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Mistake No. 1
Graphic Type
Readable Type

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Resolution
Attributes
Myths
Best faces
Setting type
Picture

Download Georgia and Verdana, the best fonts for the web, for free!

The Best Faces
for the Screen

Two of the best are freely downloadable:

verdana

Verdana, a sans serif that's wide, has excellent spacing, and is easily readable, even at very small sizes.

georgia

Georgia, perhaps even more remarkable because it's a serif face that looks graceful and flowing, really a wonderfully comfortable face.

Most people will have Verdana, since it comes with every copy of the Internet Explorer. If you don't have them--get them. Your eyes will thank you.

If you want to spec them on your page but also want to make sure that people who don't have them see the right fonts, here's how.

Some faces people think look good on-screen, but don't:

  • ITC Officina (it's too narrow)
  • ITC Charter (it was designed for low-resolution print, but it looks mushy on-screen)
  • Courier (many people think it's cool to have all their site text set in this monospaced font--but many versions of Courier are too light for easy on-screen reading).
  • Teeny tiny bitmap fonts. These are considered "very cool" by people under 30 who think that microscopic all cap type is great. If your audience is only under 30, maybe it's OK, but more people will read (even more under 30) if you use easy to read fonts.

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