The WebDev Buzz

Font styles that are used for printing may not be ideal for the computer screen. That is, font styles with subtle curves can be quite impressive in print, but awkward on the computer screen. The reason for this lies in the difference of resolution. Directly printed fonts have high resolutions and estimated to be at several hundred dots per inch (dpi). The computer screen, on the other hand, has a lower resolution, which is about a hundred dpi or less. The font styles have to follow the square pixel grids.

This means that the web designer should choose fonts that were specifically created for the computer, rather than those used in calligraphy. Unfortunately, this leaves the people in web design with very little choice. Still, here are some suggestions.

• Georgia
  This is the font style that should be chosen over the common Times New Roman. Georgia was created for the computer while the Times New Roman was for book pages and newspapers.
• Palatino – This is another font style which looks better on screen than Times New Roman. This is because the shape of the Palatino can be described as “pixel-friendly”. In older versions of Windows, the Palatino goes by the name “Book Antiqua” while in newer Windows versions, it is called “Palatino Linotype”. On Mac, it is simply called “Palatino”.
• Verdana
  Among Sans Serif fonts, the Verdana is the font style which is also more pixel-friendly than Arial or Helvetica. This is because the Verdana is square-like.
• Tahoma
  This is a font type which has characteristics similar to Verdana. But the Tahoma is more condensed, which makes it ideal for cramming more words into a smaller area.
• Trebuchet MS
  It is one of the font styles that were created especially for the computer screen. It was originally designed as a bitmap, meant for small size fonts, but it was later used in other applications.
• Mono-spaced Fonts
  This group of fonts are sometimes used when there are citations placed in the web page. The common style is the Courier New, but this particular font is too light for the computer screen. The better alternatives are the Lucida Console (from Windows), the Monaco (from Mac), and the American Typewriter (from OSX).
• Cursive Fonts
  This group of fonts can be used when the web page demands a more informal font designs. The most common is the Comic Sans. This font style is found in most cartoon speech bubbles and it provides the informality needed. However, a web page that aims to have a “high class” appeal must avoid the Comic Sans. The Windows application has too few acceptable choices, although the Palatino Linotype Italic is now used often. As for Mac OSX, the web designer may use any of these: Apple Chancery, Brush Script, Chalkboard, Cochin Italic, Marker Felt, Papyrus, and Zapfino.

Of course, the web designer must not be stuck with the ones listed above. He should attempt to experiment and perhaps choose Franklin Gothic over the safe Verdana. But there are clients who demand that the web page fonts should conform with the font style associated with their companies. In these cases, the web designer will need to rasterize (saved as GIF or PNG) the required font style. Alternatively, the font style can be made into a static .SWF (Flash) setting, as long as a transparent background is not required.