Force a fixed width font?

Question

Force a fixed width font?

I have some pages that contain source code that should be displayed in a fixed width font. I initially used Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, but when I tested the site from a Windows machine using Firefox and IE, the font was converted to variable width. I changed to one of the Web fonts, Andale Mono, but found the same behavior on Firefox, IE, and Chrome.

How do I configure a text box to display a preferred fixed width font and fail back to an available fixed width font if the specified one isn't available?

Thanks,

Patrick

PowerBook (PPC), Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Nov 1, 2008 3:43 PM

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Answer 1

Roddy

Level 6

17,265 points

Nov 1, 2008 4:01 PM in response to Patrick J. May

Chose your font from the web-safe Mac/Windows list - not the Web list.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

215,760 points

Nov 1, 2008 7:57 PM in response to Patrick J. May

Here are some sites listing web safe fonts also.

Web Safe Fonts
Common fonts to all versions of Windows & Mac equivalents
Safe web fonts

OT

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Answer 3

Nov 2, 2008 7:15 AM in response to Roddy

I don't have a set called Mac/Windows in my font list.

Thanks,

Patrick

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Answer 4

Nov 2, 2008 7:17 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for the links. I switched to use only Arial and Courier New and the code now displays correctly on Firefox and IE.

I'd still like to know how to specify a list of acceptable fonts, so that the code appears in Bitstream Vera Sans Mono if available and Courier New otherwise. Is that possible?

Thanks again,

Patrick

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Answer 5

Roddy

Level 6

17,265 points

Nov 2, 2008 7:53 AM in response to Patrick J. May

Web-safe Mac/WIndows fonts are:

Arial
Arial Black
Comic Sans MS
Courier New
Georgia
Helvetica
Impact
Times
Times New Roman
Trebuchet MS
Verdana

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Answer 6

BarryUK

Level 1

0 points

Nov 22, 2008 1:57 AM in response to Patrick J. May

Are you using CSS? If so you would do it like this;

font-family: "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono","Courier New", monospace;

That tells the browser to use Vera Sans if it is installed, if it isn't it will try to use Courier New, and if that isn't installed it will use the browser's default monospace font.

Note that you only need to enclose the font name in quotes if there are spaces in the name, so you wouldn't need to wrap Arial in quotes.

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Answer 7

Nov 23, 2008 8:30 AM in response to BarryUK

Does iWeb allow that kind of specification without modifying the underlying files? I usually create websites using Emacs, but I was hoping that iWeb would be sufficient for quick site creation.

Thanks,

Patrick

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Answer 8

Old Toad

Level 10

215,760 points

Nov 23, 2008 12:21 PM in response to Patrick J. May

See this tutorial from 11 Mystics on how to control how fonts are used and displayed for PC’s: http://11mystics.com/blog/2007/09/12/how-can-i-ensure-the-fonts-i-use-will-look- good-on-a-pc/

OT

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Answer 9

Nov 24, 2008 5:54 AM in response to Old Toad

Converting fonts to images isn't a viable option. The increase in download size would be significant.

Regards,

Patrick

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Answer 10

Old Toad

Level 10

215,760 points

Nov 24, 2008 11:57 AM in response to Patrick J. May

The tutorial at 11 Mystics describes how to edit the FontMapping.plist file in iWeb so you can control which fonts are substituted for the ones you use in your site. The method described does not convert to png but substitutes a font that you specify for the one used on Windows computers.

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Answer 11

Nov 24, 2008 5:02 PM in response to Old Toad

Sorry about that, I'll check more closely.

Thanks,

Patrick

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