Web Fonts Selector
The fonts shown below are commonly specified for web pages. 
These fonts come installed
in recent versions of the Apple
Macintosh and Microsoft
Windows operating systems and therefore are accessible
on the "typical" computer system. Other fonts
display only if they have been installed on the
user's operating system, which is something you might
reasonably expect of a contained audience, such as a group
of intranet users, but impossible to expect of the general public.
To use a font that is not included in the list, your options include:
- Embedding
the text in a graphic or Flash element. This
is recommended primarily for special
text elements, such as titles, logos,
and banners (see image at right) rather
than for extensive amounts of body
text. With this approach, you can control
absolutely the text's appearance and
also apply special effects. These elements
take longer to download and offer less
crisp
resolution.
To comply
with accessibility
requirements,
such images must be accompanied by an
HTML "alt" specification
that explains the content for those
using screen readers or with low vision.
- Using the desired
typeface but specifying alternatives
for those who may not have it installed
on their operating system.
Type in web pages typically is specified
with multiple type alternatives to accommodate
various viewer situations.
Thus, your preferred font could be specified
as: " 'My
favorite font', Georgia, 'Time New Roman',
serif." The browser will
read through this font list until it
locates a font it can support. In the
worst case, the browser can default to
a generic type spec, such as "serif"
or "sans-serif",
which at least maintains the general
character of the type you seek.
- Specifying downloadable fonts. Downloadable fonts reference external font files on the fly. At present, this option is not universally supported by all platforms and browsers and requires creating a special external file; moreover, you can only specify fonts which permit embedding. This option can be considered, however, if you're dealing with a distinct audience and really care about the font appearance.
As mentioned above, you can specify type so that if your preferred font is unavailable, the font used has similar characteristics. Usually this is done by specifying the ultimate alternative as either serif, san-serif, cursive, or monospace. You should also consider whether the page content is primarily for screen viewing or for print. Newer fonts, like Trebuchet and Verdana, are designed specifically for the screen and offer a clean, crisp look as opposed to older fonts which were originally designed for print. With Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), you can have the best of both worlds by specifying different fonts for different media.
*All the fonts shown are available for the Macintosh OS X and Windows 2000 and XP. A more limited set is available for UNIX systems.