Possible new fonts?

With websites the font selected has to be on the user's computer and not on the web server. If a font is specified but isn't on the computer then the browser will either follow the preceding font tag or will go to the default (Times New Roman). So websites stick to commonly used fonts and font families. Also the vast majority of fonts are copyright so cannot be just freely given away.

So in short, we cannot add more fonts because it is unlikely that most people will have them.

 

Actually they're just developing server-side fonts with CSS... 3, I think it is? Or one of the new XHTML specs or something. Actually probably CSS. But yeah, I'm not sure which bleeding-edge browsers support that yet. Maybe Firefox 3 Beta.

I was gonna say just wrap your text in HTML and use the <font> tag or (better yet) style="font-face: _your-font-here_ but then I remembered that EC doesn't have HTML enabled.

A [font] vB code mapping could be set up, though, right? Then it has nothing to do with copyright: if the person reading has the font, they'll see it in that font. Otherwise it'll be displayed in the default forum font. You wouldn't have to add any fonts to the editor or anything, just a way for the enthusiasts to say "show my text in font X if the reader has font X installed on their computer." In fact if you did it like that without adding anything in the editor, it would provide the functionality while discouraging all but the most dedicated font-changers.

Personally I hate it when people use different fonts from the default because invariably 90% of the people using custom fonts choose really illegible ones. Even Comic Sans can get really annoying, and some people abuse font sizes and even colours tremendously. But I understand that people like having the option.

Anyway, it's something to think about.

 

I just tried changing the font name in the font tag to something else and it did seem to work in the preview for fonts other than Wingdings. This will only show up properly if the viewer has the same fonts installed, I have no idea where these fonts came from so no guarantees. It probably won't work right on non-Windows machines.

This is a test of Calibri font. It's the default font with Office 2007 and I like it.

This is a test of Palace Script MT

ScriptC font



Wingdings don't seem to show up.

 

Yep, works on my comp...looks good

 

Oh dear... I didn't realise there already was a [font] tag.

Well there you go... of the above fonts, I can only see the Palace Script one.

I wonder if you can do the fall back ones: let me check.

[font="joeyconnick,Comic Sans MS"]this is a test[/font]

Yup!

So if you are interest, you can list a sequence of fonts like so [font="font1, font2, font3, etc."]. If the person reading doesn't have font1, their browser will attempt to display the text in the font2, then font3 if they don't have font1 and font 2, etc. It goes in order.

On the above text, I specified [font="joeyconnick, Comic Sans MS"] and of course I doubt anyone has a font called "joeyconnick." (Although I have been told my handwriting is cool and should be a font before. ) So for me, because I'm on Windows right now, it displays as Comic Sans, which it will for pretty much anyone with a modern Windows computer because Comic Sans MS is included in XP and (I'm guessing) Vista.

 

Let's test this fallback thing.

I'm trying to pick unique fonts based on: Ubuntu 7.10 with Open office, MacOS 10.4 with Neo Office, and Windows XP with MS Office 2003, 2007 converter pack, and Open office.

[FONT="Charcoal CY, Purisa, Palace Script MT, Lucida Console"]This should appear in Charcoal CY on 10.4 Macs, Purisa on Ubuntu Linux, Palace Script on Windows with office 2000? or newer, Lucida Console on Windows machines without Office[/FONT]

Let's see if that actually works. My Mac access is limited to a virtual machine but I was disappointed that I didn't see my favorite Mac font Chicago listed. I thought it was still shipping with Macs.

Papyrus is a cool ye olde font that comes with later versions of office and Open office

In other news I have 355 fonts in my font folder. WTF?

 

To get the font that you want to use, just put in the following code.

Code:

[fo[b][/b]nt="NameOfFont"]Textextext[/font]

So something like this:

Code:

[fo[b][/b]nt="Century Gothic"]Lalalalala[/font]

Would come out like this:

Lalalalala

I think that if someone didn't have the specified font, then it would just return to the default, which is Ariel... I think.

 

Verdana's good enough for me =D

 

I like Calibri. It's very precise and gorgeous, but I doubt that I would take the time to add font tags to everything. If there's a way to make it so everything I type is in that font automatically, then that'd be awesome.

 

People can use any font that is on their system that way and it will display fine for them. But if others don't have it then it won't be displayed and they will get the default Verdana instead.

For that reason the preset fonts are ones that are commonly used across all likely operating systems, so that most people will see them correctly. If any others were to be added to the preset list this sort of cross-platform consistency would need to be confirmed first. Reliance on having something like Microsoft Office in stalled is not acceptable, it would need to be available on the basic operating system installations of WinXP, WinVista, OS-X 10.4 and 10.5, plus Gnome-based and KDE-based Linux distros.

Also note that threads written in odd fonts are less likely to be read and replied to than those in a clear readable font like the default Verdana.