if i want to have some text show up in a calligraphy font, how do i know how it will render of the users computer. How do i know what fonts that person has on the computer or does it matter? any good examples of doing this in css?
would i be better off putting something together in photoshop and saving as an image?
If you are using the font for headings and fancy page elements that are not going to change often I would use an image from photoshop.
If you want to use the font for the main body of text I would suggest defining a font family in css. I would find the font you want to use on your current os if its a font you found and downloaded chances are the end user wont have it. If its a system font or a font that comes with a major software application like ms word there is a good chance it will be available on the end users machine. Once you have found the font you want to use I would then do a little research and see if you can find something similar in a mac flavour and even a Unix flavour.
body
{
font-family:"DejaVu Sans","DejaVu Sans Mac Name","DejaVu Sans Unix Name","Times New Roman"
}
Its always good to use a backup font that you know will work on anyone's machine the browser will select the most applicable in the list starting with the first font stated working its way until it finds a match.