Question about fonts

[happymom]

Since I based my site off from a template, I never bothered to mess with the fonts. But I noticed that this is what they are set up as for the body of the site:

font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;

Does anyone know why we have 4 types listed instead of just one? I tried each one without the others, and the last 3 look the same, the first one looks a little different. My site appears to be taking on the verdana font, probably because it's listed 1st.

Is there a good reason to keep all 4 listed?

Julie

[chrisse]

Hi Julie
I think, it's because all 4 fonts are very similar and are interchangeable with each other. ie if you create a website and use these as a string of fonts then when someone downloads your site and their system does not support 1 of these fonts it will look for 1 of the other 3. Most webmasters use this string for this reason.
cheers.......chris

[troyzone]

Hi Julie,

Chris is essentially correct. Multiple fonts are listed just in case your first choice is not installed on your visitor's computer, and the fonts are tried in the order that they are listed.

When someone views your site, their computer has to have the font(s) installed that your web site uses. Windows has several fonts installed by default, but some people may have extra fonts installed or may have removed some of the default ones, which they may have done either on their own or via other applications.

Of course, not everybody uses Windows either, although the majority of your visitors probably would. Some visitors may use Mac, Linux, or other operating systems though, which may not install all of the same fonts that Windows does.

Also, some programs such as Microsoft Office tend to install many additional fonts, which not everyone that visits your site may necessarily have. If your site calls for a particular font and the visitor does not have it installed, their browser will fall back to its default font, whatever that may be, and your site will not appear as intended.

If the visitor does not have the first font listed, then by listing multiple fonts you are giving their browser a few other choices for your site as well that would be preferable to the default font, as the default font will vary from browser to browser and may have unexpected results. So for example, if your visitor don't have the first font installed, then the browser will try the second font listed, and if that's also not available then the third font will be tried, and so on.

As Chris has noted, when listing multiple fonts you would generally pick ones that are close in appearance to each other to maintain your site's display as close to the original as possible for your visitor, even if they have to use an alternate font that is listed.

Hope this helps.

Troy

[happymom]

Thanks Chrisse & Troy-

I kind of thought that would be the answer. Chrisse, that's what the fonts are in my site, in 10 p size.

Julie