Using TrueType Core Fonts for the Web

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Using fonts in your web design that everyone can see

Beginning web developers often add fonts to their web pages without considering that any visitor to the site also has to have the exact same font installed on their computer or the font used on the page will not be visible to all visitors.

Moreover, the use of a special font will thus render a less than expected result when viewing such a web page from another computer. A font that may look cool to you when you add it to your web page will not look so cool if the visitor doesn't have that font installed on their computer.

The solution to this problem is simply to use a font that practically everyone has installed on their computer. Here is a collection of 11 fonts that are common to anyone using Microsoft Windows 95, 98, or NT operating systems. These fonts are also common to Microsoft Internet Explorer users on most platforms including Macintosh computers and Netscape on Microsoft Windows.

You can count on about everyone having these fonts defined by Microsoft as the true type core web fonts. These are the only fonts you should consider using if you want consistent view-ability of your web site to all visitors.

About these fonts for users of Microsoft Windows

If you are currently using Microsoft Windows 95, 98, or NT with either Netscape Navigator/Communicator or Internet Explorer, you will already have all of these fonts installed on your system. With these high quality TrueType fonts installed, whenever you visit a Web site that specifies them, you'll see pages exactly as the site designer intended.

The eleven true type core fonts are listed below

(1. andale mono) The font formerly known as Monotype.com.

html usage: <font face="andale mono">
example output: The andale mono true type core web font.

(2. webdings) Webdings was designed in 1997 as a collaborative work between Microsoft's Vincent Connare and top Monotype designers Sue Lightfoot, Ian Patterson and Geraldine Wade. The images are intended for web designers who wish to include live fonts as a fast way of rendering graphics.

html usage: <font face="webdings">
example output: The webdings true type core web font.

(3. trebuchet) Trebuchet MS, designed by Vincent Connare in 1996, is a humanist sans serif designed for easy screen readability. Trebuchet takes its inspiration from the sans serifs of the 1930s which had large x heights and round features intended to promote readability on signs.

html usage: <font face="trebuchet">
example output: The trebuchet true type core web font.

(4. georgia) Georgia by Matthew Carter, hinted by Thomas Rickner.

html usage: <font face="georgia">
example output: The georgia true type core web font.

(5. verdana) Verdana by Matthew Carter, hinted by Thomas Rickner.

html usage: <font face="verdana">
example output: The verdana true type core web font.

(6. comic sans ms) Designed by Microsoft's Vincent Connare, this is a face based on the lettering from comic magazines.

html usage: <font face="comic sans ms">
example output: The comic sans ms true type core web font.

(7. arial black) Arial^® Black is part of the extremely versatile Arial family of typefaces which can be used with equal success for text setting in reports, presentations, magazines etc, and for display use in newspapers, advertising and promotions.

html usage: <font face="arial black">
example output: The arial black true type core web font.

(8. impact) Geoffrey Lee designed Impact^TM, first issued in 1965 by the famous Sheffield foundry, Stephenson Blake.

html usage: <font face="impact">
example output: The impact true type core web font.

(9. arial) Arial^® is an extremely versatile family of typefaces which can be used with equal success for text setting in reports, presentations, magazines etc, and for display use in newspapers, advertising and promotions.

html usage: <font face="arial">
example output: The arial true type core web font.

(10. times new roman) Times New Roman^® first appeared in 1932 in The Times of London newspaper, for which it was designed. It has subsequently become one of the world's most successful type creations.

html usage: <font face="times new roman">
example output: The times new roman true type core web font.

(11. courier new) Courier^TM New, originally designed as a typewriter face for IBM, was redrawn by Adrian Frutiger for IBM Selectric series. A typical fixed pitch design, monotone in weight and slab serif in concept.

html usage: <font face="courier new">
example output: The courier new true type core web font.

More information

Proper usage of the <font> html tag can be demonstrated as shown in the examples below. This is only intended to be a brief usage of syntax and is limited in scope.

syntax:
<font face="[font name]" size="[numeric value]" color="[hex or name]">

a simple example:
<font face="arial">

a complete example:
<font face="arial" size="2" color="black">

For a better understanding of this and other basic html tags, please refer to the NCSA html primer (link provided below). The primer is a guide for producing documents in HTML, the hypertext markup language used on the World Wide Web. The guide is intended to be an introduction to using HTML and creating files for the Web.