Attention web designers –
Sure. Helvetica is a fine typeface.
Just stop using it in your CSS stylesheets. Or at least stop specifying it first. Second. Or third.
There are more readable, more appropriate, and more distinctive, available for your website.
If you must specify it, how about putting it on the other side of ‘sans serif‘?
Yes, the same goes for you – Arial, Georgia, Verdana, and Times New Roman.
Even Verdana? I find it very readable, where Arial and Helvetica have very odd letterspacing. What do you recommend for sans serifs?
Tom – excellent question. Sometimes Verdana is appropriate, sometimes Eurostile is appropriate, sometimes Gills Sans. All depends on the project. I think we’re well past screen-based publications being visually distinct from other ‘traditional’ publications.
Just read-up on Kernest and realized that my original question sounds silly given what that app brings to the table. I was talking more about being limited to system fonts as device text, but looks like that may soon be a thing of the past…
Naturally I choose fonts to suit my application 😉
You must be joking. Just look how ugly looks your special typeface: http://www.shrani.si/f/1a/jd/3hEB8Dkf/untitled-1.png.
Not only on Windows, but on Mac too. M+ 1p Regular might be good for print, but it is nightmare for screen. f, t, G, S, C … are the worst.
And I just noticed glyph for ellipsis is wrong!
Miha, just like in print, the onus is on the designer to make appropriate font choices, even with expanded options.
microsoft’s Segoe UI is a great alternative for Helvetica on PCs; it comes installed with Vista, 7, even some XP users will have it.