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How Do You Spell HTML?
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Chapter 2 - Fonts
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Chapter 2 - Fonts |
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vlraynes Member Rara Avis
since 2000-07-25
Posts 8229Somewhere... out there... 
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Here I am again with a new topic for you. I want/need to be educated about user-friendly fonts. I know, or at least I think I know, that there are only a small number of fonts that are considered 'safe'. These, I understand, are the ones that are the most common and therefore are on pretty much every computer. What I don't know is which ones they are. My understanding is that Times New Roman, Arial, and Comic Sans MS are all included in the 'safe' group, but are there others, and if so what are they? I want my site to be attractive, with a little bit of 'fancy' but I don't want to use things that a large number of people won't be able to see anyway. I also don't want to get so fancy that it distracts from the actual content of the pages. Okay..on to my second font question. I've noticed that, when writing the css codes, you've been using 'font-family' and then listing about 3 different fonts. To make a long question short...why is that? LOL In my little bit of HTML experience, I've only been exposed to 'font face' and have used only one font choice with that. I am not at all familiar with font families, as it would seem they are called. So...educate me please? Correct me where I'm wrong, and set me straight. I really want to understand all of this, since I don't just like to know how to do things, I want/need to know WHY they work like they do.  Waiting...listening... [This message has been edited by vlraynes (11-30-2002 02:03 PM).] |
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| © Copyright 2002 Vicky L. Raynes - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Ron
Administrator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-05-19
Posts 8669Michigan, US |
The multiple font list exists, Vicky, exactly because not everyone has all fonts. A list like "Arial, Verdana, Helvetica" tells the browser you would like to use Arial, but if the client doesn't have that, try Verdana, and if they don't have that, please use Helvetica. Essentially, the browser goes through your list until it hopefully finds one the client has. You can do the same thing with font-face, by the way. Not everyone agrees on the "most common" fonts, but here's a page that gives one person's opinion. http://www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/res_fonts.htm |
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vlraynes Member Rara Avis
since 2000-07-25
Posts 8229Somewhere... out there... |
Thanks much, Ron. That looks like a very helpful site. I'll definately be giving it an indepth look. So then, you're saying that "font-face" and "font-family" are interchangeable? There is no functional difference between them? Good to know. As far as the listing of multiple fonts goes, I had a feeling that might be the case, but wasn't sure. So, just to make sure I'm clear on this, I can choose any fonts I like for my list of font options, and there are no 'font families' as I first thought? The use of the word 'family' led me to believe that the particular fonts listed must somehow be related, but it sounds as if that's not the case. Correct? [This message has been edited by vlraynes (11-30-2002 03:37 PM).] |
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Ron
Administrator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-05-19
Posts 8669Michigan, US |
Darn. In my example, I purposely avoiding using a font family in hope it would avoid confusion. Didn't work, I guess. The two attributes "font-face" and "font-family" are NOT interchangable, and even though they mean almost the same thing, there is a subtle difference. Font-face, of course, is the old way of doing it, and you can only use it with the <font> tag. In the HTML 4.0 specifications, that tag has been deprecated, meaning they intend to eventually get rid of it entirely. Our kids will be forced to use CSS. Font-family is the new way of doing it, and you can only use it with CSS definitions. They changed the name from font-face to font-family to highlight that subtle difference I mentioned. With the old way, you could list fifteen or twenty different fonts and STILL not be absolutely certain the client would use one of them. With the new CSS way, you typically end your font list with one of the five families of fonts, telling the browser that if it doesn't have any of the NAMED fonts to at least stick with something similar. There's actually a third way, too. CSS also includes the font designation, which can replace all of the other font designations, like font-family, font-weight, etcetera. It's fussy about order and not very flexible, so you probably won't see it used a lot. |
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Skyfire 
since 2000-12-27
Posts 3381Riding |
*whimpers* we'll be forced to use CSS? |
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Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296Purgatorial Incarceration |
we'll be forced to use a lot of things as time goes by, though I think it will be a while before that happens, |
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