[Support request] Arial Font Question

[Sonja]

Hello,

At the moment I’m using System Stack Font, but somehow I don’t like it. Is there any disadvantage in using Arial as a font? Would it look the same everywhere? And it would be a local font, right, so no Google connection?

[David]

Hi there,

If i can answer this first: Would it look the same everywhere?

No. Most Window, MacOS and iOS devices have Arial installed. But Android doesn’t – it has its own system fonts, not sure what flavour as they have used Roboto, Google Sans, Droid. So on Android it will look different.

And unfortunately, today there isn’t a font that is found on all devices.

But any of those ‘system’ fonts won’t make a request to Google

Which device are you viewing it on, that you don’t like? As you can write your own system stack font list and remove that one.

[Sonja]

Hi David,

I look on it mostly with windows 10 and on my xiaomi Android Smartphone. On both, I don’t like it very much.
that’s why I thought about changing the font.

If it looks with Arial on Window, MacOS and iOS devices the same, and does not look so bad on Android, then I would probably switch.

If I were to build my own stack, with Arial as the main font, which font would I set for Android? (No Google Font)

[Ying]

Hi Sonja,

This kind of question is not theme related, we will answer you if we are sure about the answer, but if we are not sure, it’s better to do some google research yourself, thanks for your understanding.

[Sonja]

which font i should use in GPP Settings is not theme related? what’s the point?

[Ying]

which font i should use in GPP Settings is not theme related?

You can use any font in GP’s settings, so choose which font to use, it’s your choice.

[Sonja]

As someone who has been a loyal customer for over 4 years, I have to say that today is the first time I’ve been really annoyed with Ying’s support and especially with what I see as their unfriendly tone. Maybe it’s the language barrier, but I remembered the forum as a friendly place.

[David]

Hi Sonja,

apologies for the upset or offence caused it was not our intent.
So Android comes in many flavours.

The latest stock version of Android OS ie. the one you could download from Google, only installs the Roboto font family.
So you’re stuck with that.

However phone manufacturers do modify the Android OS to add their own stuff which sometimes includes other fonts. So i cannot say whether what you see on your xiaomi phone is Roboto or one of their own.

So if you want to use Arial and let Android disply it system font then:

In Customizer > Typography –> Add New Font and in the field provided enter: Arial, sans-serif

the sans-serif is the fallback, so for browsers that don’t recognise Arial will revert to its sans-serif font.

[Sonja]

Hi David,

Thanks for your Answer. As always, it helps a lot.

I will try this on a testsite first, to see how it looks.

If that doesn’t look so good, then it would probably be best to host a Google Web Font locally, so everyone sees the same thing.
However, I thought it would be better to use system fonts because it would be faster.

[David]

You’re welcome.
Let us know how you get on 🙂

[Author]

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