"Web Safe Fonts"

Fonts which are common to all versions of
Windows & Mac and their equivalents - show me

Why?

If you are new to the process you might think:
"Why must I limit my choices to that small set of fonts? I have a large collection of nice fonts in my computer"

Answer: your browser can only read the fonts installed in your computer. So that means that every visitor of your web page needs to have all the fonts you want to use installed in his/her computer. So the only fonts that you can safely choose for text on a web page are the intersection of pre-installed Mac font set and the pre-installed PC font set. This is the lowest common denominator approach so that "no web surfer is left behind."

But I MUST use my font!

Solution: If you MUST use a particular font for some reason the only way you can guarantee the visual output of that font is to make it into an image - like a .gif file or .jpg file or .png file. That use should have very limitied application - such as in logos, sporadic graphics, etc. If you look at the Crestone Creations logo you can see an example of specialty fonts displayed as an image.

So why not make entire pages into images?

• Slow Loading - you now have a huge image to download - and to make it clear it must be a reasonable resolution.
• No Search Engine Recognition - it's not text anymore - it's an image - a bunch of pixels - so it's like your pages have no content.
• Legibility - The web safe fonts are generally easy to read with computers and monitors designed to read them. Legibility must come first. If you can't read it, then it just doesn' matter!