Highly Readable Fonts?

I notice Joel is using Georgia for his blog, which is a great font - highly readable, but with a bit of life to it, unlike most boring, drab serif fonts (Times New Roman, I'm talking about you).

I'm a fan of Garamond, but it is terrible at anything smaller than 12 pt.

Do any of you have favorite fonts that you use for maximum readability?

www.ChristopherHawkins.com
Wednesday, June 16, 2004

my discussion board at madebymonkeys uses Tahoma for everything.  We've used it for the past 5 years so perhaps we're just accustomed to it :)

muppet from madebymonkeys.net
Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Tahoma is my personal choise too. Its very clear. Was never a times new Roaman Fan I never liked "Pointy haired Bosses"

Kuminda Chandimith
Wednesday, June 16, 2004

First off, "thank you" to whomever ix-nayed that all-caps post.

Second, I like Tahoma very much.  However, I am primarily looking for good serif fonts.  I realize I didn't state this in the OP, so I'm saying it now.

www.ChristopherHawkins.com
Wednesday, June 16, 2004

<experienced web developer>
serif fonts really shouldn't be used on websites, ever.
</experienced web developer>

muppet from madebymonkeys.net
Wednesday, June 16, 2004

I don't necessarily have web sites in mind, but...why not?

www.ChristopherHawkins.com
Wednesday, June 16, 2004

traditionally because they're almost always more difficult to read and make a block of text look... hairy?  cluttered?

This is changing somewhat with higher resolution, flat panel displays and Clear Type, though.  ;)

muppet from madebymonkeys.net
Wednesday, June 16, 2004

I like Monaco and Georgia. both have good readability and appealing.

mrc
Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Verdana.

MrFancypants
Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Joel's selection of Georgia looks quite nice on OS X, on my iBook.

Jon H
Thursday, June 17, 2004

Joel wrote about using Georgia and Verdana ages ago. I seem to recall that they had been optimised for on-screen viewing.

I use Verdana for my web-applications and I love it (very clear, even at 8pt). I've even started using Verdana for my Excel spreadsheets, etc, as it looks so good on screen.

If only we had a fixed-pitch font that looked good for code. I use Courier New, but I wonder if there is any better option.

Steve Jones (UK)
Thursday, June 17, 2004

> I use Courier New, but I wonder if there is any better option.

Yes. Monotype.

bynarr
Thursday, June 17, 2004

"traditionally because they're almost always more difficult to read and make a block of text look... hairy?  cluttered?"

Huh? Serifed fonts are more readable than non-serifed ones, although less ledgible for headers.

I use Vedana for code editing.

Mr Jack
Thursday, June 17, 2004

Andale Mono for coding

el
Thursday, June 17, 2004

I notice many are referring to either Mac only or Windows only fonts.

Just something I noticed.

frustrated
Thursday, June 17, 2004

Mr Jack

I'll take it you're not a web developer.

muppet is now from madebymonkeys.net
Thursday, June 17, 2004

Bitstream's Vera Sans Mono is brilliant for coding

Cyrille Chépélov
Thursday, June 17, 2004

The reason that some people say not to use serif fonts on web sites, or any other computer application is because the native dot resolution for computer monitors (usually about 70-100 dots-per-inch (dpi)) is too low to allow the serifs (the little curly bits at the ends of the letters) to be cleanly displayed (at small, non-anti-aliased font sizes).

This is opposed to the, at least 300 dpi (and usually very much higher) resolution of print.

I'm not saying I agree, and, of course, YMMV, but that's the reasoning.

Bill Tomlinson
Thursday, June 17, 2004

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