RE: SUMMARY: Readability studies on fonts--serif and sans serif

["Murrell, Thomas" <TMurrell -at- alldata -dot- net>]

> From: 	Christensen, Kent[SMTP:lkchris -at- sandia -dot- gov]
> 
> In html you can simply specify <FONT FACE=sans serif> or <FONT
> FACE=serif>,
> which is more "generic" than specifying a font name such as arial.  Works
> in
> both browsers.  Can be overridden by user in Netscape but not Internet
> Explorer.  It would be a pretty determined Netscape user.  BTW, the New
> York
> Times on the web uses <FONT FACE=times>.  What do we suppose this means?
> 
I guess it should be no surprise that the New York Times uses a "times"
font, eh?

Related to this issue, we make extensive use of Cascading Style Sheets,
which I think are wonderful for controlling all sorts of presentation issues
with much more specificity that HTML allows.  I wonder though if browser
settings can override CSS as far as font is concerned.

I know that in the past a few listers have questioned the value of
specifying fonts at all; the general tenor of the comments being, "Let users
decide what fonts they want displayed on their browsers."  I don't wish to
disenfranchise users, but I do like all of the capabilities CSS allows.  Can
the user override the font in the browser?  We use only IE here, so I don't
get a good reading on this.

Tom Murrell