Quiz 2 Chapter 7

Name:________________________________________________

Checking your Reading Comprehension - 25 points

Answer the following the best you can. DO NOT SKIP! I give partial credit for intellegent answers even they may not be correct.

• Name the two screen-optimized typefaces Microsoft hired Matthew Carter to design, and also state for each whether it’s a serif or sans serif typeface: (5 points)
  • Georgia (serif) and Verdana (sans serif)
• Even though we often use the terms “typeface” and “font” interchangeably, there is a difference. Explain that difference: (5 points)
  • A “typeface” is a particular design for the shape of characters. Examples include Arial, CG Times, Courier, Georgia, and Verdana. A “font” is a particular typeface in a particular size and a particular style. Hence, Georgia at 12 pixels, bold, is one font, while Georgia at 12 pixels, not bold, is another.
• There is controversy over when to use serif typefaces and when to use sans serif faces. Explain everything you know about the arguments. (5 points)
  • Serif typefaces are easier to read for body copy in print media. Sans serif faces are better at extremely small sizes, however, because the serifs on serif typefaces run together. Similarly, serifs on serif typefaces can run together when displayed on a computer monitor, because the resolution isn’t high enough to keep the serifs from running together. Thus, the argument is that sans serif typefaces are more legible for body copy on the screen. The negative aspects may be offset by our familiarity with reading serif typefaces. There is no clear winner, although it does seem clear that the smaller the size of the text on the screen, the more the scale weighs in favor of using a sans serif face.
• Explain what the limitations are to using typefaces in HTML text. (8 points)
  • A typeface must be present on the user’s computer in order to be displayed in the browser, so we can’t count on a particular typeface’s availability. As a remedy, we specify a list of typefaces in the font tag or in CSS, with a generic serif or sans serif font listed last, and the browser parses the list until it finds the first face that it recognizes. Although some newer browsers allow downloading fonts with a page, the download hit makes that impractical.
• The term used to refer to the width of an uppercase “M”, used in CSS measurements.: (2 points) em