On 2009/09/21 14:30 (GMT+0100) Lesley Binks composed: > I have always been rather sad that Helvetica isn't installed on > Windoze or Linux although I have Nimbus sans L as a substitute
On most older Linux systems, Nimbus Sans L was the Arial/Helvetica substitute. On newer Linux systems Nimbus Sans L is commonly not installed, and even when it is, Liberation Sans and/or DejaVu Sans are preferred substitutes, with their higher overall quality and broader charset coverage. Liberation Sans is metric equivalent to Arial/Helvetica, while the larger DejaVu Sans is close in size to Verdana and Lucida Sans Unicode/Lucida Grande. > Not sure about the relationship/history between Nimbus sans L and > Helvetica nor can I determine how good a substitute it is. Why Can't you? Since you do have Nimbus Sans L installed, http://fm.no-ip.com/auth/Font/fonts-face-samples-comps.html should enable you to decide for yourself how good it is. > It's worth noting that any user may override the default sans font in > their browser. But one of my points was that the ostensible override (user set default) may not be functional if you are using IE or Safari. > In FF I can choose which font is used as a default sans font so I can > change my default sans to be Nimbus Sans L, Arial or even a roman or > mono font if I wanted to. Same as Opera, but not IE or Safari. > Not sure if that user selection is available in IE. IE, like Safari, only allows to set one preferred proportional font instead of separate ones for serif and sans-serif like the major Geckos, Konqueror and Opera do. > I have therefore always concluded it is a mistake to assume that all > elements in a font-stack will display on a user's machine as they > would mine. Absolutely. -- "The Scriptures tell us righteousness exalteth a Nation." 2nd U.S. President, John Adams Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [[email protected]] http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
