Dear Reader:

I’ve chosen not to support Internet Explorer 8 or earlier. If you find it ironic that a book called Butterick’s Practical Typography would make the seemingly impractical decision to exclude some web browsers, point taken.

But the other options were less appealing. It’s a book on typography. It’s on the web. So it necessarily relies on some typographic sophistication in the browser to make it worthwhile. Watering it down to be compatible with older browsers would’ve been a lot of work for no useful purpose. Does anyone want to read a book about typography that’s typographically ugly?

Moreover, as a proponent of good typography, it’s bad policy for me to accommodate people who want to use typographically inept older browsers. Because you’re not just missing good web typography here. You’re missing it everywhere.

Therefore, the kindest thing I can do is encourage you to use another browser.

Best options: Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. These will coexist peacefully with your existing version of Internet Explorer.

Better than nothing: upgrade to Internet Explorer 9 or above. This, however, will replace your current version of IE.

See you on the other side.

—Matthew Butterick