I am working on a redesign of EagerEyes, and in the process have been doing a bit of research on typography, design, grids, etc. One thing I do on that website is use an unusual font, Century Gothic. It’s a beautiful font, very light and elegant; though perhaps not the most readable. I’m not sure if I will end up replacing it, but I will certainly need to give it more space, and perhaps increase the default font size, to make it easier to read.
In looking at alternatives, I first went through the list of “web-safe” fonts: Times (New) Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, Verdana. I was quite surprised that Georgia and Verdana had been designed by Microsoft, partly in an effort to make decent fonts available as standards across the web. These fonts were also specifically designed for readability on screen.
With Vista, Microsoft also introduced a number of new fonts that are very appealing. As a Mac user, I thought they were part of Office, but it turns out that they were made for the new Windows. Needless to say, these fonts were also optimized for the screen, but also use some new features in Microsoft’s ClearType, and are more suited for printing.
All of these new fonts have a decidedly modern edge to them. My interest in typography was sparked again when I saw these fonts crop up in documents a few months ago, and the more I look at them, the more I like them. Cambria, which is “the new Georgia,” is a serif font that feels a bit lighter and less baroque than its predecessor. For sans-serif, there’s Calibri, which is the new Arial, and not very remarkable, IMHO (though it does seem a bit more modern for reasons I can’t explain).
And then there is Candara, which is my favorite. It’s a bit like Verdana, but also more modern looking and with lots of little details that make it absolutely stunning. It may not stand out much in 10pt on screen, but it looks fantastic when large. It’s a lot less straight than Arial/Calibri, but still looks modern and clear, and is also very nicely readable.
These new fonts can’t be considered standard or “web-safe” just yet, but they sure should go into font specifications (“stacks”) before the old ones. I’m so used to seeing Arial for body copy on websites that Georgia/Cambria look quite old-fashioned. But I hope the web will switch to Candara as its new standard font for cutting-edge sites, and hopefully a bit more variety and awareness of typography online.
