User talk:Vatsa1708: Difference between revisions

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Or you could examine [[MediaWiki:Common.css]].  It's pretty well annotated.  Much, though not all, of the font stuff is near the top of the file.  {{user:CzechOut/Sig}}&nbsp;<span style="{{User:CzechOut/TimeFormat}}">14:35: Mon&nbsp;02 Apr 2012&nbsp;</span>
Or you could examine [[MediaWiki:Common.css]].  It's pretty well annotated.  Much, though not all, of the font stuff is near the top of the file.  {{user:CzechOut/Sig}}&nbsp;<span style="{{User:CzechOut/TimeFormat}}">14:35: Mon&nbsp;02 Apr 2012&nbsp;</span>
:Weird.  Your CSS has much more complicated font declarations than this.  I mean you're importing fonts, which we don't do here. I'm sorta surprised you need my help.  Anyway, you just put Verdana in there.  Nothing complicated. <pre>font-family: 'Verdana'</pre>  That's it.  Of course, such a declaration will assume that all your visitors have Verdana installed on their machines.  That's a ''pretty'' good assumption, but there are undoubtedly a few people who won't have it.  (Linux types, mainly.)  Thus it's usually better to build what's called a "font stack".  (I'm sorry if I'm talking down to you, but I'm really confused as to your CSS abilities.) Let's take another look at the declaration you put on my talk page:<pre>font-family: 'Book Antiqua','Calisto MT','Lucida Bright',Georgia,'DejaVu Serif',serif;</pre>  What this is saying is, ''try'' to use Book Antigua.  If there's no Book Antigua, use Calisto MT.  If that's not available, go to Lucida Bright, Georgia, DejaVu Serif, in that order.  If '''all that fails''' then just go to ''whatever'' passes for serif on this machine. 
:The virtue of using a font stack is that it covers your bases.  With the font stack I've created, I'm preferencing the slightly less common Book Antigua/Calisto MT/Lucida Bright, but I'm '''guaranteeing''' that I'll get some sort of sans-serif font.  If you just give <pre>font-family:'Verdana'</pre>, then some people are going to fall through to Wikia default, Arial. The reason that I've defined so many is because I've chosen the most popular fonts on Linux and Windows machines that match Book Antigua.  Then I've given fallbacks for all three systems (Georgia is both the Mac and Windows fallback).  With this font family, only about .5% of all users will ever fall all the way to the simple "serif" declaration.
:If you're entirely new to the concept of font stacks, you'll probably want to use any one of the many font stack generators on the web.  I like [http://www.codestyle.org/servlets/FontStack Codestyle's font stack builder], but it's not the only one around.
:So that answers the question of what to put in your font stack and how to build it.  But it doesn't answer ''where'' to put it.  I'm assuming you know the main CSS elements that need font declaration in order for your site's text to be affected?  If not, you'll need to scan not just Common.css, but also our Wikia.css and Monobook.css, to see.  The biggie, of course is .WikiaArticle, but there are other key CSS elements that need font styling (like .h1, .h2, .h3, .h4, .h5, .h6) if you want to move ''all'' your text away from the  Wikia default. Luckily, we're a good wiki to look at, because ''nothing'' on our site is left in Arial.  It's 100% customised. So you can see the points you have to change.  The downside is that you have to customise ''everything'' to achieve it, sometimes to the point of adding <code>!important</code> to override particularly stubborn Wikia defaults. {{user:CzechOut/Sig}}&nbsp;<span style="{{User:CzechOut/TimeFormat}}">16:49: Mon&nbsp;02 Apr 2012&nbsp;</span>

Revision as of 16:49, 2 April 2012

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Fonts

Hmmmm. I gotta say that I'm not quite sure what you're asking about. I've got customised fonts running through just about everything.

Seriously, almost every CSS element on the wiki has a defined font.

And then there are some on-the-fly font classes/ids for easy use.
If you want to narrow your question down a bit, I can help you better.

Or you could examine MediaWiki:Common.css. It's pretty well annotated. Much, though not all, of the font stuff is near the top of the file.
czechout<staff />    <span style="">14:35: Mon 02 Apr 2012 

Weird. Your CSS has much more complicated font declarations than this. I mean you're importing fonts, which we don't do here. I'm sorta surprised you need my help. Anyway, you just put Verdana in there. Nothing complicated.
font-family: 'Verdana'
That's it. Of course, such a declaration will assume that all your visitors have Verdana installed on their machines. That's a pretty good assumption, but there are undoubtedly a few people who won't have it. (Linux types, mainly.) Thus it's usually better to build what's called a "font stack". (I'm sorry if I'm talking down to you, but I'm really confused as to your CSS abilities.) Let's take another look at the declaration you put on my talk page:
font-family: 'Book Antiqua','Calisto MT','Lucida Bright',Georgia,'DejaVu Serif',serif;
What this is saying is, try to use Book Antigua. If there's no Book Antigua, use Calisto MT. If that's not available, go to Lucida Bright, Georgia, DejaVu Serif, in that order. If all that fails then just go to whatever passes for serif on this machine.
The virtue of using a font stack is that it covers your bases. With the font stack I've created, I'm preferencing the slightly less common Book Antigua/Calisto MT/Lucida Bright, but I'm guaranteeing that I'll get some sort of sans-serif font. If you just give
font-family:'Verdana'
, then some people are going to fall through to Wikia default, Arial. The reason that I've defined so many is because I've chosen the most popular fonts on Linux and Windows machines that match Book Antigua. Then I've given fallbacks for all three systems (Georgia is both the Mac and Windows fallback). With this font family, only about .5% of all users will ever fall all the way to the simple "serif" declaration.
If you're entirely new to the concept of font stacks, you'll probably want to use any one of the many font stack generators on the web. I like Codestyle's font stack builder, but it's not the only one around.
So that answers the question of what to put in your font stack and how to build it. But it doesn't answer where to put it. I'm assuming you know the main CSS elements that need font declaration in order for your site's text to be affected? If not, you'll need to scan not just Common.css, but also our Wikia.css and Monobook.css, to see. The biggie, of course is .WikiaArticle, but there are other key CSS elements that need font styling (like .h1, .h2, .h3, .h4, .h5, .h6) if you want to move all your text away from the Wikia default. Luckily, we're a good wiki to look at, because nothing on our site is left in Arial. It's 100% customised. So you can see the points you have to change. The downside is that you have to customise everything to achieve it, sometimes to the point of adding !important to override particularly stubborn Wikia defaults.
czechout<staff />    <span style="">16:49: Mon 02 Apr 2012