Choose Your Type-Face
Due to a couple of comments we received in response to our relaunch article, we are now offering a font changer (on home page only) so you can select a different type face — one better suited to meet your needs. The problem was a couple of visitors noted difficulty reading the Century Gothic that we had chosen within body text. Problem solved. This font-changer will record your preference in a cookie so you will be presented with that type-face on future visits.
So far we added to the default Century Gothic: Trebuchet, Verdana, and Georgia (a serif font). Is there a font you would like to use? Please let us know. Adding fonts is a simple affair so you’re welcome to offer your preference. If your font request isn’t too outrageous, we’ll probably add it for you.
As an aside, to anyone who may suggest that we shouldn’t force our will on our visitors regarding the choice of font to begin with, we did it for style. We are after a certain look, and looks are important. Great design isn’t just about accessibility, or function, or search engine optimization. A great look can help a web site succeed.
Web design is an integral part of web development.
cookkie basic » Choose Your Type-Face responds:
Posted: February 14th, 2007 at 3:26 am →
[…] Original post by Accessites.org and software by Elliott Back Posted 13 Feb, 2007 | Categories: Uncategorized […]
rapet responds:
Posted: February 14th, 2007 at 6:27 am →
Yes. I do agree with you. I’ve choosed verdana (this time).
But, i’have a doubt: what about the old way of consider the typography a way to lead “comunication”? It’s just an old Idea? Don’t misunderstand me. I love the way we could divide content from style. But, maybe we have to (re)think about what the new way of doing comunication means.
(sorry for my bad english)
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: February 14th, 2007 at 9:33 am →
Gill Sans and Arial added!
@rapet: I agree, in print (and even then we have to choose carefully size and face to ensure the text is readable), on the web it seems we need to give up some of that control, or at least in this case add some options. If it gets in the way of users accessing the content then it must be addressed.
Joshua Kendall responds:
Posted: February 14th, 2007 at 11:29 am →
It would be nice to see Lucida Grande and Helvetica.
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: February 14th, 2007 at 11:42 am →
Done! Those options are now available to you.
David Zemens responds:
Posted: February 14th, 2007 at 3:49 pm →
If you add every font that sidebar is going to get awfully long!
Very neat, however.
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: February 14th, 2007 at 3:52 pm →
True that, David. We will limit the number… or, we could put the choices in a
selectelement if we choose to add more than what will be considered a reasonable number to display.Noemi responds:
Posted: February 14th, 2007 at 4:10 pm →
Thank you!
Have you considered a font-size selector, too? I ended up choosing Georgia because all of the sans-serif fonts are difficult for me to read when they’re so large and non-bold.
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: February 14th, 2007 at 4:41 pm →
Hello Noemi. The issue you expressed is sort of new to us; most people have difficulties with small fonts so we started most at 100%. That said, the general consensus is that font-sizing widgets are sort of redundant to common browser functionality and not really that useful; they’re often viewed as page fluff. A good argument to this, of course, is that a lot of users don’t realize this browser functionality exists. I did make one once, but I’ve never actually used it on a site.
But we don’t want to go so far to say they’re without value — they are helpful to some users. Yourself for example. Nonetheless, we are glad you found something that’s useful for you, though.
Adam H responds:
Posted: February 16th, 2007 at 8:05 am →
I agree. Website font size changers are pointless. I would even go so far as to say they are harmful to the web in general. Once people see them and start using them they will expect them everywhere instead of learning about the browsers built-in functionality. The same problem exists with the back button, some people expect a back button built into the page instead. Clearly though this is problematic since a page back button is far less functional, ditto the font size changer.
As for fonts to add “Lucida Sans Unicode” is an alternative to “Lucida Grande” that is available on the Windows platform similar to the “Century Gothic”/”Futura” situation.
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: February 16th, 2007 at 9:24 am →
I added it after Lucida Sans, hopefully that works well. I don’t have Lucida Grande on my Windows PC so for me Lucida Sans is first on the list.
Noemi responds:
Posted: February 16th, 2007 at 1:49 pm →
Oh, I agree that in a way, font-size changers are redundant. On the other hand,t he font size ont his site is much larger than on most site s — so having a way to save a per-site preference (e.g. in a cookie) could potentially be useful.
Although now that I think about it, maybe that’s a better job for a Firefox plugin.
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: February 16th, 2007 at 2:39 pm →
Hello Noemi. The default font on this site is 100%, meaning it is whatever your browser setting is. I’m curious, but how big is it to you? To me it doesn’t look excessively large. My default setting on my browser is 16 point (which is default for Firefox I think). Just curious. Can you provide a screen shot per chance?
Eric Shaffer responds:
Posted: February 28th, 2007 at 2:54 pm →
This is a very minor thing, but could the font selector be placed closer to the top to make it easier to find and so when you select a font, it doesn’t jump away and necessitate scrolling back down to try a different font? In keeping with the idea of accessibility, my thought is that the scrolling should be minimized for mobility-impaired users. Or to make it easier for lasy users (such as myself) to play with the different fonts! (ehehehe!)
Great site, BTW!
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: February 28th, 2007 at 5:05 pm →
I’d love to accommodate your request, Eric, but I’d have to move it above the help topics, or even above the navigation, but I feel both of those have precedence. Sorry
Tabitha responds:
Posted: April 11th, 2007 at 4:45 pm →
Have to say I’m loving the Century Gothic, but any chance you could include a couple of the new Vista fonts - Candara and Segoe UI?
And I second the comment on the positioning of the font selector. I knew it was there and had trouble finding it, so what will users do who don’t know? At any rate I think it needs to look different to the other links, because otherwise when scanning that’s what the eye assumes it is, another list of links. Maybe just enclosing it in a box will do it?
Great idea though and site looks great. : )
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: April 12th, 2007 at 10:37 pm →
Hello Tabitha, I doubt we’ll be adding more fonts at this point. I’m not familiar with those fonts but I’m sure they’re nice. Regarding highlighting the links more I’ll have to think that over. It might be difficult since those links are sub-listed as part of the sidebar list as a whole.