I’ve been looking for a good reference website for “font-family”, that shows a visual comparison of the fonts and provides the code.
I found this website,
Font guide for webmasters
Are all of these fonts supported by the various browsers and by the W3?
Also if anyone knows of other websites that offers similar content concerning “font-family”, please post it, it’s much appreciated!!
That site is really, really out of date.
It is not a question of what fonts are supported by W3C or by browsers - it comes down to what fonts people have installed on their computers. If they have it on their computer, it will be used. If they don’t, their browser will use the next one down the stack.
web safe fonts - Google Search will give you some references to look at for fonts that are widely installed.
Something to remember is that you don’t have to use web-safe fonts. For example, I like the look and feel of Calibri, but while its market penetration is increasing it is still a long way from ubiquitous. So I include Trebuchet as a back-up, which has a broadly similar kind of shape and form.
Can you upload a font .ttf file to the website folder that the browsers can use as a reference instead of depending on the viewer to have the font installed on their computer?
You sure can, with @font-face. See here for an explanation, and see [URL=“http://www.fontspring.com/blog/further-hardening-of-the-bulletproof-syntax”]here for a better CSS syntax than given in the other URL.
When you do this, make sure the fonts you want to provide have the correct license!
Yes, that’s usually the stumbling block. You may have purchased a font, but that virtually never comes with a license to redistribute it to everyone else on the Internet. Even the preinstalled fonts on your PC are generally licensed for use on your PC, and not any further afield.
Will the browser decide if the font license is valid or not?
What happens if you do not have a license for a font?
Of course not. Does the browser decide whether you’re downloading a pirated movie or not?
What happens if you do not have a license for a font?
That’s an easy question. The answer is that you’re guilty of theft. You could find your website shut down completely, and find yourself facing a DMCA lawsuit.
So if I use a font that comes with windows, would that be considered theft because it is licensed for use on the PC?
And if you use a font file, to prevent a lawsuit would you upload the purchase receipt (maybe in a PDF) and/or the license agreement?
Direct from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/RedistributionFAQ.mspx. Don’t be too quickly misled by the “embedded fonts” exceptions. That’s referring to things like a Word document that has some fonts embedded in it. Planting the TTF file on your website, where anyone in the world can get to it, isn’t the same thing.
If you purchased a license that actually allowed you to redistribute the font, you could just stick the font on your website. The owner isn’t going to sue you, if the owner sold you the license.
But a license that includes the right to redistribute the font with no restrictions falls into the “unicorn” category. There is no such thing. If there were, there would be no point in copyrighting the font in the first place.