<FONT> Talk
By Lynda Weinman
Many designers don't think of type as text, but instead use typefaces as vehicles for visual communication. Most of us look at type as an aesthetic medium, and take for granted that its purpose is to represent text-based data. Unfortunately, the Web has many facets, and what is "design" to one person can easily become "unusable" to another.
Text is a critical component of the Web, and issues beyond what "looks good" are far reaching and powerful. HTML-based text is used for search engines, data analysis, email transmissions, automated language translations, and text readers for the visually impaired. Understanding how design decisions go beyond aesthetics and affect usability is the focus of this month's column.
<FONT> Wars
Many of us applauded Navigator 2.0 for introducing the FONT tag. The FONT tag offered the ability to specify a typeface, color, and size through the FACE, COLOR, and SIZE attributes, respectively. The use of this tag was touted as having no adverse side effects; if the browser didn't recognize it, the page would still be rendered in default text at default sizes in default colors. You can hardly fault designers for wanting more from life than gray pages and Times Roman fonts, but the FONT tag wasn't the panacea many of us expected.
I subscribe to several Web-design listservs, and was directed to a couple of interesting URLs that pointed out the pitfalls of the FONT tag.
