How to Use Fonts in Your Web Design

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Arial, Lucinda, Tahoma, Verdana, what’s your font du jour? The style and appearance of text can bring impact with every letter. Think back to Ryan Gosling’s Saturday Night Live skit portraying his life turning upside down because Papyrus font used for the blockbuster film Avatar. While you may not lose sleep and flip coffee tables over because of font choices in society, you may think twice about the best fonts for your web design.

Fortunately, internet communication has created a demand for font character choices. It’s like a candy store of assorted typeface choices from Apple, Microsoft, Google, and popular design foundries. You’ll want to select the right ones that deliver your intended brand image.  

Font history spans back through the ages when printing presses relied on alphabet characters formed with wooden and metal bits. Knowledge of Typeface history is helpful when lining up your font preferences for web design.

There are common font groups that categorise text characteristics. It is advisable, under typographic rules, to select one main font and a secondary accent font.

Serif

Hailing from the 15th century, serif is the earliest font style. This traditional text portrays classic, refined energy along with solid reliability. You will notice small strokes hinged to the main letter structure, which are called serifs. A great contrast font for serif is sans serif.

Sans Serif

This design is a clean and simplistic font without the serif. Sans serif was a favourite during the 1920s and 1930’s delivering a refreshing, clean, to-the-point presentation. When you hit the bold on sans serif, your words will get noticed! The famous typeface German graphic designers developed Helvetica. “Helvetica,” the 2007 movie directed by Gary Hustwit, unveils the reality of Helvetica’s inescapable presence in everyday life.

Slab Serif

Serifs with heavy foundation strokes opposite to Sans Serif were embraced in the 1900s. Pronounced Block forms promote confidence, loud statements, and solid reliability.

Script

There are two categories within the script typeface family, casual and formal. If the script says it best for your web design, conjure up a plan to use it minimally. Legibility and ease of reading script font can be challenging. Script is similar to very nice handwritten text; it's elegant, feminine, and lures clever innuendos. Say it with intimacy! 

Decorative or Display

Out-of-the-box unconventional decorative type designs create individualised statements. Businesses designing a unique branding logo may break the norm on typeface protocols with mix and not match font styles. The results are a creative, memorable look! 

Once you’ve zeroed in on the winning fonts for your website, follow typography protocols for the best results. Essential questions are; is the font legible, easy to read, and a familiar choice? Website visitors are looking for a pleasing viewing experience. Your colour choice for font and background is equally important.

Fine Tuning

Hierarchy concepts will help guide your reader’s attention. Play with font sizing, bold, and italics to highlight sections and support reading order. Additional techniques for font effectiveness are design principles; leading, tracking, and kerning. Proper leading generates balanced spacing between words. Kerning offers suitable spacing between characters, and tracking offers overall spacing between the characters.

These simple principles will help you use fonts to make your web design professional-looking and polished! When it comes to finance content, you can use fonts as seen on https://www.fxforex.com