This is the first in a series of articles dedicated to the definition and usage of Fonts. For those who don’t know what a font is, it is the style of type that is displayed on your monitor. Arial is an example of a font name. There is a plethora of different fonts available for use in different applications. As a web designer, the most interaction you will have with fonts, on a regular basis, is when writing HTML text.

HTML text fonts can be defined, changed and managed in a variety of ways. You can define your fonts on an individual basis through the use of HTML. Another way is to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to manage the fonts on your web pages; actually CSS is extremely powerful and can be used to manage fonts (among many other things) across an entire web site. Also, your HTML editing program, such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver, usually has an interface or palette for managing fonts.

One question I hear a lot, especially amongst newcomers, is,” What’s the difference between a regular font and a True Type font?” The difference is that True Type fonts are going to show up on screen exactly as you see it in draft mode. They are going to print the exact same way that you see them on screen as well.

Regular fonts (non-true type) can vary greatly in their appearance. The best way to avoid this is to only use True Type fonts when designing your pages. If you are forced to use a regular font then be sure to test your pages over and over again. Test in different browsers, on different monitors, in different resolutions, and on different platforms (i.e. Mac etc.).

Another mistake I see even veteran webmasters make sometimes, simply because they didn’t know, is using a font on a page that is very uncommon. The problem here is that when a surfer views your web pages, they have to have the fonts you are using installed on their computer already or else they see the browser default (or the next font if you specified a font-family). This may not sound like a big problem but a font change could mess up your entire alignment, it has happened to me before. Some websites are laid out so meticulously that even the slightest alteration could wreck your design. So be sure to use fonts that are common in the web community such as Arial, Times New Roman, Helvetica (Mac), and Verdana just to name a few.

In the next article I will delve into fonts and font usage a little further and look at some issues that other designers encounter in the field. See you then =).