Web Fonts
Microsoft's fonts for the Web:
- Andale Mono (formerly Monotype.com)
- Arial
- Arial Black
- Comic Sans MS
- Courier New
- Georgia
- Impact
- Times New Roman
- Trebuchet MS
- Verdana
- Webdings
- Adobe Minion Web
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TYPOGRAPHY 101
Fonts for Your Website: Is it Just
a Matter of style?
by Francisco Aloy
The choice of font you use at your website can be affected
by so many different elements: personal taste, style,
screen resolution and size, operating system, monitor
age, background and - not last - readability and ease
of use.
The most common font used for print ant the Web is Times
New Roman. This is the default font of many applications
including most of the Microsoft Office Suites. That is
not to say it's the most readable or comfortable font;
on the contrary, Arial, Courier and Verdana are considered
more readable.
A study conducted at Wichita State University in 2002
titled: A Comparison of Popular Online Fonts: Which Size
and Type is Best? found these amazing results:
Times New Roman was deemed the least preferred font in
10 or 12 point size. Arial was most preferred in the 12
point size and Verdana was the most preferred in the 10
point size.
Overall, Verdana was the most preferred font for readability
and ease of comprehension.
The fonts considered most legible are Arial, Courier and
Verdana.
As far as looks, Times New Roman and Georgia are preferred
over the others.
All the above appears to imply that for design choices,
like when a large font is used as a decoration, Times
New Roman or Georgia is the choice.
For general speed of reading and less strain on the eyes
it's Arial if using a small font.
Verdana was the choice for best compromise between legibility
and speed.
All the above should be included in the building plans
for your website since they can affect the looks of so
many items, such as: Headlines, header tags, choice of
colors, links, contrast and decoration.
You can compensate for many elements of styling by using
different fonts and sizes. For example, if you are super
imposing text upon a graphic perhaps it would be best
to make the font bigger to help the eye separate the font
from the image.
The same common sense approach can be used for the body
areas: use colors that will bring out the text and make
it easy for your visitors to read your website. Don't
use dark fonts on a dark background because they are very
hard to read.
Likewise, do your best to copy well established convention
by making the colors of your HTML links in standard colors
such as blue for unvisited, purple for visited and so
on.
Overall, don't use more than 3 types of fonts on your
website and do your best to include the "Big Picture"
in your design. Show a few completed sketches to your
friends and family and ask their opinion. Revise and re-do
as often as needed.
As a time saving measure, make sure to use CSS (Cascading
Style Sheets) for your website design because it allows
you to change the font style of a complete website by
just changing the information in the style sheet. A real
time saver when you have a 100 page website.
Above all, your website should have its own theme and
style. It should have text that invites the visitor to
explore more and be easy to read and understand. The visual
load on the eyes should be as small as possible to prevent
fatigue. The general look should be one of integrated
design with user friendliness as its ultimate purpose.
==============================================
by Francisco Aloy
(C)2004 Francisco Aloy
==============================================
About the Author
Francisco Aloy is the author of "Yes, I Want to Start
My Internet Business Without Being SCAMMED!." He
has an online business catering to the needs of the Newbie
Net Entrepreneur. Visit his site for more website building
tips.
http://www.newbie-business-guide.com/website_building.html |
