On 2010/06/27 12:41 (GMT+0100) Philip Taylor (Webmaster, Ret'd) composed:
> David Laakso wrote:
>> This:
>> html {
>> font-family : "Trebuchet MS", Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;
>> font-size: 80%;
>> }
>> Becomes this [user friendly and shorter]:
>> html {
>> font : 100%/1.4 Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
>> }
> With the greatest respect, your dislike for the fonts which
> Microsoft explicitly commissioned for the web ("Trebuchet MS",
> Tahoma, Verdana : I do not seek to defend Georgia !) is surely
> not sufficient reason for recommending that Eric jettison
> them in favour of Helvetica and/or Arial ? I would respectfully
> suggest that there is nothing objectively superior about the
> latter, and if the designer prefers the MS three, then he
> should feel free to specify them.
If the OP's intent is to ensure that the visitor's preferred font family (or
size) is unlikely to be that actually used, then his list is a virtual
guarantee that will happen.
In the case of the OP's list, the three M$ web fonts are similar only in that
they are "for the web" M$ sans-serif designs. In no other way is Trebuchet
similar to Tahoma or Verdana, while Arial is little but a clone of Helvetica[1].
Tahoma is little other than Verdana with it's letter spacing reduced to a
tiny fraction of Verdana's, making either a poor substitute for the other,
or, due to their larger x-height, for Arial.
The idea with CSS specifying more than one is generally that if the first is
unavailable, that the next suggestion be a similar one to the first, and that
if the second too is unavailable, that the third too is similar to the first.
David's respectful suggestion makes sense, while the OP's (rude: 80% of
visitor preference size), absent intent of extreme control, makes none.
[1] http://www.ms-studio.com/articles.html
--
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)
Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409
Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/
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