Verdana қаріптері: Оқуға ыңғайлы шрифт

Humanist sans serif font

Verdana is a humanist sans serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft Corporation, with hand hinting done by Thomas Rickner, then at Monotype. Demand for such a typeface was recognized by Virginia Howlett of Microsoft's typography group and commissioned by Steve Ballmer. Bearing similarities to humanist sans serif typefaces such as Frutiger, Verdana was designed to be readable at small sizes on the low resolution computer screens of the period. Like many designs of this type, Verdana has a large x height (tall lower case characters), with wider proportions and looser letter spacing than on print orientated designs like Helvetica. The counters and apertures are wide, to keep strokes clearly separate from one another, and similarly shaped letters are designed to appear clearly different to increase legibility for body text. The bold weight is thicker than would be normal with fonts for print use, suiting the limitations of onscreen display.

Released in 1996, Verdana was bundled with subsequent versions of the Windows operating system, as well as their Office and Internet Explorer software on Windows, classic Mac OS, and Mac OS X. Since at least Mac OS X 10.4 it is even bundled with Mac OS itself. In addition, up until 2002 it was available for download from Microsoft's web site as freeware (". exe" files for Microsoft Windows and in ". sit. hqx" archives for Mac OS) under a proprietary license imposing some restrictions on usage and distribution, allowing it to be used by end users in any system supporting installation of "exe" or ". sit. hqx" files and supporting TrueType fonts. The downloadable files are still available legally from third party web sites; see the External links section. However, these files include only old versions of Verdana, and updated versions are not available as freeware. According to a 2013 survey, the availability of Verdana was 99.90% on Windows, 99.26% on Mac OS, and 70.02% on free operating systems like Linux. According to a study of online fonts by the Software Usability and Research Laboratory at Wichita State University, participants preferred Verdana as the best overall font choice, and it was also perceived as being among the most legible fonts. However, Microsoft's font manager Bill Hill wrote that "with its large x height and very generous spacing, it never felt comfortable as an eBook font". He noted that Microsoft had commissioned an alternative version of the pre existing typefaces Berling and Frutiger for its Microsoft Reader e book product. Despite this, Verdana was initially used as one of the bundled book reading fonts on the iPad before an update in 2011.

Verdana Ref is a custom version of Verdana for use with Microsoft Reference. It is used in Microsoft Bookshelf 2000, Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 99, Encarta Virtual Globe 99, Office 2000 Premium, Publisher 2000. MS Reference Sans Serif is a derivative of Verdana Ref with bold and italic fonts. This font family is included with Microsoft Encarta. Tahoma is similar to Verdana but with tighter letter spacing. The Windows Mobile core font Nina is a more condensed version of Tahoma and Verdana.

Microsoft licensed rights to Verdana to Font Bureau for a new Verdana Pro release, published in 2011. Verdana Pro adds correct German closing quotation marks, light, semi bold and black styles with italics, as well as condensed styles with italics across all weights. The expanded family was designed for organisations which had made extensive use of Verdana due to its availability but desired additional versions for greater flexibility. It is sold separately through print and web licenses, being sold by Font Bureau and Ascender, although Windows 10 users can acquire it free of charge from Microsoft Store or by activating the Pan European Supplemental Fonts optional resource on the Settings app. A similar Georgia Pro release was announced at the same time. This bug was subsequently fixed in the version issued with Windows Vista. It is also fixed in Verdana version 5.01 font on Windows XP by installing the European Union Expansion Font Update from Microsoft.

In 2006, the Verdana typeface was named in the list of British design icons in the Great British Design Quest organised by the BBC and the Design Museum. Carter's typeface appeared on a list which included Concorde, Mini, Jaguar E Type, Aston Martin DB5, Supermarine Spitfire, World Wide Web, London tube map, AEC Routemaster bus and the K2 telephone box.