Question: I like Verdana but I have no idea why or if there is a justifiable reason why one should use Verdana over another sans serif like Arial. The government discusses the issue in the guide here. They make no distinction for web designers only that you should use a common font like Arial, Helvetica or Verdana. Do you folks have a defensible preference?
Answer: It is widely agreed that Arial, being a printer font, is harder to read on screen than Verdana, which was designed to be viewed on a computer screen. Having said that, both Arial and Verdana are easier to read on a display than Times New Roman. That's why Verdana is the most popular font and used by web developers all over the world. You might find the "In Fonts We Trust" article that AJ wrote last year interesting. It deals specifically with font usage and readability.