Aug 13 2007
Whaddya mean the site’s ugly?
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Of course, when you start a blog, you tell all your friends, “Hey, I started a blog! Check it out!” Then they roll their eyes, check it out, and say, “Yes, very nice.” Which is what my friends did. Except one, who added, “Um, it’s kind of ugly.”
Whaddya mean it’s ugly? It’s beautiful!
To make a long story short, on his machine it is ugly. On mine it is beautiful. Why? Well, it turns out…
…he’s on a Windows machine and I’m on a Mac.
Stop. This is not one of those Mac-vs.-PC things. It’s an observation about fonts. Apparently, I tweaked my styles.css sheet to use a font for the header and headings that Windows doesn’t install. He sent me a screenshot:
Bleah. See, now, on my Mac in Firefox I get:
Oooooh. Pretty!
So what to do, what to do? I tried calling for suitable serif fonts in the styles.css cheet, but Windows just doesn’t seem to install any. I used a site called Browsershots to see how the site renders on different browsers and platforms. Mac browsers look pretty good. Linux, kind of a toss-up:
Linux Konqueror:
Linux Firefox:
The Windows browsers all look pretty much the ugly same, with one exception: Windows with the Safari beta.
Not too bad! I assume the Safari installer includes some of Apple’s niftier fonts.
So what to do for this site’s Windows readers? Things to try:
- I choose more universal fonts.
Though my second place choice in styles.css is Courier, which is about as universal as it gets, I would have thought, and it looks terrible. - All my Windows-using vistors install and visit the site in Safari.
Asking you to change your browser just for me and my site is unreasonable, to say the least. - All my Windows-using vistors install Safari to see if you get the nifty fonts.
I’m really interested in knowing if this works but, again, install a whole app (and a beta, no less) just to read a blog? Um…no. - I replace the header text with a header graphic.
I don’t actually know how to do this, but I’m sure I could learn pretty quick. This is probably the best overall option, though it doesn’t solve the problem of ugly post and sidebar headings.
If anyone has ideas, I’d love to hear them!
3 responses so far
I think your easiest solution is your last, the header graphic.
and you were correct, it is not that hard.
keep the faith on your wanna-be-a-writer blog, as i’m tired of reality tv and look forward to your story as it unfolds.
i too wanted to be a writer, but that’s another story…
ml
Thanks for your words of encouragement. The tough part is going to be sticking to the write something–anything–every day part. I’ve already slipped a bit, but I’m determined to make this work.
Thanks again!
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