There is a realm within the world of web design that holds typography as the “holy grail” of design and aesthetics. Thousands of books, articles, and videos have been produced to focus specifically on fonts, their design, and their effectiveness. While many people are unaware of this massive and ever-expanding subject, it is important to realize that the font on your website sends a definite message to your audience. Fonts, their size, and style, convey meaning about your site or products and can transform an ordinary web site from ho-hum to a hot commodity. The most important aspect of choosing a font is thoroughly exploring your options. Google has an entire portion of its site dedicated to a growing number of new, attractive fonts that can put some meat on the Times-New-Roman-bones of your site.
First and foremost, every typographer agrees that you should never use Comic Sans. This font is widely detested because it is viewed as a cop-out; it adds no creative or aesthetic value to a web page and looks generally unprofessional in almost any circumstance.
When you are trying to choose an appropriate font for a home page, blog post, or flyer, keep in mind the purpose of your writing. If you own a wedding planning business and are currently working on invitations for an upcoming ceremony, you want a font that expresses the sophistication and significance of the event. Most wedding invitations employ an elegant, serif (sweeping tail or stroke at the end of a character), so you would use a font with sweeping, dramatic tails at the end of each character. Basic serif fonts like Times New Roman, Rockwell, and Georgia, are commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and other print media. Sans serif (sans means “without”) fonts, the kind without any tails or strokes at the end of characters, are often used for websites and online material. The typeface for this blog, Verdana, is sans serif. Helvetica, Franklin Gothic, and Futura are all examples of Sans-serif fonts we see almost every day.
This is just a brief glance into the world of typography. If you find yourself mesmerized by the amount and variety of available fonts, there is an endless supply of resources on and offline that expound upon the subject of typography and how important it is in art and media. If you feel so inclined, much of the literature on the subject can also help you create and design your own unique font to give your web page or blog the ultimate personal touch.
