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Landos Mustache · Aug 22, 2006, 11:29 AM

I am working on a website that uses Arial 14 as the main font. Looks good on a Mac and mockups as it Anti-Aliases.

Problem is on Windows XP Anti-aliasing or "Cleartype" isn't on by default so it looks jaggy. The client wants a font that looks good without clear type on.

I'm thinking they will all look like crap but they are adamant about it.

Does anyone have suggestions?

(It must also be a default font that is on everyones system).

Person Man · Aug 22, 2006, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by Landos Mustache

I'm thinking they will all look like crap but they are adamant about it.

Does anyone have suggestions?

Your thinking would be right. I can't think of ANY default Windows font that won't look jaggy without ClearType on.

Suggestion: Show them samples of every standard font on a PC (that also comes on a Mac) without ClearType. Tell them they won't get what they want until Internet Explorer 7 comes out, so they might as well pick something they can live with until then. Internet Explorer 7 turns on anti-aliasing by default regardless of the system ClearType setting, unless the user explicitly turns it off.

Landos Mustache · Aug 22, 2006, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by Person Man

Suggestion: Show them samples of every standard font on a PC (that also comes on a Mac) without ClearType. Tell them they won't get what they want until Internet Explorer 7 comes out, so they might as well pick something they can live with until then. Internet Explorer 7 turns on anti-aliasing by default regardless of the system ClearType setting, unless the user explicitly turns it off.

Ya I am doing that now but am scared they won't go for it.

They actually would rather have the text as images just to have it look good which to me is Rule #1 of something NEVER to do.

Peder Rice · Aug 22, 2006, 12:02 PM

Even in a world of Web 2.0 (I hate that term), tables and images for navigation are still a great way to go for compatibility and getting your site to look exactly like you want. Yay for text and CSS, but yay also for a good presentation.

Landos Mustache · Aug 22, 2006, 12:05 PM

Originally Posted by Peder Rice

Even in a world of Web 2.0 (I hate that term), tables and images for navigation are still a great way to go for compatibility and getting your site to look exactly like you want. Yay for text and CSS, but yay also for a good presentation.

I agree, the CSS was ending up being more incompatible and difficult then just doing it with tables to begin with so that is what I did.

Although doing that didn't help my font issue.

spacefreak · Aug 22, 2006, 12:34 PM

Web designers and developers constantly need to be reminded to appeal to the user. Too many times I see websites that are the lates and greatest in terms of features and standards-compliance, but they look like crap.

The typical response is "Well, maybe if Microsoft or Safari (or whomever) adopted all standards into their browsers....". Yeah, that sounds great to other developers, but it means nothing to 95% of the web browsing population.

Doofy · Aug 22, 2006, 12:42 PM

SWG, just go with Verdana or Tahoma or something. I mean, they were designed to be "Arial for the screen", so there ya go.

Landos Mustache · Aug 22, 2006, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by Doofy

SWG, just go with Verdana or Tahoma or something. I mean, they were designed to be "Arial for the screen", so there ya go.

Is verdana on 100% of PCs?

Im not sure Tahoma is.

Doofy · Aug 22, 2006, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by Landos Mustache

Is verdana on 100% of PCs?

Im not sure Tahoma is.

Verdana is 100% post 98, for sure. I think Tahoma comes as part of an IE6 update (but don't quote me on that).