Typography
Sans Serif fonts are most
legible on the Internet. Some of the most common fonts seen on
the Internet are Verdana, Arial, Courier, & Helvetica. Those
fonts are considered browser and platform safe - meaning that they
should be native on most systems therefore being able to be displayed
as intended on a web page. Times, and Times New Roman are serif
fonts and are also popular on the web but are better used in print.
If you specify a font that is not on a
users systems than the default font on their system will be displayed.
This can affect the look of your page if you are not careful. It
changes the appearance completely in the example below when the
default font on this users system is displayed instead of the font the
author intended you to see.
Example:
In the example on the left below we can see Beach font, point 12 and a
yellow box below it. This is what the author indented you to see
- but what happens if you don't have Beach font on your system? If
your default font is Arial you can expect it to look like the example
on the right. Notice that your yellow image now moves up a line
changing the layout you intended. The text takes up a lot less space
when the default font replaces the unsafe font. With more
complex pages it can really change the look.
 |
 |
| Notice the change in proximity |
The best way to avoid these
situations is to stick to the browser safe fonts.
. 
|
