Web Design Tips - Font Selection
April 14, 2011
The best web sites are simple, intuitive and easy to read. The
site has simple controls and not much clutter. The experience is pleasing and looking
at the web page does not require you to figure out Rubik’s Cube (http://www.rubiks.com/) like controls to navigate
the site. One of the most important and I believe most overlooked considerations
in the design process is the character font. There are so many to choose from
it can be overwhelming. One of my
favorite web sites to get fonts from is www.dafont.com.
They have hundreds and hundreds of fonts ranging from plain to very fancy and
everything in between. But just remember to have a nice looking easy to read
web site you need to keep it simple. The more distorted and decorative fonts
are usually much harder to read. Use legible typefaces like “Times”, “Arial” or
“Helvetica”.
Look through these examples and decide which you think are
the easiest to read.
1. Algerian
Font in 11 size
How
to make you web site easy to read.
2. Rosewood
Standard Regular Font in 11 size
How
to make you web site easy to read.
3. Andy
Font in 11 size
How
to make you web site easy to read.
4. Blackadder
ITC Font in 11 size
How
to make you web site easy to read.
5. Calibri
Font in 11 size
How to make you web site easy to
read.
6. Arial
Font in 11 size
How
to make you web site easy to read.
7. New
Times Roman Font in 11 size
How
to make you web site easy to read.
As you can
see the outlined fonts can be harder to read but selecting the right style can
help. The “Algerian” font is not as readable as the “Calibri” but makes for a
nice style. The “Algerian” is much more readable than the “Rosewood” font.
Handwriting
fonts look great but can be very hard to read. “Andy” is not bad but the “Blackadder
ITC in size 11 is almost impossible to for most people to read clearly. And if I had to read a full page at that size
I would skip it and move one to another web site.
The most
readable fonts are the ones toward the bottom which are just plain “Calibri”,
“Arial” or “New Times Roman”.