Drawar

For me, it somewhat depends on the site but usually doesn't matter. I agree that I've seen a bunch of sites use, say, Georgia very well, and I enjoy reading their site in that font—no problem. But I also don't mind and like a lot of sites with Verdana or sans-serif fonts.

I think the "conventional advice" of using sans-serif for web doesn't hold as much truth to it as some people seem to think.

I used to be a huge proponent of sans-serif for the web, but in this "web 2.0" era I have seen many websites use serif fonts that I would consider usable, readable, and attractive. On the other hand I think the key distinction has been font-size. So for me as a general rule of thumb sans-serif should be used for smaller font sizes but both serif and san-serif are okay when fonts used are larger.

Serif to me works best in header and large font areas, while sans-serif is better for large portions of text.

I agree with Scrivs. I generally only like serif in headers/titles and even then it doesn't always look right.

It doesn't really matter as long as your shit's readable. If you're going to use a serif font, you better get the damn letter-spacing right, and don't choose a font with a stupidly small x-height.

Also, various studies have shown that serif fonts decrease readability, and various studies have discounted that. So bear that in mind, go find a few of the studies, and decide which camp you fall in.

I like to play it safe--because I prefer to read sans-serif over serif on the web--and only ever use serif fonts for headers.

I agree with the sans for anything and serif only for large text like headlines. Wired.com is a great example of a site that uses serif for the body font, makes it too small, and it gets difficult to read.

In general, I think fonts on the Web are too small. Anything smaller than the text here on 9Rules is really difficult for a lot of people to read, and not just the old and blind. I wear contacts sometimes and, as a lot of people do I'm sure, sometimes I leave them in too long or am sitting in a smoky / overly air conditioned room. At that point really small text or text without sufficient contrast can get difficult to read.

That's what I think the Web 2.0 thing is really all about, taking design and functionality and making them all they can be on the web. Hence the large amounts of whitespace and giant font sizes.

I don't think it matters which you use just as long as the readability isn't hampered by using a font with crazy serifs. I definitely wouldn't use times new roman/times though. It looks horrible on the web.