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Safe and Unsafe Fonts
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10/28/2009 12:45 PM |
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Fonts on web pages have been a problem since the beginning of internet. When you choose a font, the font’s name is embedded in the web page; not the actual font. When a visitor goes to your website, his browser reads the font name and then looks on his computer to see if the font is there. If the browser cannot find the font, it substitutes another. To make this worse, the browser often reformats the text and causes a shift in the page layout. This means that if you choose an unusual font, it may look totally different on a visitor’s page.
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Web Safe Fonts
Web Studio shows you which fonts your viewers always have (safe), should have, might have and probably don’t have (unsafe). For instance, Arial and Times New Roman are always safe. The fonts are color coded to help you distinguish safe and unsafe fonts.
The Text Gallery uses color to separate the safe and unsafe fonts.
- Black. These fonts are always safe.
- Blue. These fonts are probably safe. Visitors with Windows will always have them, but some Mac and Unix machines may not.
- Yellow. These fonts may be un-safe because some viewers may not have them.
- Red. This are unsafe fonts because they are uncommon and are almost always substituted by a browser.
Safe Fonts
Black: always safe
Arial
Courier
Times
Blue: probably safe
Arial Bold
Impact
Veranda
If you want to use an unsafe font, Web Studio can convert it into a graphic. This eliminates the cofusion with the browsers.
See also