Just because you’re using flash for a website isn’t an excuse to use a weird font for body copy. Stick with something web friendly like georgia or arial. Flash interfaces are usually clunky enough already. Try to keep it simple.

I’ve always felt that Eurostyle is one of those typefaces that should not be used at all. I haven’t yet used the rounded, but as for normal Helvetica, on screen it tends to jump from it’s baseline a little. Unless it’s maybe 18pt or above, I’d agree with Haley, and say to use Arial (probably the only time i would advocate it’s use).

I agree with Haley - Eurostile is a weird font, and too often Flash sites are an assault on the senses; keep it as simple as possible.

But at the end of the day, it’s ultimately your decision - if you think it looks good, do it. That’s the freedom you have with design, especially for your own personal portfolio website.

Craig, for the purpose of low resolution flash stuff,
your choices are following a popular path that works quite well.

Just take care to try and use sizes that look good,
and not too small on the text.

Cheers!

Hey, thanks for responses, much appreciated...i’m on the verge of swapping out that Eurostile text. Although I do like that slight Techy style vibe, but I know its not to everyone’s taste. Here’s a small look at what i’ve done, feel free to crit. Cheers Craig

There is little correlation between the appearance of a type in print and online, especially at text size.

If one is familiar with a face in print, it would be foolish to assume that knowledge is worth anything on screen. You have to see it.
There are also many ways to “process” a type for screen display.

So “use Arial/Georgia” is safe, but I’d say, try your idea and see if it works for your readership on their preferred browsers/OS.

[update]

OK, there is some correlation!
Looks fine to me.

What is it about young designers that makes them want to have black/dark backgrounds?o they not understand how much it reduces the legibility of the text? And is that a pattern in the background? Down goes the legibility another few notches.

Finally, while I am a fan of Flash, it is only for its correct use. Now that sample may not represent the entire site, but there is nothing there that cannot be done better in HTML. If there is no reason to use Flash, don’t use it. (And I don’t consider things moving around mindlessly to be a reason.) Work hard to achieve your goals with HTML and CSS, and then, only if needed, move to Flash.

Reasons not to use Flash include the impossibilty of someone bookmarking a portion of your site, and the probability that your site will be completely ignored by search engines.

“What is it about young designers that makes them want to have black/dark backgrounds?”

On screen, i find it’s almost the opposite of print. the darker the screen, the less light your eyes are bombarded with. This is especially true when it’s projected (although a rarer occurrence) A lot of times, flash sites are designed with this in mind. I find using black just as legible in this case, maybe not the pattern.

As to the Helvetica rounded, it seems to be okay on-screen in this instance, although its not my favorite typeface, it doesn’t appear to be doing anything visually weird. I would definitely get rid of the euorstile

As for white text on black, at least for me, it is virtually illegible on my malfunctioning monitor. I can’t really do anything about it as I am located near a strong radio interference source, and any monitor would be doing the same thing here, and moving is impractical. Oddly enough, orange text on a dark gray background suppresses the appearance of these distortions.

But that’s just my special case. In general, if you must use reversed out text, it’s a good idea so step up the weight a notch, i.e.: change your text weight from Regular to Medium and Bold to Heavy (if you’re using the URW++ version of Eurostile).

thanks for your thoughts folks - Eurostile is now gone, replaced with Helvetica Neue and i’ve upped the weight.

Regarding the dark background I also prefer dark to white because of the screen glare, but this is a debate which seems to rage on!

The site is just a one page site, with the main emphasis on my work, which constantly scrolls slowly above the text in the sample. I’ve tried to keep it nice, simple and intuitive.

ok, so i’ve made a few changes and is looking better. The last sample had a wooden background, but this sample is the background I will actually be using.

I’ve hung onto the Helvetica rounded for now for titles, but it’s condensed. Helvetica Neue for the rest of the copy with more weight. Any thoughts on this combination or the sample as a whole?

The leading seems a little generous to me. The helvet is a lot better than the eurostile though. How exactly does this appear on the monitor/in browser? is the flash site actually the dimension shown, or is it a snippet/resize of the full page? The format seems a tad bit short /wide for me.

Based on this snippet, the body text seems way too tiny, given the busy background and flash’s lack of flexibility.