Some experts say Helvetica is the most perfect font. But I see most Web 2.0 themes implementing Arial. What do you use? Why? Any help is appreciated coz I keep wasting my time cycling through Verdana -> Helvetica -> Arial for my Wordpress blogs on digital cameras.
i stick to Arial for this reason: not all computers have a nice assortment of fonts so i stick to the basics.
I would say neither and go with avante garde! However, not all computers support the font so.. I have to say Verdana since it's more wide and clear.
Verdana is the most readable and used font on the web. After that comes Arial and Tahoma. Test Lucida Sans Unicode
People, thanks for helping me not waste my time hunting down popular fonts. So, Verdana it is. I tried DrPepper's Tahoma suggestion and it seems to work well on my site - thanks!
I also use Verdana. I have tried different fonts while desigining sites but verdana is the most compatible of them all, not always but mostly yes.
AFAIK, Helvetica isnt available by default in any Windows OS, so it'd either be Mac or Unix/Linux (im not 100% sure about this so please correct me if I'm wrong). The most popular font family for headers is probably Arial. If you want to use Helvetica, specify it first and then have backup fonts so if the user doesnt have Helvetica it would skip to the next one, and so forth. Other than Arial for headers.. there's Georgia, Trebuchet Ms (this is not bad), and Impact (this one is rarely used though). The most popular font family for body copy is either Arial or Verdana, and Tahoma, but lots of (mac users?) nowadays are specifying those Lucida ones which are supposedly pretty good (on a mac, hehe) and then have Arial and/or Verdana as a backup. There's also Trebuchet MS which is sans-serif. I hate it when Verdana is used for headings though, it should only be used for paragraphs n such. Here's a nice link for typography/css (checkout the VisiBone chart- a survey they did to see what fonts users had) P.S. - I can't post live links yet.. guess it's because I'm relatively new here. websitetips.com/typography/tools/
My friend - second webmaster and designer of other sites - was also into printed advertising and graphic design. He said that you want a sans seriff style font if there is going to be a lot of reading involved. Personally, I don't like the look of sans serif fonts very much, but I used in on a few of my lengthier advice pages. Otherwise, I've preferred Arial, and it may be because I do a lot of short term reading and enjoy reading it. It also italicizes for a nice look too.
Thanks people. Soulscratch - fantastic advice you've given. Trebuchet MS looks excellent for headings!
I've decided to just mash the fonts up, lol! I'm no designer, but I think my long blog posts (with title @ H1, and H3 + H4 throughout the post) are starting to look a little more visually interesting now - thanks y'all! p <-- Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif h1 <-- Helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif h3 <-- Trebuchet ms, helvetica, verdana, sans-serif h4 <-- Lucida Sans Unicode, Georgia, Times New Roman, serif