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What's your font preference?

by DavidO
17 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
I've turned off of Verdana and I'm looking for alternatives. Arial is bit small and cramped for my taste, especially in bold and italic.

I love Lucida Grande but few PC users have it. How about Lucida Sans Unicode? Is this one pretty common?

If not, it will likely default to Arial, which is a little smaller and not ideal, but I guess there's no other option.

Finally, what about serif? Is anybody using Georgia as the main font nowadays?
#font #preference
  • Profile picture of the author emarketingbd
    My choice Times Roman which is a default font of MS word program and for Excel Arial
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  • Profile picture of the author Ronald Kang
    I think it depends on the purpose of what you create. if you want to use it to be seen on monitor screen, then arial or verdana should be the easy-to-read font. For printed paper, it's better to use times new roman or georgia
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  • Profile picture of the author n7 Studios
    Hi David,

    It's a bit tricky finding something unique when you really need to stick with web safe fonts for the internet, so you know it'll look the same across all visitor platforms.

    As a rule of thumb, I've used the following resources for choosing a web safe font:
    Common fonts to all versions of Windows & Mac equivalents (Browser safe fonts) - Web design tips & tricks
    List of Web Safe Fonts - Font Tester
    16 Gorgeous Web Safe Fonts To Use With CSS | Web Design Tutorials | Creating a Website | Learn Adobe Flash, Photoshop and Dreamweaver

    However, there are also some useful scripts that will let you embed most fonts into your web site, thanks to some trickery using Flash and/or images (and usually with no negative effect on SEO, as these scripts simply replace existing headings when run from a browser):
    Mike Davidson – sIFR
    Nine Techniques for CSS Image Replacement | CSS-Tricks
    typeface.js -- Rendering text with Javascript, <canvas>, and VML
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  • Profile picture of the author johnlagoudakis
    Tahoma's not too bad. I like to use it sometimes.
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  • Profile picture of the author dubo
    Verdana, Arial, Times New Roman, and Calibri what I used often.
    But, like others said, it depends on what your purpose with the font preference.
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  • Profile picture of the author sanjid112
    I would like Tahoma, Calibri and sometimes I used Times or Comics
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  • Profile picture of the author pumpfootwear
    my choice is verdana . This fonts are good and nicely readable... second choice is arial.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bex7175
      I think it's important to remember, when it comes to font choice, the way in which people read websites. Unlike books or printed copy where a reader will make their way through the content, with websites it is usual for a reader simply to skim the majority of it, looking instead for highlighted passages or subheadings to discover the sections of interest for them.

      For this reason the best font to choose is one that can be read quickly and easily; allowing the information to be quickly passed to the reader. Unfortunately that doesn't leave the doors wide open when it comes to the best choices. The fonts that people read most quickly, that still hold an aesthetically pleasing value, are the traditional offerings such as Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana and Calibri. They're also the safe bets when it comes to fonts that can be used on any different operating system and web browser. I remember creating a website with one font that looked wonderful before opening it in a different browser and having it default to a font that it could find. Although, as n7 Studios said, there are ways to get around this through the use of scripts.

      Personally I tend to stick with either Arial or Times.
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  • Profile picture of the author shahz
    My favorite font is Georgia. Its nicely readable and very unique when it comes to line-heights and adjustments Oh, and not to forget the cross browser compatibility
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  • Profile picture of the author StevesProfitSecrets
    I usually stick with Arial or Verdana. If you get too crazy with your font selection the user may not be able to see it anyway depending on their machine and fonts available.
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  • Profile picture of the author DarkSaber
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author andi_gt2005
      Ryan Deiss in his "43 Split Tests" recommends:

      1. Have the body text in arial 12 point font. He got an increase in readability of 31% - 36% from others fonts.

      2. Make the headline: read, tahoma.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rozzito
    This sort of thing really does depend on the type of website and it's theme.

    If it's professional I'd go with Arial.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    Myriad Pro & Calibri
    These fonts aren't on all systems, they look nice but there are a lot of operating systems that do not have these fonts included. Early Win XP is one of them.

    You don't have a lot of choices when it comes to fonts if you want your site to look the same on all systems and smart phones.
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  • Profile picture of the author Allen Bell
    Hey David. You can go to websites like your own and check there sourse code to see what they are using. And Yes, I still use Georgia.
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  • Profile picture of the author Orlando Web Design
    I like Garamond
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