Better css font stacks unit verse

1. Better CSS Font Stacks | Unit Verse
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Better CSS Font Stacks
by Nathan Ford 4 years ago
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One aspect of designing for the web that almost immediately offends designers is the
lack of fonts that are considered safe to use. While it is true that there are only a
handful of web safe fonts, the ones we do have at our disposal can be quite powerful
and diversely useful. On top of that, CSS gives us a nice little thing called a font
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stack.
FONT STACKS GIVE YOU FREEDOM.
You want to use Gill Sans? Go right ahead. Nothing should stop you. Font stacks are
prioritized lists of fonts, defined in the CSS font-family attribute, that the browser will
cycle through until it finds a font that is installed on the user’s system. This means
that you can use Gill Sans, and if your users don’t have it, you can give them an
adequate substitute that will not diminish their experience. As Mr. Richard Rutter has
already illustrated, there are quite an array of typefaces that may be sitting on your
user’s machine ready to serve your design needs.
Unfortunately, common web practices and/or technologies are not fully utilizing
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this functionality. There seems to be a lack of consideration for the process of
creating these stacks. For example, Dreamweaver’s defaults look like so:
Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
Courier New, Courier, monospace
Times New Roman, Times, serif
Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif
Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
As you can see, there are not a whole lot of options, and the substitutes are often not
appropriate. This is an example of how lax typographic standards on the web are
leading to poor design decision making. I am not going to speculate, here, as to
whose fault it is that typography on the web leaves much to be desired… there are
probably as many culprits as there are offenses. I will say, though, that font stack are
ultimately design factors, and should be scrutinized as such.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
When creating a stack, first consider the context of the text. Is it going to be a
headline, sub-head, or body copy? This can determine the appropriate order of a
stack, considering certain fonts work well for setting blocks of copy, while others work
better at larger sizes. For example, Helvetica’s nuances work well on screen, when
the text is large enough, while Helvetica Neue’s slightly wider letter forms read better
at smaller sizes on screen. Arial reads slightly better than Helvetica at smaller sizes
on the screen, as well. Therefore, your font stack for Helvetica may need to be
different depending on whether it is used for body copy or a page title.
Once context is considered, there are few more things to consider when building a
stack. First, select your ideal candidate (more on that later). From there, the path of
your choices may fork depending on the context.
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2. Better CSS Font Stacks | Unit Verse
TITLES [ GREATER THAN 12PX ]:
font-family: Ideal, Alternative, Common, Generic;
1. Ideal – Your selection need not be bound by what is considered universally “web
safe”. There are many more fonts that have a fairly high market penetration that you
can choose from. Just don’t pick anything too obscure, or you will be the only one
seeing it.
2. Alternative – When selecting headline and title fonts, remember that the nuances will
be more noticeable, and therefore you need to select an alternative that is closer in
spirit than size or relative value. To find a spiritual cousin, you may want to look
within the same type classification, or look for something created by the same type
designer. Mainly, look for similarities in the letter forms.
3. Common – At this point, you just need something similar that is not going to break
your layout.
4. Generic – Cap it off with the generic classification, for those zealots that don’t believe
in installing fonts.
PARAGRAPHS [ LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO 12PX ]:
font-family: Ideal, Fit, Common, Generic;
1. Ideal – Even if you intend this copy to match the titles, you may want to consider the
readability of the typeface over the span of a few paragraphs. For example: Helvetica
Neue and Arial are better suited to be read small and on screen than Helvetica.
2. Fit – Find something that is well represented, cross-platform that will not wreck your
layout. For example: There is about 2 pts difference between the width of Times New
Roman and Georgia. Multiply that by the number of characters in your copy blocks,
and you could spell disaster for your otherwise-nicely-considered design.
3. Common – Something similar in flavor and well-represented.
4. Generic – Again, finish with the generic classification.
Keep in mind that if your ideal font is only well represented on Macs, for example,
you may want use an alternative that is more prevalent on Windows machines. For
more information on the prevalence of certain typeface on certain operating systems,
take a look at codestyle.org/css/font-family/.
STACK YOUR DECK
Now, using these guidelines, and building on the experience of much more
knowledgeable type gurus, I have compiled a list of font stacks that will both open up
more font possibilities for web designers, and hopefully offer more appropriate
substitutes:
p – balanced for paragraphs or body copy
t – balanced for headlines or titles
Arial, “Helvetica Neue”, Helvetica, sans-serif - p, t
Baskerville, “Times New Roman”, Times, serif - p
Baskerville, Times, “Times New Roman”, serif - t
Cambria, Georgia, Times, “Times New Roman”, serif - p, t
“Century Gothic”, “Apple Gothic”, sans-serif - p, t
Consolas, “Lucida Console”, Monaco, monospace - p, t
“Copperplate Light”, “Copperplate Gothic Light”, serif - p, t
“Courier New”, Courier, monospace - p, t
“Franklin Gothic Medium”, “Arial Narrow Bold”, Arial, sans-serif - p, t
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3. Better CSS Font Stacks | Unit Verse
Futura, “Century Gothic”, AppleGothic, sans-serif - p, t
Garamond, “Hoefler Text”, Times New Roman, Times, serif - p
Garamond, “Hoefler Text”, Palatino, “Palatino Linotype”, serif - t
Geneva, “Lucida Sans”, “Lucida Grande”, “Lucida Sans Unicode”, Verdana, sans-serif - p
Geneva, Verdana, “Lucida Sans”, “Lucida Grande”, “Lucida Sans Unicode”, sans-serif - t
Georgia, Palatino,” Palatino Linotype”, Times, “Times New Roman”, serif - p
Georgia, Times, “Times New Roman”, serif - t
“Gill Sans”, Calibri, “Trebuchet MS”, sans-serif - p
“Gill Sans”, “Trebuchet MS”, Calibri, sans-serif - t
“Helvetica Neue”, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif - p
Helvetica, “Helvetica Neue”, Arial, sans-serif - t
Impact, Haettenschweiler, “Arial Narrow Bold”, sans-serif - p, t
“Lucida Sans”, “Lucida Grande”, “Lucida Sans Unicode”, sans-serif - p, t
Palatino, “Palatino Linotype”, Georgia, Times, “Times New Roman”, serif - p
Palatino, “Palatino Linotype”, “Hoefler Text”, Times, “Times New Roman”, serif - t
Tahoma, Geneva, Verdana - p
Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva - t
Times, “Times New Roman”, Georgia, serif - p, t
“Trebuchet MS”, “Lucida Sans Unicode”, “Lucida Grande”,” Lucida Sans”, Arial, sans-serif - p
“Trebuchet MS”, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif - t
Verdana, Geneva, Tahoma, sans-serif - p
Verdana, Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif - t
I did deliberately leave out some fonts, *cough* Comic Sans *cough*, because I do
not particularly see the use in them, and I don’t believe that these examples will solve
every typographic purpose, but hopefully it’s a start. Feel free to apply the above rules
and create some stacks of your own.
If you’re interested in a more comprehensive comparison, download the pdf [13.1
mb]. In it, you will find examples of both titles and copy, set in the different font
stacks.
Now, font stacks help us open up a few more typographic options to create a
more engaging online communication, but how do we choose which specific face to
use? And which of these web safe fonts will work as a good compliment? More on
that in my next post.
***
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http://unitinteractive.com/blog/2008/06/26/better-css-font-stacks/[4/23/2013 6:59:06 PM]