Everyone loves Verdana

[polestar]

Including me!

It looks so much better than the default font.

When did most people start using it? I'd swear that it wasn't so wide-spread on the web about a year ago. Am I wrong?

I also notice that Yahoo among others doesn't use Verdana. What reason could there be for this? To improve speed or just to be retro?

Do all pc's have Verdana installed by default?

What do mac users see? Do they just see their basic sans-serif font instead?

This poses a problem because most sites set Verdana as <font size="-1"> or 10pt, because for some reason it appears larger than, say Times New Roman. If the user didn't have Verdana the text would look too big.

Any thoughts on this matter much appreciated.

 

[meow]

I too think it's more usual. Maybe because CSS is more used and makes it easier to use a font? Verdana isn't my favorite for longer texts though. As for default font - it is what you prefer. So, not specifying a font face (as I suspect Yahoo doesn't) makes sense since you can get Verdana and I can have whatever I like.

 

[Mandrake]

I prefer MS Sans Serif or Arial myself.

 

[meow]

Yeah, MS Sans Serif is *very* readable. Wish it came in fixed width so I could use it in my text editor
BTW you guys know of a good site for free fixed width fonts?

 

[Mandrake]

MS Sans Serif is the most readable and best-looking one for smaller sizes (size 1).

 

[Canuckkev]

I like Verdana, and lots of comps have it. That's why it's popular. I don't think any serif font(Times New Roman) looks very good on the web. Arial should be the default font. I guess large bodies of text are okay for serifs, but sans-serif for text on any iamges and headings.

I usually have Verdana, Arial, Helectiva(sp?), sans-serif in my font-style CSS. I think it's pretty well the default in CSS. I belive Helectiva(or how ever you spell it) is for Macs, but PC's might have it too.

 

[meow]

Canuckkev, I suspect you misunderstand the concept of "default font". There isn't a default font hard coded in the browser. Default is what you, the user, choose. Set your browser to use Comic Sans MS as default and that's what you will get.

If the page is mainly informational text there really isn't much reason to set a font in the code. With much text to read it's more important the user can do so comfortably than that it looks nice at a quick glance. That's why Yahoo does what they probably do (still haven't checked).


That you see so much Times New Roman is probably because (guessing) that you use IE and it usually ships set to that font face. So that's what you get for the pages that don't specify font face. Change it to Verdana in "Internet Options" and you will see a whole new web.

 

[meow]

Canuckkev, I mixed you and polestar up or I misunderstood or...Cramps. Let it stand. The info is right even if I posted it for the wrong reason. Sorry.

 

[polestar]

Thanks!

You're correct, meow - IE default was set to Times - I never thought to change it

That Yahoo is one of the only sites that came to mind which "uses" Times shows that most sites do specify a sans-serif font in their css now.

I think that not specifying a font would result in a large proportion of the visitors seeing Times New Roman, because most people would never change IE's default setting.

 

[meow]

OK! Then my erroneous post was to some use

You are right - a lot of people never choose their default. But for those who do the no font face and size concept is good.

I *think* all PC's would have Verdana since it's part of the MS package. As for Mac, no they don't see a "basic sans serif". They see their default font that could be anything. That's yet a reason to specify font with CSS since you can use font family.

Another crappy thing is that many Mac's do have Arial installed since MS makes a Mac version but it looks like crap. So the common <font face="Arial, Helvetica"> is not a good idea because you don't want Mac's to see Arial. Besides, Geneva is said to be the best looking font on Mac.

Here are two CSS "catch'em all" strings.

{font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif }
(Mac gets Geneva, PC gets Arial and UNIX gets Helvetica and if everything fails they get any sans-serif.)

For Verdan one can use:
{ font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif }

I think I can find the URL to a page that explains all that if you are interested.

[Edited by meow on 04-17-2001 at 11:17 AM]

 

[polestar]

cheers!