Today's question is from Bob in Tarzana, California, USA: "Dear Design Guru, do you make up the questions from your readers for Ask a designer?" The answer, BIT, is a resounding yes. Come on, people, if you don't do it I'll do it myself. And that could get ugly.
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I really, really like this one font, and I want to use it as the body copy on my web site. It's not one of the usual PC fonts, but it does come with Windows Vista. What do you think?
Torn in Tallahassee
Dear Design Guru,
Dear TIT,
I am really happy that you have a favorite font. It's like having a favorite color. I'm partial to #FFCC00. That color isn't appropriate to use in all cases, much like your favorite font.
Fonts have personalities. Some are strong and forceful, some open and casual. Some are happy, some are sad. Some, like Comic Sans, appear to be happy but are really sad. Some should never be used under any circumstances, like Hobo.
Think about what personality your favorite font has. Is that really the message you want to convey? If it is, then congratulations. If not, check around for other possibilities. For web pages, try to stick to the common PC and Mac fonts. They're ugly but serviceable. Don't mess with trying to force downloading fonts to peoples' browsers as it's not reliable. You can use images for the text, but you'll need to do some fancy DHTML work to get search engines to read them. Same with using Flash to embed your fonts.
For body copy, keep it simple. Use custom fonts sparingly and where they'll have the most impact.
Also, see if you can ditch Vista and find an old copy of XP. You'll save hundreds in therapy bills. Next Question; Cancel, or Allow?
How important is perfect code in a web page? Can I use multiple CSS files for different browsers?
Lost in Arkansas
Dear Design Guru,
Dear LIAR,
I'd like to tell you that all of my code is perfect and I only use one style sheet for each website and each page looks identical across all browsers back to Netscape .93, but I won't. CSS is difficult to master, and eventually the goal is to get all of your styles into one file and not use any hacks. Usually Firefox and Safari track pretty closely, and IE versions are very similar. Occasionally I'll need to do something different with IE6 as the way it deals with the CSS box model is broken and fonts can be funky.
I guess what I'm saying is, strive for perfection but don't beat yourself up if it doesn't work out. Ultimately it is the user experience that matters, and if nearly all of your users see the page correctly I wouldn't worry too much about the last 1%.
Just don't tell my Ubuntu-using wife I said that. She's still mad about the broken Flash nav in Linux.
