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am I overkilling???

Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 3:19 pm
by matt1019
Hi guys,

as some of you know, I am working on my website (1st "Professional" website, owned and operated by me).

as a result, I lack a lot of experience under my belt (as far as what should be the standards for displaying content)---I am graphically challenged as well :lol:

I came across this line to display page content (in the css file)

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font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",Serif;
and I have been using those fonts for just about EVERYTHING!

it looks so good, but my worry is, if I keep up with this habit, the visitors/members/potential members etc. will get sick of it.

Hence, I wanted everyone's opinion: Am I overkilling, by using the same font family for everything?

Second Question: is there a guide out there that tells you which font family to use/which font family is the best (aesthetically speaking)

Thanks guys,

-Matt

Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 3:26 pm
by Luke
You always want to use the same font through-out a website (well there are a few exceptions, like headings and the within (php, css, html) code blocks on this site, but for standard content, use the same font everywhere). If you use different fonts all over your site, that is what annoys people. Think about it... have you ever gone to any website EVER and thought "Man, I wish this website would use more fonts". I would use a sans-serif font like Verdana, Arial, or Trebuchet MS... Here's what I use:

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font-family: "Trebuchet MS",Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
which, coincidentally is what this site uses as well. serif fonts tend to be hard to read on screen.

Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 3:30 pm
by RobertGonzalez
I use non-serif fonts. I tend to like the smoothness of them rather than those hard 'ticks' on the serif fonts. Here is what I typically do in my CSS:

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body {
	background-color: #ffffff;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-size: 100%;
}
I agree with Ninja... stay consistent site-wide so users don't get angered and leave because things keep changing.

Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 4:40 pm
by timvw
i couldn't care less... my browser stylesheet overrides al those silly webmaster's ideas about 'goodlooking' fonts...

Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 11:51 pm
by matt1019
Thank you guys, thank you very much for your feedback :)

I now know better.

@Ninja:
yes, Sire, I will give that a go! ;)

@Everah:
the font I posted in my original post has a very nice output on the content. I do not see where the "hard ticks" part comes into play? [or am I lacking knowledge in this area? if so, please correct me]

@timvw:
haha. Yes, I have heard of such feature. [I would say your method has its pros and cons--mainly pros I guess, otherwise you wouldn't be using it :) ]


-Matt

Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 2:41 am
by matthijs
As a general rule, one font for the body text on your whole site is best. You can use a different font for your headlines though. Or for some special elements.

For web text, a sans-serif (verdana, arial) is better readable then a serif (times, georgia). So that's the opposite of printed text, for which serifs work better, in general.

But don't forget that there's a lot more to your typography then only the font-family. Remember that a few hundred years ago, the printers had only one font to use, but they created some beautiful typography. Just by varying line-heights, line-lengths, word/letter-spacing, font-size, etc etc. You can do the same on your site.

By setting your line-height to a nice value like 140%, restricting the line-lenght, creating enough whitespace and using a good contrast in color (but not too high) you'd be surprised how nice everything looks suddenly.

I remember someone telling me that verdana was not a very good font for websites. And that she thought the type I used on a site I just showed her was a lot better. Of course that made me smile as I did use verdana on that site.. The thing is, many sites, especially the older ones, use like 10px verdana, with line-heights of 1 and almost no margin, cramming everything together, making reading anything more then a headline a hell.