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Posted by Jose on 12/17/05 23:09
> Are there any valid arguments that support sticking to the same basic
> screen fonts?
Yes. Not everyone has the same environment that the web designer
assumes they should have, and not everyone uses it the same way. It's a
matter of consideration for the user over the host. If you are going to
use an oddball font/background/format/style/tag, be sure the user will
agree that you had a good reason for using it.
There is still old hardware out there, the sites should look towards
being usable on a PDA or a telephone, in a low bandwidth situation,
under non-ideal lighting (and hardware configurations that
compensate)... and often the hardest thing for a web designer to
internalize is that the user DOES NOT CARE about the image the web site
is attempting to project. The user wants the inforamtion, quickly,
clearly, and without strings attached. (n.b. Flash is a big string)
Back to fonts. The world is full of pretty fonts, but they mainly work
best in print, where all aspects of production can be controlled (except
perhaps lighting). On the computer screen, you don't know the size,
resolution, glare, CPU load, and screen real estate available. The user
may well scrunch you up into a corner so he can get other work done
while browsing, or can copy/paste into his own document (maybe a
Christmas list or something), and what happens to your oh-so-carefully
chosen font when that happens?
For a time I had a monitor whose refresh rate was a bit on the slow side
for the (maximum) resolution I had set, so I changed my background color
to snot green to minimize eyestrain. Some websites accepted this,
others overruled me and insisted I had to look at their pretty
(incomprehensible) fonts with bright white behind them. This was worse
with sites that specified a background (don't get me started!).
Some users (myself included) WILL NOT download fonts or anything else a
website wants me to download. I don't trust the web (and this situation
is getting worse). If your site insists on some wacky font, it's history.
Jose
--
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