collisionbend.com

I need some feedback.

I can look at my server stats all I want, but they won’t give me the answer I seek: I show about 38% of sessions on OS X, 54% in Windows (various versions, including CE), and the rest in Linux. Further, I show Firefox (Win or Mac) use at about 36%, IE/Win at about 48%, and Safari at about 8%. Netscape and IE/Mac don’t even show up, save for one IT instructor at Lakeland Community College who insists on using Netscape 4.7 (There are 386 known users of Netscape 4 in the world: 385 are web designers/developers, and this maverick at Lakeland.)

I know that OS X does not have a 38% market share; the last time I looked, Firefox use was nowhere near 36%, either.

So it’s safe to assume that my stats are skewed.

What happened — and why I ask for the feedback — is that a client wants something I had not considered, and after looking at what they want, I have to admit that it might just work, providing the font is resident on a majority of computers surfing the web.

They want Cooper Black for their navigation menu.

Mind you, it’s not going to be as dominant as my menu above, or even close. The design is such that it will be clearly evident that it is the site nav. With the design I created, it might just look OK. At least, my .psd file doesn’t look all too terrible with the font. Come to think of it, it kind of fits.

I know it goes against everything they teach in art school, or journalism school, but in this case, I have to please the client. I’m not going to say no unless the use isn’t practical.

The issue (besides the fact that art schools have only one rule about Cooper Black — “just say no”), is that I’m not totally sure that it’s installed in a majority of Internet-surfing computers. I have it in OS X, I have it in Win XP Pro on the Windows side of my MacBook Pro, and I had it in Windows 2000, but I’m not sure if it came with MS Office or with Windows — or even Photoshop. I really never paid attention because it never really mattered — and I never used the font.

And rather than ask you to look in your installed fonts, I’m just going to experiment with it here, to save time. If it’s installed, then you should see it; if not, you won’t, plain and simple.

The following:

etc.

…should look like this:

…and not like this:

Please add a comment and let me know if you can see the Cooper Black text in the first example (I know you can see #2, as it’s an image). If it looks like the third example, please let me know as well. Please include your operating system (Win 98, Win XP Pro/Home, OS X 10.4.6, OS 9.2, etc.), Service Pack (if applicable), and browser (and version). If you’re using Linux, please let me know what version (Mandrake, Suse, Fedora, etc.), and kernel.

The results, from a web design point of view, should be interesting. At least I’ll know what to tell the client.