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"Remember to use Fonts carefully. Your goal is to create text where the Font doesn't outshine the message!" |
You made a page and it looks okay but not quite right. All your site colors seem fine and blend well together. Your buttons, bars and bullets match each other as well as they match your PhotoShop Logo. You’ve laid out your images clearly and your ads are placed just where the eye should go. Everything looks okay. Okay, but not quite right. Something’s off.
Maybe it’s your Fonts.
The adult Internet business is a visual medium. Our sites are designed for the eye. Many of us forget that our text should be as visually attractive as our photos, graphics and Flash doodads. We need to make sure that our Fonts look good on every page from any browser. The easiest way to make sure your site reads as well as it should is to use Core Fonts.
Core Fonts are Fonts that are installed on a computer through operating system software. Both Windows and Macintosh come pre-bundled with a set of Core Fonts. Fortunately, both Windows and MAC operating systems recognize a Font format called TrueType.
Here’s the way Fonts work. If you view a document or webpage where the creator uses a Font that’s NOT installed on your computer, you won’t see that Font. You’ll see the default Font that IS installed on your computer. To make things more difficult, most word processor and browser programs come with their own default Font settings and those default settings may be different from both your OS and the Fonts used by the creator of the document you’re viewing.
If you’re creating webpage text and you don’t use the common Core Fonts shared by the two most popular operating systems, your site might look funny on a lot of surfer’s machines. The only way to make sure surfers see Fonts -not installed on their computers- is to download those Fonts onto each surfer machine. You’ve probably encountered a similar dialogue box if you’ve visited a foreign language site. In these paranoid days of the Internet, it’s not easy to get visitors to fill out a webform, much less download a strange Font.
According to my research, these are the TrueType Core Fonts that come pre-installed on both Windows and MAC:
Andale Mono
Arial
Arial Black
Comic Sans
Courier New
Georgia
Impact
Times New Roman
Trebuchet
Verdana
If you make webpages and keep your Fonts to those listed above, then your site text will always look they way you want it to on the majority of user machines.
When you choose the Fonts to use for your page’s text, simplicity is always the best choice. Courier New, Georgia and Times New Roman are Fonts that have barbs and finials. These little squiggly decorations might not look or read as clearly as the clean spines of Andale Mono, Arial, Trebuchet or Verdana. As far as Arial Black, Comic Sans and Impact are concerned, it’s probably best to use them sparingly.
Mind you, this article concerns the Fonts you choose to use for the TEXT on your pages. If you want to create a graphic using a Font, that’s another matter. However it’s wise to ensure that even those IMAGE Fonts are readable and blend well with the TEXT Fonts you code into your HTML document. If you want to create an IMAGE from a Font, take care. There are people and companies that own those Fonts. Many of these typographers allow royalty-free use of certain Fonts but many more want you to pay money, especially if you plan to use that Font (IMAGE or TEXT) on a commercial web site.
There are literally thousands and thousands of different Fonts and Font Families. It’s a shame that we’re limited to just a few. Then again, it’s not such a good idea to get kooky with text. After all, we want our surfers to read the words without getting a headache.
Use TrueType Core Fonts on your pages. If you’re tired of Arial, try Andale Mono. If you want to make a bold statement give Impact a shot. Just remember to use Fonts carefully. Your goal is to create text where the Font doesn’t outshine the message!
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