Internet Safe Colors - 216 color palette of colors which are shared by both Netscape Communicator (Navigator) and Microsoft Internet Explorer. These are referred to as "Internet Safe" colors because they will display the same color in either browser. Colors outside of this palette will be "created" by combining pixels of varying colors next to each other, in order to fool the eye. This is called dithering and is unpredictable. The CMYK or Pantone colors you are used to in the print industry are not available but must be substituted using the Internet Safe Palette.

Text Size - In the print industry you use the "Points System" of measurement in order to specify the size of text, where 72 points are equal to 1 inch. Standard letter text is between 10 and 12 points. On the internet, text is specified as a number between 1 and 7 where 7 is the largest and 1 is the smallest (this text is size 3, a fairly standard size for body text.) Unfortunately, Netscape and Explorer display these at different sizes and text on the PC (Wintel) is approximately 10-15% larger than on Macintosh.

Fonts - A font is a file containing a set of letters, numbers and characters of a specific style and look. In order for a font to be displayed correctly on a webpage it has to be installed in the "surfer's" computer system. If the font is not installed in their system, their browser automatically uses a default font. The default font is set in the browser's preferences, it can be virtually anything they have installed. When a default font is used in place of the font the designer intended, text will flow in an unpredictable manner causing the page to take on an unintended appearance. Times and Arial are probably the 2 most common fonts used on the internet, simply because both the Mac OS and Windows come with these fonts installed. Use of any other font increases the risk your page will not display as intended. Look below at where the "t" in font is in Times in relation to it's position in Courier. That's only 2 words! Imagine the difference if there were 200 words! Now combine that with the difference in platforms and the webpage takes on an entirely new look.

This font is Times New Roman
This font is Arial
This font is Courier
This font is your default font