For the longest time, Microsoft Word has preloaded fonts that many users have made their go-to. You may not have liked that style for your site, but what choice did you have? These days, things are different with all the new downloadable styles that you can use for free and at a premium. Website design is an important part of a website because it is the first impression a visitor gets when they come to your site, so you want to make it good, wouldn’t you? It’s all in the kerning and leading, and that eventually makes your site either legible or gibberish.
Why Pay a Font Design any Attention?
You want the content on your website to be easy to read and evoke the right emotions, which boils down to having the right style. You also want to consider the nature of web content you will be uploading to determine whether it should be casual or formal. Since there are now so many fonts, you can easily get one that suits the industry you are in without struggling to fit into what others are doing. You can choose to work with a designer that provides a huge selection of font styles to get the exact one that brings out the best emotion, and even better is having in mind that it doesn’t have to be a common design. Typography conveys the mood of the blog or site, showing whether it is playful or you are all business.
The other reason the colour and texture of your preferred font matter is for getting the user’s attention. You do not want to select colours that users cannot read or squint while reading because that would be the easiest way to put them off. The text needs to be easy to see and read, and the colour shouldn’t be off-putting. Extremely bright colours can throw one off while they are just as bad if too dull. Balance is paramount.
Font Dos
When working with web design ideas, consider these factors:
1. Kerning
This means the spacing between characters. When it’s too much, the whole thing looks lumped up, and no one can read it easily. Make it too spaced out, and your reader will be wondering whether words are together or separate. Again, it affects readability. You want to find the perfect balance between these two, and there are so many styles that meet this balance.
2. Legibility
You don’t want to use a font that becomes too small or large when the orientation changes. You want to balance them out to ensure each word is easy to read, regardless of the medium used.
3. Consistency
This means all the numbers and letters look similar throughout the text unless you make it different purposely. Even looking at uneven and inconsistent numbers and letters can give you a headache, so you want to avoid losing readers due to this.
Font Don’ts
First, you don’t want to combine several fonts on the same website just to stand out because you could achieve the opposite effect. Here are some things you want to avoid.
1. Overused Fonts
Nothing wrong with these, but they are tired and should be allowed a break. Most of the ones used today have been in circulation since the 60s, so they bring nothing new to a site when used.
2. Imbalanced Lines
The strokes on the letters or numbers should be balanced, so that thick lines do not make it look as though a word is about to fall off. Finding the perfect way to make the strokes look even though they are not is an art every designer wants to embrace.
These are some fonts we like
1. Didot and Bodoni
These two are legible, welp-balanced, and professional. You can tell they are not trying too hard, maybe because they are hard to shake.
2. Garamond and Helvetica
These two are some of the most legible fonts we have online, thanks to the letters balanced in strokes and the perfect spacing. They are easy to note as they stand out when paired with the right colour.
3. Futura
Futura has the right spacing, making it easy to read and write. It works well in professional and casual settings because the strokes curve nicely.
Other fonts we like for various reasons: Mrs Eaves, Baskerville, Akzidenz-Grotesk, Clarendon, Gill Sans, and Frutiger.
Fonts to Lose
These fonts need to be retired:
1. Arial
This font has been the go-to option for all developers for so many years now, so it's easy to see why most of us can no longer stand it. There are so many other options one would opt for, so there is no point in using this one anymore.
2. Papyrus
This style has survived since the 80s, and it's easy to see why it was so well-liked. With other options available to users, it is time to give it a rest. Four decades of dominance is long enough.
3. Comic Sans
If you are using it on a children’s book, this font makes perfect sense as it is the right amount of childish to attract a certain age. Even teenagers will not find it fetching, so much as it is not overused, we write it off for unprofessionalism.
4. Times New Roman
This style has been around since 1929 when it was designed for a British paper, Times, and it has been used since then for reasons best known to its fans. Look at it closely, and you realize it isn’t the easiest to read or most attractive style.
Others we do not like for various reasons are; Courier New, Kristen ITC, Vivaldi, Impact, and Viner Hand.
Conclusion
Every part of web design will determine how your readers interact with your content, so you want to take your time. The days of using Times New Roman everywhere are long gone because, much as it is a good design, it is boring. There are way too many options now, including Helvetica, that you can adopt and see how it goes. Some may be available for free, while others, especially the best, are available at a small fee. In our opinion, they are all worth it.