Andrei, But isn't a serif font more readable at 10px/12px for blocks of text?
- Russ Russell Wilson Vice President of Product Design, NetQoS http://www.dexodesign.com On Jan 7, 2008 12:53 PM, Andrei Herasimchuk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Jan 7, 2008, at 8:43 AM, Benoît Meunier wrote: > > > For a better reading experience: *Arial or Verdana?* > > Arial is a bastardized version of Helvetica created because those in > charge of the operating system didn't want to pay the license fee > that would be required to put a proper font on their computer. (Both > Apple and Microsoft are guilty of this.) My general preference for > specifying the fonts for anything on a web site is generally: > Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Sans Serif. In that order. > > Even as a bastardized version, Arial is still more readable and > flexible for web projects that require heavy amounts of copy. > > There's a long history behind Tahoma and Verdana that I won't go > into. You can Google that. But Tahoma was made to give Windows95 a > new look and feel for the screen, back when screen resolutions and > such were much lower than they are today. (At the time, Apple had > Chicago and Espy, and Microsoft was looking to create their own > aesthetic to compete.) Tahoma was basically designed for 9px, 10px, > 11px and 12x sizes only. (Maybe 13px as well, I forget off the top of > my head.) And by designed, I mean pixel for pixel design, not > outlines and curves like PostScript or TrueType fonts. It was hinted > specifically for screen pixels at those specific sizes. > > Verdana was created as a variation of Tahoma for web work because > Microsoft seemed to want the same aesthetic but needed a font that > could be read with dense body copy. The web was just booming at that > time and Tahoma looks like junk when used as body copy because it was > designed mostly to be labels for dialog boxes. It has a much too wide > feel for long stretches of copy. As such, Verdana is certainly more > readable as body copy, but again, it was designed for certain small > screen sizes, 9px through 12px. Try using Verdana as a 20px headline > and it looks like crap. > > So, if you all you care about is body copy set specifically at 10px > or 11px, then Verdana is fine. The moment you want to use it for > headlines and such, you're out of luck and will need to specify a > different headline font. I tend to specify Helvetiva Neue and Arial > so I don't have to worry about the issue. Arial is tolerable and with > ClearType turned on with bigger screens, in my opinion it looks far > better than Verdana ever will. > > > - If there any studies or facts about that? > > You don't use studies or "facts" to choose a typeface. That would be > like using a study that claims red is always the best color to use > for company backgrounds. > > -- > Andrei Herasimchuk > > Principal, Involution Studios > innovating the digital world > > e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] > c. +1 408 306 6422 > > > ________________________________________________________________ > *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 > -- Russell Wilson Vice President, Product Design NetQoS Personal Blog: http://www.dexodesign.com ________________________________________________________________ *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
