There is nothing wrong in saying that Helvetica is the oxygen in designing as most of the websites breathe with this font. The quality and simplicity of Helvetica speaks for itself, this is the why it is one of the most popular and safe font choice among the designers. But using the typical type in all websites is absolutely no brainer and boring. If you want to break the stereotype, learn the art of font choice.
Since major part of the website comprise of text, right font selection plays a very crucial role. It is quite tricky for a designer to choose perfect font among the myriads of font available in the typekit, Google fonts or new typography options. You don’t need to be necessarily font literate but at least possess the technique of how to use the fonts effectively on your website.
Learning font selection strategy is amazingly easy to learn and quite helpful too. The content will enlighten the audience only when it is impactful and legible. With the intention to make the text beautiful designers forget to pay attention to readability factor.
Let’s begin with the line of attack:
Largely focus on font size:
Anything extreme is of no use, text size too small or too large is definitely going to affect the legibility factor. Thus before font type, font selection has to be given more value. Font size depends upon the web page pattern. However, it is better to keep the font size small or medium but avoid using large text for the main body content as it can be visually disturbing.
Test yourself and check whether the font is causing strain to your eyes while reading. Make sure the heading/title is bigger that the text elements on the screen. Keep the heading as big as to catch attention of the readers. Follow font uniformity and hierarchy on all web pages. Don’t forget to consider mobile devices; too large font can hamper the design of the site.
Font that suits the essence of content:
Every content carries some kind of emotion. Some would be playful, some would be emotional or some purely informative. Depending upon the essence of the content, choose the type. Don’t just focus on how the content looks, pay attention on how does it convey the message and for this, choosing suitable font style is really crucial. Make sure the content maintains harmony with the design and message.
As a designer, you need to evoke the emotions of the audience to keep them stay connected. However emotional design cannot be thought, it can only be learnt with experience.
Pairing of fonts:
Well it is quite obvious that you cannot use same font throughout the website while you can’t even use assortment of font types as it will look a mess. Hence it is important to learn the technique of font pairing. The golden rule for font pairing is to use limited font types, just use two to three types of fonts to make it appealing as well as consistent.
You can either pair fonts from same font family or from different families but just watch that it is compatible with each other. Opting font from sans family for heading and sans-serif for body context is a good choice. The type looks simple as well as eye- pleasing.
There is complete website for adornment and to showcase your creativity, it is better to avoid decorative fonts and make the website unpleasant. More than adorability, one prime thing that is essential to attract your targeted audience is readability.
