Additional comments about fonts on the web

There are no rules about what type of font face to use in your web document. Generally sans-serif fonts are easier to read on a computer screen, and arial and helvetica are examples of sans-serif fonts. A sans-serif font was used on the majority of this page. Typically in print serif fonts are used because the serifs (the small storkes on the ends of the lines) make characters easier to recognize. Times Roman is an example of a serif font. But on the screen using a serif font can make it more difficult to read, particularly when large amounts of text are involved or when the text is using a relatively small font size.

This is an example of a serif font; it is the same font size as the above text using an arial/helvetica font face.

For MX users or earlier versions of Dreamweaver font size was expressed in terms of numbers 1 through 7 or +1 through +7 or -1 through -7. If you select in the Properties panel the Size window, you will see these choices in the MX release.

However, in the 2004 release, if the default installation to use CSS is left turned on, fonts are expressed in terms of a numeric value (9, 10, 12, 14, 18, 24, and 36) and terms like xx-small or small or large or x-large are used for relative sizing.

If the size is left at None, then normally a value of 3 for the MX release or 14 for the 2004 release is used. Unlike a word processing program that lets you type in almost any value for the font size, font sizes through the Properties panel are limited to the items in the display. The only way around this is to create your "own" font sizes by creating your own styles for a Cascading Style Sheet. Although some use of styles is done with the 2004 release, creating additional (named) styles or modifying these styles is a more advanced feature and is outside the scope of this basic class.

I have already referenced briefly in the font limitation document how the user can override your selection of fonts through his/her browser settings. Another factor that can affect the appearance of fonts, particularly the font size, is the resolution on the user's monitor. Below are screen captures of the same document, using a "3" font size.

This is using a resolution of 800 on the computer's monitor.

Yet another factor to consider, particularly when selecting font sizes for your documents, is the fact that the same font size is considerably different on a Macintosh then on a Windows computer. Macintosh computers display text approximately 25 percent smaller than the same text on a Windows machine. The printing of the document may not be any different, but the display will be different.

These tips are created as part of a class on Dreamweaver Basics