Publishers of technology books, eBooks, and videos for creative people

Home > Articles > Web Design & Development > CSS

This chapter is from the book

Exploring Font Families

In the world of print, you can use just about any font family you want; you purchase and install the font on your computer if it's not already there, and you use it in the design of your document. When your design is complete, you then send the font to the printer along with the document, or you PDF your document so the fonts are converted to vectors (outlines), and you're done. In print, you can work with any of the thousands of available fonts because you have control over them all the way to the printing press.

On the Web, you simply don't have this freedom of choice as far as fonts are concerned. This is one of the most disappointing aspects of the Web for transitioning print designers; you must trust that the viewers have the fonts in which you want your document to be displayed installed on their computers. Fonts aren't part of the browser; they are served up for the all applications on a computer from the system software where they reside. Furthermore, it is impossible to know what flavor of any given font (Times, Times Regular, or Times Roman, for example) a user might have on their machine.

As much as you might want your Web pages' headlines to be displayed in Univers 87 Oblique, the odds of a user having that particular font are, to quote Elvis (Costello), less than zero. In fact, there is only a very short list of fonts that you can be sure users of both Windows and Macintosh have installed on their systems: Times, Arial, Verdana, and Courier.

Even Helvetica, perhaps the most popular sans-serif font of all time, is not included with Windows, but Windows has its own almost identical font, Arial.

"What about automatically downloading fonts as needed from my server to the user?" you ask (you did ask, right?). Good question. Although CSS 3 specifies a way you can request a font from your server in which to display the document, browsers do not currently support this capability. But it is nice to think about, and one day it may be a reality. (Even then, the browser will never install the font on the user's computer but merely use it to display the page).

Until the happy day when fonts are available on demand, to use specific fonts with CSS, you need to list the fonts, in order of preference, in which you would like the document to be displayed. This list must only be by family name—by that I mean you must use Helvetica or Times, not Helvetica Condensed or Times Expanded.

It is accepted practice to write a CSS declaration specifying a of either serif or sans-serif fonts starting with the one you prefer first and ending with a generic font name such as serif or sans-serif like this (in this case, I'm working with sans-serif fonts)

font-family {"trebuchet ms", helvetica, arial, sans-serif}

Because Trebuchet MS is more than one word, it has to be in quotes. If you do this in an inline style that's already inside double quotes, use single quotes on the name, like this

<p style="font-family:'trebuchet ms', helvetica, arial,  sans-serif">

or like this in the case of serif fonts

font-family: {charcoal, times, serif}

In the first example using the font-family property above I am saying to the browser, "Display this document in Trebuchet MS, and if you don't have it, use Helvetica. If you don't have either of those, use Arial, and if all else fails, use whatever generic sans-serif font you do have. It is very important to make the last item of a font-family declaration a generic declaration of either serif or sans-serif as a final fallback. This ensures that, at a minimum, your document at least displays in the right type (no pun intended) of font.

In the second example using the font-family property, I first declare Charcoal, a font only available on Macintosh, because I want Macintosh users to have the pleasure of viewing my document in that lovely font. However, because Windows users don't usually have Charcoal, they see the document displayed in the second choice, Times.

Using Embedded Styles (for Now)

To keep things simple, I'm going to show you how to write your CSS styles in a style element in the head of the document. I'll also show you how to remove the link to the external style sheet for now. Doing this means that you won't have to manage a separate style sheet, but the styles that you write will only be available to this one document. That's ideal for developing the layout of a specific page; later you'll create a separate style sheet that can supply styles to multiple pages. Review the start of Chapter 2 if this doesn't make complete sense.

Let's use the HTML document you created in Chapter 1 and modify it to include the style element in the document head, as illustrated by the highlighted code

<head>
<title>A Sample XHTML Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us" />
<style type="text/css">
       
   <-- a

   </style>
</head>

The blank line between the opening and closing tag of the style element is where you add your CSS. When the browser encounters the opening tag of the style element, it stops interpreting the code as XHTML and starts interpreting it as CSS. When it encounters the closing tag of the style element, the browser reverts to treating the code as XHTML again. So anything you write within the style element must be in CSS syntax, the same syntax you use if the CSS is in a separate style sheet. This means any code within the style element is formatted like this:

selector {property1:value; property2:value; etc.}

You need to be aware of whether you are writing CSS or XHTML at any given moment during the development of your projects and make sure you format your code accordingly. In the case of the sample XHTML documents I provide at my Web site, www.bbd.com/stylin, the XHTML is already written, so once you add the style element using XHTML, you are working entirely in CSS.

Setting the Font Family for the Entire Page

To set the font family for the entire page, you first need to set it for the body of the document

<style type="text/css">
body {font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif;}
</style>

Save your changes, flip to the browser, and refresh the page. What you see should look like Figure 3.6 .

03fig06.jpg

Figure 3.6 Setting the font-family property of the body element affects the whole document.

Because font-family is an inherited property, its value is passed to all its descendants, which, since body is the top-level element, are all the other elements in the markup. So with one line, you've made it so everything is in the desired font; bathe for a moment in that glow of CSS magic. OK, moving right along . . .

Peachpit Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from Peachpit and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about Peachpit products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites; develop new products and services; conduct educational research; and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email ask@peachpit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by Adobe Press. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.peachpit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020