Font: Trebuchet MS

Abhishek Reddy's picture

He has: 3,348 posts

Joined: Jul 2001

I see this one being used increasingly lately in webpages (non-graphical). I'm contemplating using the font on one of my client's sites.

Do you guys think that it's a "safe" font to use? i.e. do you have it and/or think most others do too?

I've never seen it in any safe font list; I've always stuck to Arial, Verdana, TNR and Helvetica.

Your input is appreciated. Smiling

Thanks.

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

I don't have it on my machine at work here, which only has the basics that come with Windows 98 and a few others I've added. You could specify it as your first option and use more common fonts as alternatives.

The Webmistress's picture

She has: 5,586 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

I do have it but I'm not if I downloaded it or what! I agree with Megan, specify an alternative and you should be ok.

Suzanne's picture

She has: 5,507 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

I've been using it for three years, without complaint. Just make sure you specify your fonts properly:

font-family: "trebuchet ms", verdana, arial, geneva, helvetica, sans-serif;

Then you are covered all around.

Abhishek Reddy's picture

He has: 3,348 posts

Joined: Jul 2001

Alright. Smiling

Thanks for your replies. What alternate font would you suggest? TNR? It causes a few probs because the size is about 1 or 2 pts smaller. e.g: TNR size 12pt is like Trebuchet size 14pt.

detox's picture

They have: 571 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

I have just finished developing a new site for a company that wanted to keep there stationary font on their site. Trebuchet ms was it!

No probs through testing etc.....

Suzanne's picture

She has: 5,507 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

my font recommendations are in my previous post -- I seriously do not recommend TNR.

The Webmistress's picture

She has: 5,586 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

TNR is horrid to read on screen, I always prefer Veranda then arial

mairving's picture

They have: 2,256 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

I've never really liked Trebucket that much. The font looks okay but it is Trebucket MS. MS is the abbreviation for Mississippi. So it always sounds to me like a town in MS. I used to do a lot of travelling. Some of it in towns in MS. So when I see that MS part, I am reminded of those towns. That's weird but it has always caused me to have a not so great impression of it.

Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states

They have: 157 posts

Joined: Mar 2002

I would use the font with alternatives as in:

It'll check for your font first and then serve up the alternatives.

Abhishek Reddy's picture

He has: 3,348 posts

Joined: Jul 2001

lol, mairving.
Yeah, we've all had some bad experience in Mississipi.

I'm only using the font for small headings, and I find it complements verdana well in that respect, especially in the case of my current project. Wink

Unfortunately, it seems like my client hasn't got TMS installed on his machine, so my protype may look a wee bit different than what it should. And I'm still a little apprehensive about using it with HTML, so I've resorted to small .gif headings instead. The content is generally static (at least where the TMS is used), so it shouldn't be a problem. Smiling

Anyway, thanks a lot for your (useful) input. Laughing out loud

Suzanne's picture

She has: 5,507 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

I find Arial to be a good heading font, if that's the purpose, with Verdana. Verdana looks a bit sloppy for some reason in the inbetween sizes.

If you check out my blog, I use Arial for the headings and Georgia for the text. cyclura.com uses Arial for the headings and Verdana for the text.

And fyi, Trebucket should be "trebuchet ms" or it won't show up on some computers, and isn't the "ms" actually because it's Microsoft's version of the font? Wink Or perhaps because it's based on http://www.identifont.com/show?3P2 ? heh.

Abhishek Reddy's picture

He has: 3,348 posts

Joined: Jul 2001

Yeah, Arial does suit the purpose. In fact, that would normally be what I would have used. Smiling

But I can't.

Short reason: I've already used it.

Longer version:
For this client, I'd already designed one site using Arial/Verdana duo. That website for a badminton club, belonging to a certain sports complex.

After that design, he wanted yet another site designed for the squash club in the complex. He also stipulated that I use a totally different design for this one.

The previous design that I made suited the club well, and unfortunately, all clubs in that sports complex go under the same name, colors and crest... so my challenge was to create a similar, yet different site. Sticking out tongue

I've ended up using the same colors and layout themes in different ratios and places, but I've still got something that's reminiscent of the previous site.

So, with using Arial, that's another element "borrowed", which adds to the likeness of the two designs. Which, of course, I don't want.

At least for this version, I won't be using Arial... maybe in the future when the client has finished approving the design. Sticking out tongue

BTW, theprofessional,

Quote:

The property for the tag is "face", not "family".
Font-family is used in CSS.

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