Working with Font Groups

Font groups determine which fonts a browser displays on your Web page. A browser uses the first font in the group that is installed on the user's system. If none of the fonts in the group are installed, the browser displays the text as specified by the user 's browser preferences.

To modify a font group:

1.	Open a document in Dreamweaver.
2.	Choose Text > Font > Edit Font List. or Choose Edit Font List from the Font pop-up menu in the Property Inspector. The Edit Font List dialog appears ( Figure 5.54 ) and displays three categories of information: Font list: Displays current font groups. Chosen fonts: Displays fonts in the chosen group. Available fonts: Displays all the fonts available on your system. The font selected is displayed in the text field below. Figure 5.54. Use the Edit Font List dialog to create, modify, or remove font groups.
3.	Do any of the following: To add or remove fonts from a font group, click the arrows button ( or ) between the Chosen fonts list and the Available fonts list. To add or remove a font group, click the Plus or Minus button ( ) at the top of the dialog. To add the name of a font that is not installed on your system, type the font name in the text field below the Available fonts list and click the button to add it to the group. To move a font group up or down in the list, click the arrow buttons ( ) at the top of the dialog.
4.	Click OK to accept your changes.

Tips

• To avoid surprises , it's good practice to stick with the commonly available fonts for most text. If you really need to use a fancy, decorative font for short bits of text, you may be better off making an image of the text and placing it as a graphic.

• It's good practice to add either the generic serif or sans-serif font choice at the end of every font group you create. If the user doesn't have any of your specified fonts, you'll at least still have a say over whether the font is serif or sans-serif.

• We would love to add something here like, "You can be assured that people with this browser and this operating system will have these fonts"but we can't. New browser versions get shipped that don't include the same fonts the older versions did. The same goes for operating systems. And then, of course, people can always delete or disable their existing fonts. The font groups that ship with Dreamweaver, as a general rule, are very likely to be dependable. And of course, always end your font list with either serif or sans-serif for best results.

Fonts and Operating Systems

Not all computer systems have the same fonts. For example, a common sansserif font on Windows systems is Arial. A similar sans-serif font on Macintosh systems is Helvetica. Many Linux systems have Helvetica, but not all. All these systems have some default sans-serif font, however.

When choosing font groups, select fonts that share similar characteristics and try to cover all the bases in terms of operating systems. Then add either the generic serif or sans-serif choice at the end, just in case none of your preferred choices are available.

Why add a font you don't even have to your font group? One reason is that you expect a lot of your viewers to have a particular font (even though you don't have it).