Standard Web Fonts 'Updated' In Vista

BladesP9 writes "Beginning with Vista, Microsoft has updated the standard Web Core Fonts that it has used since the late 1990s. 'With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft has unleashed something quite new on the Web — the "C" fonts; Cambria, Calibri, Candara, Consolas, Constantia, and Corbel.' The article goes on to state that 'if you're a web designer and not using Vista then this download is mandatory since it will let you see your page as your Vista users see it.' The article includes a PDF document offering visual comparisons of the old and new fonts (pdf)."

Comments

Isn't this old news??

[neo-mkrey]

I could swear I read about these "new and improved" fonts a few months ago.

Consolas rocks

[mbadolato]

The Consolas font is a phenomenal mono-spaced font, and I've been using it for a year or more. You can download it from MS for free but it's an exe file. Once installed though you could easily, say, move the TTF file over from your Windows virtual machine to your "real" system and have access to it there. :)

Timeline?

[stonecypher]

Microsoft actually released these fonts with the last Office batch, and also allows you to download them freely from MSDN (just like the T series and the V series.) This all happened about 18 months ago. Thanks for noticing. (And, yes, people should download them, because Candara is just gorgeous.)

Consolas 1/l/I; 0/O

[_xeno_]

Since their example didn't show it, and most tech types care, here's my take on Consolas's 1/l/I differentiation. Essentially, it's Courier New. The glyphs are practically identical. One has a sloping top, lowercase L has a flat top, and uppercase I has a bar across the top. Lucidia Console works almost the same way, except that a lowercase L has no bar on the bottom.

Contrast with my personal favorite, BitStream Vera Sans Mono: one and uppercase I work the same way, but lowercase L is notably different. This is especially useful for languages like Java where a lowercase L at the end of a number is valid and marks it as a long.

On the 0/O issue, Consolas goes with a line through the zero, Lucidia Console uses a slightly higher and narrower glyph compared with the uppercase O, and BitStream Vera Sans uses a dot in the middle.

Over all, I still prefer BitStream Vera Sans Mono for my console font. Consolas is a big improvement over previous monospaced fonts available in Windows, but BitStream Vera Sans Mono is perfectly usable and, in my opinion at least, slightly better.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Fonts are uncopyrightable

[WillAdams]

A typeface design is uncopyrightable, however the specific expression of a design as a digital font, _including_ the selection of curve points can be copyrighted.

http://directory.serifmagazine.com/Ethics_and_Law/Copyright/judgement.php4

William

Re:Nice

[SEMW]

I'd like to see an example of them without antialiasing. I wouldn't, if I were you -- might damage your eyes permanently. But if you insist...

Consolas with no antialiasing

Painful, isn't it? All the new fonts are apparently designed and specially hinted to make use of Cleartype (Microsoft's antialiasing & subpixel rendering algorithm). So they look beautiful with Cleartype on, alright with non-cleartype greyscale antialiasing (example), and "Aah! My eyes! The googles, they do nothing!" with no antiaiasing.

Original author doesn't do CSS as well as you

[vsync64]

there's no reason you shouldn't specify {font-family:calibri,arial,sans-serif}

Yes, that's the correct way to do it. Too bad the article leaves the crucial generic font name off the end of the list:

font-family: Constantia, "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino;

I see this all the time from Web sites that want to offset something by placing it in a different typeface, so they put font-family: Arial; or so. Then I don't have Arial, the font-family declaration falls through, and it ends up as whatever serif font the rest of my body text is. Not the first time "designers" ignore both W3C recommendations ("Authors are encouraged to offer a generic font family as a last alternative, for improved robustness.") and simple common sense. But hey, all the world's a glossy brochure!

Re:Market Hold Consolidation?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Postscript Type 1 still rules the roost.

Erm... No, sorry. All of the big foundries now supply pretty much their entire collection in OpenType format, and several are moving towards only supplying new fonts in this format. If you're not aware of this, a little reading around the usual web typography forums will soon show you the direction things are moving in.