Type on the Web: creative choice.
I love the variety of typefaces that exists. Creatively chosen letterforms sit like tiny jewels on a well designed page. It is one of my favorite aspects of design. In print, the right typeface can subtly set the proper tone for the reader. The reader may not even be aware how that tone is being established, but they feel it. Unfortunately, the web has inflicted some terrible limitations on the role of typefaces in design. The two most important are low resolution and shifting the font resource to the reader. This article discusses the how shifting the type face from the creator to the reader affects web design.
Choosing a typeface, or not.
Most people have never really thought about where typefaces come from. If I create a brochure using the type face ITC Berkeley, the reader will see that face in the printed material they read. But on the World Wide Web that relationship has been turned around. The reader can specify what typefaces they see on pages they view. Most people do not realize they have this power and so the site designer becomes the guide to the typefaces used. But the site designer is just that: a guide. This is because regardless of which typeface a designer wants to use, the reader must have the actual font file for that typeface on their computer.
There are two main reasons typefaces were left to the client side of the Web. (Aside from the overwhelming desire for the creators of the web to leave the reader in control.) One, in order to save download time and conserve precious bandwidth, it is faster to have the web browser's system supply the fonts. Second, the licensing issues of sending font data to a viewers system never been overcome. Even file formats that allow embedded fonts (Acrobat PDF) still allow for a specific font maker to not allow embedding.
The mechanisim that is used to specify a typeface works like this: I can ask your browser to show any typeface I want. But if that font is not available, the browser will supply a face based on its local default values. But before the browser jumps to that worst case default, I can give your browser some other choices. For instance, the headlines on the page are being requested as Georgia. (A serif typeface many computers have.) But Times is being requested as a second choice. Finally, if you do not have Georgia or Times available, I have asked for your browser's default serif face. The actual code looks like this:
font-family: Georgia, Times, serif;
There are ways to get around the problem, but they all have a downside attached. To see a table of these workarounds and their problem, see the table as the bottom of the page.
Maybe some day this will change, but for long term future this is how it is.
Font reality survey.
Please take a minute or two to participate in our “anecdotal” survey. In each box below I have specified a specific font. Below that text is a static image of the same text as it appeared on my system using Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP. Disregard the small shifts in alignment or size. After you submit your responses, this page will refresh showing the results of all the previous responses.