or client, and are actually embedded in the website as graphics or javascript.
Straying from browser safe fonts for articles on your body text may be tempting. A specialty font won't pose immediate problems when viewing on your computer because it will have the selected font installed on its hard drive. But, that same font may not translate well on other screens, which will substitute the font with a browser safe font. The translations aren't always perfect, which is why some symbols like apostrophes, quotations, and foreign accents appear as question marks icons, or worse, gobbledygook such as: “@3%mn.
Browser safe fonts are typically chosen by the designer of the website but can be changed easily upon requests from the client. The safest to use are:
• Arial / Helvetica
• Times New Roman / Times
• Courier New / Courier
Other options picking up traction are:
• Palatino
• Garamond
• Bookman
• Avant Garde
• Verdana
• Georgia
• Comic Sans MS
• Trebuchet MS
• Arial Black
• Impact
Each font comes with its own unique history and there are pros and cons for each font out there. As long as one of above-mentioned browser safe fonts is chosen for the majority of text on your website, your customers will have no problem viewing your message; whichever browser, monitor size, or operating system they have in place.
Point One Media's content management systems come complete with web browser friendly fonts so you know you will always be making the right font choice when you're updating dynamic content on your website.
