Text and Font Use In Web Design

Let's talk about graphic text vs. fonts

If given the choice between a really slick webpage where the body text is a cool graphic you made in Photoshop, like this: or using "live" HTML text, (like everything else on this page) go with the latter every time.

Why? When you use a graphic for text, search engines can't read it and they don't know what you're talking about. You NEED text so your keywords and phrases get listed in Google and Yahoo and MSN. The most beautiful site in the world is useless if no one can find it.

BTW, I'm talking about the actual text on the page, like this one. You'll notice the WebsiteBeginner logo is graphic text. That's cool because the body text is "live", and that's where it counts.

Sorry to say, your choice is kinda limited.

The reason? In order for your visitor to see the same font you see on your home computer, they need to have that exact same font installed on their computer. This is very important, because if you design around a cool font nobody else has, no one will see the site as you intended. So pick from the more universal font faces commonly installed on most computers.

In the web design program I use, Macromedia's Dreamweaver, it gives me clusters of font types to choose from, such as "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" or "Times New Roman, Times, serif". The reason it gives a few choices is that if I use a font on my website that you don't have, your browser will substitute it with the second or third choice on the list. But remember, no crazy-asses fonts, these are fonts that come installed on PCs and Macs to begin with.

Here are some standard font combinations given to me by Dreamweaver:

Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
Times New Roman, Times, serif
Courier New, Courier, mono
Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif
Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif

Stick with these combinations and you'll be safe in fontland.

Now on to the Font tags