Author: Tom Cottrill | Date Posted: Mar 22, 2022
Web design is an art. Putting everything together in the right places, the right design, and the right structure to aid in the psychology of marketing is absolutely a digital artform. Part of that art—and part of making sure your website is converting the visitors that come to it—are web design fonts. These fonts cannot be abstract art, because the words—and the design of those words—on your website matter for many reasons.
Feet, or no feet? That is the question. Choosing the typography for your website is about more than just that. Choosing the right typography is about choosing the letter design, kerning (spacing between letters or characters), leaning, color, and more. A website is almost 90% typography because a website is about getting content to visitors. That is why they come to your website: to see your content and figure out how your business can help them. The font has to properly convey that information while also conveying the brand to the visitor.
Well, aside from the fact that a vast majority of a website is typography, choosing the right web design fonts is one of the most important choices you will make in website design. But, why is it important?
Keeping headers separate from body of text and separating a page in the right way is a crucial part of web design. The right web design font color, style, and size tells a reader what parts they should be paying extra attention to and what parts flow into the main body. This eliminates confusion while highlighting the important parts in different fonts (headers, asides, other titles).
The color is equally important in getting the most out of your web design. Contrasting colors and varying colors help you split up sections, show importance, break up the page for helping the reader view and understand the information better, and make some information stand out more than other information. For example, change the color of headlines or asides to distinguish them from the rest of the text and allow visitors’ eyes to be able to skim the content and determine the importance of each level.
Creating consistency between pages on your website is about more than just layout and color scheme. The typography plays into how consistent your website is as well. The font already differentiated sections of content, but maintaining the typography across pages help visitors understand the content better and what colors and styles are what parts of the pages. This structure helps visitors better navigate your website and more able to comprehend all your content without having to dissect it and fight to understand it all.
The reader benefits are huge, but the design of a site is so important, and it also can be made to look really cool, too. With the right web design fonts, varying elements can be put together for contrast to make a site look sophisticated or modern or vintage…whatever design effect you are trying to accomplish.
Make sure whatever font elements you choose are easy to read and balance each other out (don’t have all your font script or all-caps), and it’s also important that your body text is super clear and concise so people don’t have to strain to read it. The higher the header type, the fancier the font can be (an H1 title at the top of the page can be really stylized while the lower headers should be less and less stylized as they go). This is because the content gets more and more focused the lower the header type and needs to be more focused on the lower levels.
The same fonts should be spread across all your marketing materials and platforms, creating brand consistency. Fonts also play a role in helping visitors feel what kind of company you are. Are you a sophisticated clothing line? You can afford to use some fancier fonts. A kids’ play place? Fun and upbeat fonts will do the trick. A business coach? You’ll want something clear and professional looking. Fonts are just as important a part of branding as colors and imagery, and everything should be cohesive and convey the same message.
Making sure typography works for your site isn’t as easy as deciding what you think looks good and putting it together. It’s helpful to have a plan of action for handling your web design fonts and making sure it’s executed properly. Hiring a web designer is ideal, but it’s also very useful to know what you should be looking for to guide the design in the right direction.
Okay, we know Google isn’t crawling websites and determining whether a font matches a brand’s identity, but they are looking for readability, and font plays a huge role in that. They can also determine if a page is less readable based on how it’s broken down (fancy headers throughout and no real content) and if people are skimming and leaving the page after only a few seconds. Font affects this as well. Also, some fonts are web safe, like Arial or Helvetica, while others have to be downloaded as specialty fonts and won’t show up on everyone’s phones or devices the same way. This is a problem when considering how pages are designed around fonts, so take that into consideration when choosing a font as well. If you choose a completely irregular font, not everyone will be able to see your design and perspective the way you may want them to see it.
Since 2013, Ignitro Studios has been working to blend marketing and technology in support of agencies and other marketers. By understanding both sides of web development, we have a unique perspective and advantage within the industry. We provide design, development, project management, QA, and strategy, driving the bus so our clients don’t have to. We will work with our clients to get results while also empowering them to do their job better. Learn more about Ignitro Studios.
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