Re: Serif fonts

Jeff,
I agree completely. I just wanted to make the point that we need to consider
what our viewers have instaled. In fact I was trying to come up with a way
to do a more scientific survey. Any suggestions?


Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Kane" <jeffkane(at)pobox.com>
To: "Jim Lynch" <jelynch(at)ntinet.com>
Cc: <hwg-style(at)mail.hwg.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2001 1:30 PM
Subject: Re: Serif fonts


> While it's interesting to see the results of a survey, I doubt that
> these results are valid. For instance, do you really think that 67%
> of Internet users have Garamond installed?
>
> Anabella didn't describe her survey methodology, much less provide
> statistical analysis. She may have surveyed a select,
> non-representative group. Also, users with an interest in fonts may
> have been more likely to respond, and those individuals may be more
> likely to have less common fonts installed in their systems.
>
> She says she surveyed for fonts installed on her computer. I notice
> that the survey doesn't even include Helvetica, so apparently she's
> using a PC, and fonts common to the Mac aren't included.
>
> In the absence of reliable survey data, we would be better off
> considering the fonts that are included with the main operating
> systems (e.g., Windows and Mac OS), and possibly adding fonts
> included with widely used browsers, etc.. Then, as others have
> suggested, by providing a list of alternatives plus the generic
> category as a fallback, the font list should work in most situations.
>
>
> Jeff
>
>
>
>
> >One thing to consider, as some have already mentioned, is that you have
to
> >consider what fonts your reader has on their machine. I have a list from
> >Annabella's HTML help (http://www.geocities.com/annabella.geo) that
contians
> >the results of a survey. The numbers are for the percentage of the users
who
> >had a certain font available.
> >
> >The top ten were:
> >1. Times New Roman - 99%
> >2. Arial - 99%
> >3. MS Sans Serif - 88%
> >4. Courier - 82%
> >5. Impact - 78%
> >6. Wingdings - 76%
> >7. Verdana - 75%
> >8. Comic Sans MS - 73%
> >9. Arial Black - 72 %
> >10. Garmond - 67%
> >
> >Georgia is down at #13 with 58%. I'm not suggesting one font over
another,
> >just that we need to consider the lowest comon denominator, which is
"what
> >to they have." Thats why the W3C strongly suggests always including a
> >generic font with your declerations.
> >Sorry I don't have the full path to the list, I printed out an EZ print
pop
> >page and it's not listed on it. You should be able to find the rest of
the
> >list from the addy above.
> >
> >hth,
> >Jim Lynch
> >http://www.optp.org
> >http://www.geocities.com/actorjiml
> >
>
> --
>

HWG hwg-style mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA