Hey everyone, I haven't posted on this board in a while, mainly been reading and writing copy...

But today I have a question that's been burning in my mind...

It's about fonts.

I've been told it's better to do courier. I've been told it's better to do arial. I've been told it's better to verdana.

I've been told to avoid serif fonts. I've been told to USE serif fonts.

Well all of that amounts to a big wtf.

I'd like to know, with some clarity, what style of font is best?

And before someone tells me to test, please bear in mind that most of what I write are letters for clients and they often don't care to test... regardless of how much I insist that they should.

So I'm kinda stuck trying to figure out what is best by analyzing what OTHERS have done.

While font style seems a trivial thing to have my panties up in a bunch about... I like to design my sites for clarity.

I want to make it as easy as possible for visitors to read. Font's a big part of that...

So.... can anyone help me out in this regard?

Maybe some fonts that work better than others in certain niches, or with certain backgrounds?

Thanks in advance guys and girls, your opinions and thoughts are gold =)

I believe Michel Fortin and Eric Graham have both written about this in their blogs. I don't have the actual posts handy right now, but you may want to start there.

I know you don't want to hear the word "test", but that's essentially what it comes down to. What these guys are doing is giving you the lowdown on THEIR test results, shortcutting you to success.

John

Oh, I'm great with testing... if it's someone ELSE'S tests! lol I just don't write copy for myself and so I don't have the ability to test my own letters as much as I'd like to.

I'll look those blogs up, thanks John!

Verdana is "laboratory proven" to be the easiest font to read on a screen. In fact, look at my old posts and you'll see a link to the article somewhere.
(Read carefully what I'm saying before you throw up a non sequitur challenge)

Offline is where you want the Courier or Times New Roman.

Nebulous,

Doesn't it also depend on the font size? And how a person's computer is set to view pages?

I know that Verdana 12 point comes in great if your "view" setting is for "small" but, if you set it to medium, it becomes difficult to read.

I do like Verdana though. A very clean and honest font.

I don't know. It seems it would scale for all fonts. If a Verdana 12 is easier than a Times New Roman 12, that it should still be easier to read if they're both 9pt.

Now if one is bigger than the other, all bets are off.

What about Georgia? Do any of you use Georgia?

I like the Georgia 12 point and Times New Roman 13 point fonts, though I haven't personally tested either of these.

I think Georgia is a nice serif font... better than Times New Roman. Mr Subtle hates it because it's a Microsoft creation. I don't get that logic, but whatever.

Mr. Subtle only approves of fonts personally handed down by Gutenberg himself.