[RESOLVED] serif, sans, huh!?!? someone smart please!

[kerfuffly3]

Can someone for the love of PETE- give me a clear understanding of what all this SERIF, SAN SERIF, stuff is or better yet, just tell me the best way to pick the best fonts! I dont get it and want to know but cant find anyone who really seems to know either!

How did FK get those tiny fonts on the main page to look so darn clear and crisp (the ones advertising the conference)

waiting with eagerness your font clueless brethren --TV--

[Bendy_Branch]

Easy!

A SERIF is like a tail on the end at the extremes of a font . . .
(i.e. like the font Times)

SANS means NO. So SANS SERIF means no tail (like Arial).

For small text on printed material (i.e. sub 10pt), Times New Roman is supposed to be the clearest font in the world.

The small font on the header of FK looks like Arial to me, about 1pt and BOLD. Whenever you are having white text on a coloured background AVOID SERIFS - they become cluttered and hard to read. Keep 'em SANS SERIF, and if ya BOLD 'em it makes 'em easier to read.

As for the best way to pick fonts, learn what they look like, and choose what's suitable for your audience. Grannies like big, easy to read stuff. Techies can read 6pt Futurist Narrow easily.

If ya need more help, just post back . . .

[webwingchun]

Well summed up.

Verdana is a particularly good font for the web as it was specifically designed for use on screen. It's a sans serif font.

Not everybody has this font, so in html you can specify alternatives to cover yourself, i.e. your tag would look like this:

<font="verdana, arial, helvetica, sans serif"> blaah blaah</font>

Hope this helps.