I think it's also worth noting that Arial is still more commonly installed than Verdana, if you consider all devices and all platforms. It's been around quite a while longer. When I specify Verdana for web design, I set Arial and the generic "sans-serif" as fallbacks because each is progressively more likely to be installed by default. Most users will have all three, and my guess is that more than 95 percent will have Arial.
I had long ago bookmarked the same link Maxim sent. The study's conclusions are a bit too broad, but I think they still have merit. I agree generally with Andrei on the issue of font readability and the characteristics of serif and sans-serif fonts, but this bit strikes fear in my heart: "In the near future, screens will have sufficient resolution to accommodate serif fonts at smaller sizes, allowing designers to set body copy with serif fonts which tend to be more readable in large blocks of content ..." True enough for those like us on the cutting edge of technology, or those designing only for high-resolution devices. Not true for users who will eke the last glowing pixel out of their dirty beige 15-inch SVGA monitors. I'm one of those ill-mannered people who reminds designers that they can't count on all users having the equivalent of their own quad-core dual-monitor nitrogen-cooled supercomputers with high-speed internet connection. And designers hate me for it. Go ahead. Take a number and get in line. Low-vision users I've interviewed remind me that contrast has a lot to do with readability, and that there seems to be an optimum range of contrast that's comfortable for most users -- probably all users. I'd like to be able to put numbers on that contrast range, if anyone has data (hah! -- as if you'd share it now that I've invited your scorn). Too little contrast is well known to cause eye fatigue, but for many people a common frustration is too much contrast. Any small black type on white screens causes tremendous eye strain if you're reading a lot of text, because you're actually glaring directly into a light source. We almost instinctively control the light and contrast of a written page by adjusting ambient lighting, but most users aren't yet conditioned to modify screen settings at will. The more robust fonts like Verdana, Georgia and even Rockwell are more accepted on the Web than traditional printing fonts. Even the dreaded Comic Sans has a following. That's at least partly because their shape and weight enhance their overall contrast, and this directly affects readability on all platforms. I still love some of the more traditional fonts (Palatino, Garamond, Bookman, Helvetica, and others), but in most cases I'd be inclined to use them only as display fonts when designing for the screen -- until *everyone* has very-hi-def. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=24248 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
