Should I use Tahoma in webdesign? If I couldn't opt for anything different (i.e. because the designer used it in his design), with wich fonts could I make an stack of replacement fonts in a CSS stylesheet?
+2
A:
I think it is quite a safe font to use. Others that are popular are Verdana and Arial. Times New Roman is also popular, but it's a Serif font, so it's not so nice for a monitor.
Added: While browsing through Wikipedia about this font, I found a link to a nice long-running survey about most available fonts for all platforms. Check it out: http://www.codestyle.org/css/font-family/sampler-CombinedResults.shtml
Vilx-
2009-09-02 23:10:23
Oooh, a downvote! May I know what for?
Vilx-
2009-09-02 23:12:21
+1 - You don't know how horrible Times New Roman's Serif-ness is until you use something else.
Fiarr
2009-09-02 23:17:19
Your answer will be 100% right if you are restricted only to Windows platforms, as Arial is a substitute to the Apple's Helvetica font.
Rodrigo
2009-09-02 23:17:22
A:
Tahoma is safely enough as almost all the modern operating systems support that font. But if your site targets users with old non-windows operating systems, you must consider another stylesheet to support them.
Rodrigo
2009-09-02 23:13:56
+12
A:
Tahoma's fine, yes. Good replacements are Geneva and Verdana, with a generic sans-serif for backup. Better CSS Font Stacks is a great resource for suggesting these kinds of things.
If you're working with a designer who wants to use certain fonts, make sure he/she understands that very few fonts are web-safe sooner rather than later. It'll save you from some headache down the road.
Sam DeFabbia-Kane
2009-09-02 23:15:35
+4
A:
It depends on what you mean by "safe".
If you mean that a majority of the users have the font, and that you can pick a reasonable alternative for the rest, then it's safe.
If you mean that everyone should be able to view the page exactly as you see it, then it's not safe. Actually no font is safe, except the default fonts in CSS. That's why you should always provide alternative fonts as backup, and always provide a default font as the last resort. Example:
font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
Note that even if the user has the Tahoma font, it will not always render exactly the same. The user can have different settings for font smoothing, which greatly affects how the font is rendered. There may also be slight differences in kerning and hinting for different versions of the same font.
If you need some text to look exactly the same all the time, the only option is to make an image out of it.
Guffa
2009-09-02 23:16:14
That's usually the string of fonts I used, except I replace Helvetica with Verdana.
Cory Larson
2009-09-02 23:19:32
@Cory: Verdana is an MS-only font, so I suggest that you add the more generic Helvetica font after it for the non-MS operating systems.
Guffa
2009-09-02 23:22:02
Yes, I mean safe like 'a majority of the users have the font'. But, as not all users will have the font, I wanted to know with wich font's should I replace Tahoma to make the design look 'almost' every time.
eKek0
2009-09-02 23:22:52
@eKeK0: Arial/Helvetica is reasonably similar to Tahoma to use as a backup. They are not quite as narrow as Tahoma, but close enough. (Verdana is wider so it could cause some problems for your design.)
Guffa
2009-09-02 23:31:43
This worked PERFECT. I inhereted a website that broke only on linux, and this solution was PERFECT :-)
Hugo
2010-10-14 13:27:01
+2
A:
According to the Code Style Font Family Survey, Tahoma is available on about 98% of Windows and 74% of Macintosh systems.
Their Build Better CSS Font Stacks page lists common stacks organized by category. They also have a Font Stack Builder that tells you the likelihood of a visitor seeing a particular font in the stack.
Selene
2009-09-02 23:28:43
A:
Change is here my friend! Google now offers a solution for (almost) worry free font freedom: [Google (Open Source) Web Fonts API][1] [1]: http://code.google.com/webfonts
painperdu
2010-05-24 10:59:44