Vista, the upcoming version of Windows, is getting lots of ink. To learn all about the fonts that Microsoft used in Vista's interface, read Anne Van Wagener's "The Next Big Thing in Online Type":
PC World's "Windows Vista Looks Slicker, Safer" gives you three pages full of its new features. And if you've just got to stay up-to-date on every Vista announcement, you can check in with PC World's Windows Info Center.
If you have a LCD monitor or a laptop, you can substantially improve the look of your on-screen fonts. They'll be sharper and clearer than ever before. All you need to know about is ClearType. It's a feature built into XP that's turned off by default, oddly enough. You can fiddle with XP's settings to get ClearType, but it's way easier to use Microsoft's online wizard to change the setting.
Steve Bass' favorite tool for this is ClearTweak, a cool, free utility that lets you fine-tune ClearType, or turn it on or off. Haven't tried it myself, so I can't really comment on it. The guy has good instincts though, and I tend to trust his opinion (even if he does tend to stick with a non-web-standards-conforming, dinosaur of a browser like IE).
Much of this post, BTW, was taken from Steve's newsletter, "Steve Bass's Tips and Tweaks". Definitely worth signing up to get weekly tidbits.
Bill Gates wants computer users, well, Microsoft users, to have a more enjoyable on-screen reading experience -- so much so that he made improving reading on the screen one of his top five priorities.Personally, I really like the Calibri font, it looks like a cleaner version of Helvetica, which is one of my favorite web fonts. Corbel is really nice too, touted as a "nice alternative to Arial, Trebuchet or Verdana."
Beginning in 2006, Microsoft says it will ship with its operating system and other software products six brand new typefaces created especially for extended on-screen reading.
PC World's "Windows Vista Looks Slicker, Safer" gives you three pages full of its new features. And if you've just got to stay up-to-date on every Vista announcement, you can check in with PC World's Windows Info Center.
If you have a LCD monitor or a laptop, you can substantially improve the look of your on-screen fonts. They'll be sharper and clearer than ever before. All you need to know about is ClearType. It's a feature built into XP that's turned off by default, oddly enough. You can fiddle with XP's settings to get ClearType, but it's way easier to use Microsoft's online wizard to change the setting.
Steve Bass' favorite tool for this is ClearTweak, a cool, free utility that lets you fine-tune ClearType, or turn it on or off. Haven't tried it myself, so I can't really comment on it. The guy has good instincts though, and I tend to trust his opinion (even if he does tend to stick with a non-web-standards-conforming, dinosaur of a browser like IE).
Much of this post, BTW, was taken from Steve's newsletter, "Steve Bass's Tips and Tweaks". Definitely worth signing up to get weekly tidbits.
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