In the nascent era of the web, a lack of standard fonts across platforms was a common challenge. However, certain fonts like Arial, Helvetica, and Times New Roman were more prevalent on user computers, becoming the so-called Web-safe fonts. Web designers adhered to these as the best practice. The landscape has evolved, and the use of Web fonts—enabling any remote font file to be rendered on a webpage—has become a standard practice. This has expanded creative possibilities and the variety of font options available. The rule, which has been in place for nearly 13 years, first appeared and was supported in Internet Explorer 5.5. It is now officially part of the latest W3C CSS standards (CSS3), previously excluded in CSS2.1, and is supported by modern browsers like Chrome, Safari, IE, and Firefox. Services like Google Fonts API have simplified the implementation of Web fonts, making it possible to render obscure fonts like Bigelow Rules with just two lines of CSS.
Despite near-universal support for Web fonts, employing CSS font stacks remains a good practice. These stacks should include both Web-safe fonts and generic families such as sans-serif and serif. For instance, even with the popular Open Sans font from Google’s Web font service, a CSS font stack with Web-safe fonts as backups ensures a graceful degradation in case the primary font fails to load.
The Chrome browser, for example, follows a specific fallback-rendering sequence when displaying text. A well-crafted font stack ensures that text rendering is smooth even if the chosen font cannot be loaded.
Despite the robust support for Web fonts, it’s crucial to understand the reasons behind maintaining CSS font stacks, especially considering that nearly 90% of Internet users have browsers that support modern Web font techniques.
**Incomplete Fonts**:
If a font lacks certain characters, the browser will attempt to render them using the next font in the stack. Without a font stack, the browser defaults to its standard font, which may not be an ideal match. For instance, the character ™ is not present in the Libre Baskerville font. With a proper font stack, this character can be rendered similarly to the preferred font.
**Network Issues**:
Web fonts require an Internet connection. If the server hosting the font is unavailable, the browser defaults to the standard text unless a Web-safe font is specified in the CSS font stack. This can be problematic, especially if the web server or content delivery network is down. A font stack that includes Web-safe fonts can mitigate the aesthetic issues caused by network interruptions.
**@font-face Can Be Turned Off Client-Side**:
Some browsers allow users to disable font file downloads to speed up page load times, particularly for users with slow connections. This can impact the rendering of Web fonts. Using a font stack with Web-safe fonts ensures that the web design can degrade gracefully in these cases.
It’s important to note that you don’t have to load the entire font family, especially when using services like Google Fonts. You can selectively load only the necessary font variations.
In conclusion, while modern browsers support Web fonts extensively, incorporating Web-safe fonts into CSS font stacks remains a best practice to ensure compatibility, performance, and aesthetic consistency across a wide range of user scenarios.
