Which Typeface?

As our clients know, I have some strong opinions about typefaces and fonts. In printed materials, type matters (if you want them to be read.)

Over the years, the abundance of research has shown that "serif" fonts, such as Times and Garamond, are much more readable than "san serif" faces such as Ariel and Helvitica (see this for example).

However, most designers strongly prefer san serif fonts because they look more contemporary and modern. Of course a designers nature is to be concerned with how things "look." Nevertheless, when it comes to long "body copy" on paper--serif is the way to go.

But what about on the computer screen?

Where email and web pages are concerned, it turns out that just the opposite is true! Here are some folks who have done the research...

http://www.beadesigngroup.com/blog/archives/2004/07/serif_vs_sans.html
http://www.wpdfd.com/wpdtypo5.htm
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt6/html-email-fonts.htm