There’s nothing more frustrating than opening up a webpage and seeing yellow font against a white background. Unless of course, that font is in Brush Script—and then it’s way worse.
The font choice of your website is much more than how well it reads to the human eye. Website fonts are one of the first things a client sees. Therefore it portrays your business and your vibe.
With hundreds of thousands of font choices on the web, it can be a difficult decision to pick the right one for your website. We wrote this article to help you narrow down the choices and chose the best font for you.
Read on to discover which font designs are best for you and your website.
Best Font Choices for Each Type
From Windings to Times New Roman, some fonts are just better than others. There are five main font families: Serif, Sans-Serif, Script, Modern, and Display.
Fonts can envoke feelings before you even comprehend the text. There’s a different vibe between reading something in Comic Sans and Lucida Calligraphy.
Let’s go through the five types of typography and how they are best used online to envoke specific emotions in your readers.
1. Serif
One of the most original font families is the Serif type. It is a traditional and respectable font. These include fonts like your Times New Roman, Trojan, Baskerville, and Georgia Italic. Serif font is recognizable by the little accent lines at the end of the letter stroke.
These are your old school fonts that have been around forever. If you are aiming to envoke a sense of reliability or trust from your readers, this is the font family to chose from. The Serif family fonts appear in often in magazines, newspapers, and books.
2. Sans Serif
Following Serif font is the Sans Serif font, which is quite literally the opposite of serif. This type is similar to serif but does not include accent lines off the letters, as seen with the original serif font.
The Sans Serif font gives off a more modern, clean look portraying stability and objectiveness. Fonts like Arial, Helvetica Bold, Franklin Gothic, Calibri, and Myriad Italic are part of the Sans Serif Family.
With 62% of the online world using Arial, we can’t help but recommend it as one of our favorites.
3. Script
One of the most elegant types out there today belong to the Script font family. These protrude elegance, creativity, and affection. Most commonly seen on wedding invitations (and maybe our declaration of independence?), this romantic font will never quite go out of style.
If you’re going for a more vintage feel, go heavy on the italics and the curves. For a more modern look, go for rounder curves. Our favorite script fonts are Bickham Script, Edwardian Script, and Lavanderia.
4. Modern
The modern typographs boast of clean, simple lines, often very thin or very bold. If your website is going for a sleek, contemporary feel, then this is the font for you.
The Modern font type is very progressive, giving off a strong sense of style. These fonts are chic and stylish. Futura, Didot Italic, Century Gothic, and ITC Avant Garde Extra Light all fall into this typography.
5. Display
The fun lies in the Display fonts which host a wide range of emotions from friendly, to unique to amusing. These types of fonts often fall into the miscellaneous category for being so different and themed.
Fonts like Cooper, Spaceage Round, Valencia, and Giddyup are fun, popular choices while maintaining an air of professionalism.
Now before you go downloading all the newest and hottest fonts, there are just a few more things we want to call to your attention. From readability to load times, here are some things to check out.
Things to Consider Before Choosing a Font
Before you go, we want to leave you with a few tips when it comes to the font of your website. Here is what us graphic web designers across the industry suggest you consider before you hit ‘format-font’.
- Load Times
- Readability
- Number of fonts
Load Times
Did you know that the type of font you use, effects the load time of your site? Well, it does. This makes “consider your font load time” on the top of our list because if people leave your site before it loads, then it really doesn’t matter what kind of font you have.
Google says that a website for e-commerce should load within two seconds or less, anything longer and your abandonment rates skyrocket. If that’s not bad enough, Google gives you a negative ranking factor if your site loads slow. This means an ugly typeface is better than a slow typeface.
Readability
Readability is the second one most important factor. Once people get to your quickly loaded site, thank you to bullet #1, they have to read what you’re trying to say.
Often overlooked, whitespace is just as important as the text itself. Consider fonts that can be clearly read at all sizes and weights.
Number of Fonts
Like the old saying goes, three’s a crowd, and it’s the same when it comes to fonts. If you can’t give us a solid reason as to what a third font is adding the user experience, it’s best to cut it and stick to one or two fonts.
Now that you’re an expert in all things typeface, there’s only one question left to ask.
What Font Will You Choose?
With even Instagram adding new font choices, you know the font game is serious. Stay ahead of the graphic design trends and keep your readers happy–their eyes will thank you!
Craving more web design tips? Check us out here at Designs Desk for all the latest graphic design ideas advice and inspiration.