Windows and Ubuntu/Xubuntu

[crimesaucer]

I just saw my web page on Xubuntu linux and Firefox Bon Echo that I've had perfect on Windows and Firefox and IE6,(not IE7 rc?) and when I saw it, my font for my navi bar was not recognized.

So the problem is "unrecognized" windows fonts on a linux os, right?

Are there any sites with comparisons of different OS fonts for Windows/Linux/Apple?

these were my fonts:'Browallia New', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

this is my radio blog web page: http://crimesaucer.100webcustomers.com/

thanks,
-c.

[brandaggio]

Linux, because of "red tape" does not ship with many of the fonts you typically find on a Mac or Windows machine.

Unless the user has the font installed, it won't show of course so that is what you are running into.

As you know, CSS allows you to specify a number of fonts so if your first choice is not available on the system it will fallback to a more generic font you specified.

Your first few fonts would not be on a typical Linux box, so that is why it looks different.

First thing to consider is that the number of users with Linux visiting your site will be much less than 1%, so next to no one is affected. The best course of action is a little pragmitism - you can't control everything your user sees and you need to let go a little and be ok with just a serif or sans-serif font when there is nothing else available.

Fonts do install easily on Linux, you just won't be able to this on behalf of your users.

Situations like this help the argument for the use of elastic/liquid layouts that accomodate the different sizing of text.

[AutisticCuckoo]

Font specifications in CSS are nothing but hints, anyway. As long as you always specify a generic font family (like sans-serif) at the end of the list, you can be reasonably sure that it looks OK (albeit not necessarily perfect).

[Dan Schulz]

For sans-serif fonts, Helvetica is your best bet for Linux machines (as well as Macs). As a fail-safe, be sure to also specify a generic sans-serif fallback option.

font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;

For serif fonts, Times will be the default on most installations.

font-family: Times, serif;

Generally, to handle all three major operating system platforms, I use the following:

font-family: Tahoma, "Lucida Grande", Lucida, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;

[Dan Schulz]

Also, for monospace fonts, Courier is the way to go. Note I said Courier, as opposed to Courier New.