For the sake of a font......

[wenwilder]

I have to admit it..........I completely.....and totally......despise sites that can not make a decision!

One's that keep you guessing as to what font color, size, and style they are going to pick next.

You read through the site and by the time you are done.....a WHOLE bottle of headache medicine is NOT going to take a way your headache and eye strain.

You are terrified to click on any link on sites such as these because you just KNOW, without a doubt, that it's either going to be the same or worse!

And to top it all off, they don't realize that combining italics and bold is.....well....it's.....annoying! Who ever thought of that concept should be forced to read page after page after page of text that is italicized and bolded.

I am convinced that people who create such sites are truly afraid of commitment! They will never decide on one color, one size, italics, bold, or what t-shirt to wear tomorrow. And one can only hope that tomorrow, when I awaken, I will see the errors of my ways and edit this post. ;)

[jdiben]

A big peeve of mine is when ordinary text is made to look like a link. Text on a website shouldn't be underlined unless it is a link. If someone hands me a printout of something with important words or sentences underlined thats wonderfull but on a website it is just confusing.

[wclew]

On the opposite side of that coin, I don't like sites that make links look like ordinary text. Links should be underlined and an offsetting color, hopefully blue. Sites like these force you to place your mouse over the word before you can tell if it's a link or not, when it should be obvious.

[rdrunna]

Hi all!

If consistency is the best manor, than what is the font to use and when do you really know when to change the font or size. Any help on this?

Thanks

[janeth]

I have to agree it is like printing amateur all over your website.
Choosing the right font for your website is very important because it affects the way your reader will see the page and the ability for him/her to read the page.


Some font are easer to read than others.

I think the best font is Verdana.

The body of the font makes it the easiest to read, even at a small size.

I also think it looks professional.
at 10pt

[Alan J]

In response to members posts I would just like to say:

Wenwilder - I don't agree about what you say about italics - this is preferable than using colours as, other than headings, it may indicate they are links. When they are not it is this that is annoying!

Wclew - I suspect that link text that has not been highlighted in any way is done to fool the search engines - i.e. a link is put there simply to strengthen the text - you will probably find that it is a key word/phrase that the webmaster is trying to optimise and that the page it links to is not specifically about that key phrase. The webmaster therefore does not want the reader to see it. Somebody correct me if they know of any other reason for doing it!

Janeth - I couldn't agree more. Verdana at 10pt is very professional and is my preferred font and size.

[alienzhavelanded]

Funny that I ran into this post. Over the weekend I revamped my site, changing the font to one I thought looked the best. Once I was done, I realized that many Win 95/98 machines didnt come with the font I'd selected, so anyone without it were seeing it in Times New Roman at a crappy size. Oops LOL

So how did I fix it? Well..for those of you new to design...CSS ROCKS! Learn it, live it, love it. You'll wonder why you ever did it another way LOL Those of you who have been at it a while, know what I'm talking about! Using it I was able to choose my main font, and a second font and size for anyone who didnt have the first one. This ensured the site was displayed consistently the right way. Woohoo!

Fonts should be the same across your website, with little variation except where you may want to emphasize, etc. They should be:

1. Clear and legible. If they look crappy, then don't use them.
2. Used with CSS if you want flexible control. (Plus you don't have to edit each page!)
3. Used wisely with the colors of the site itself. Don't burn my retinas with a multicolored layout and font for example. Your site should be pleasing to the eye, not damaging!
4. Standard types supported by most browsers. That great custom font you downloaded won't work unless I have it too.

I'd say my biggest peeve on fonts is the designers who think having it change size or type when you hover over a link is cool. It's not, it looks like hell...try a different line of work.

Anyways..my 50 cents worth...(The price went up-twice!)

The Martian

[minstrel]

Over the weekend I revamped my site, changing the font to one I thought looked the best. Once I was done, I realized that many Win 95/98 machines didn't come with the font I'd selected, so anyone without it were seeing it in Times New Roman at a crappy size. So how did I fix it? Well..for those of you new to design...CSS ROCKS! (snip)Using it I was able to choose my main font, and a second font and size for anyone who didn't have the first one. This ensured the site was displayed consistently the right way.

Not that I'm trying to argue against using CSS but if for some reason you prefer not to you don't need it to specify alternate fonts. You can do it in HTML by specifying, for example, <BASEFONT SIZE=5 FACE="Arial, Verdana, Lucida Sans, Courier New, Comic Sans MS"> or <FONT FACE="Arial, Verdana, Lucida Sans, Courier New, Comic Sans MS">. The page will then be viewed in whatever font the visitor has on his/her computer, in order of priority reading left to right. If none of the fonts specified are available on the vistor's computer, the page will be displayed in whatever is the default font, so the advice to specify at least one common font and make sure that your page looks at least presentable in that font is still pertinent.


I have a suspicion that older browsers may not support this but then again they probably don't support CSS either...

[minstrel]

I have to admit it..........I completely.....and totally......despise sites that can not make a decision!

One's that keep you guessing as to what font color, size, and style they are going to pick next.

You read through the site and by the time you are done.....a WHOLE bottle of headache medicine is NOT going to take a way your headache and eye strain.

You are terrified to click on any link on sites such as these because you just KNOW, without a doubt, that it's either going to be the same or worse!

(snip) etc.

My first thought was "HOT DANG... this is the purdiest message I ever seen in these here forums"... then I said to my self, "Self... you've been away from the city WAYYYYY too long..."

(Dueling Banjos heard faintly in the background)

(While we're on the subject, why is it called "Dueling Banjos" when it's actually one banjo and a guitar?)

(Maybe I just need more sleep...)

(Hey - why won't this forum let me make an exclamation mark?)

[minstrel]

what is the font to use and when do you really know when to change the font or size?

My all time favorite font is Arial... second choice Verdana... third choice: anything that looks like it was created by Druids :-)

I'm currently working on a website for my son's heavy metal band, Tainted Shade (remember that name: if any of my sons makes it big, I want at least 10% of the take for (1) the thousands of dollars I've spent on equipment, and (2) compensation for enduring all the practicing) -- think Druids with humongous swords, or many of the characters from Lord of the Rings :-)