How To Choose The Best Fonts For A Website?
It is vital to make the first impression count.
While this quote was originally intended for people meeting each other for the first time, it has stood the test of time and has gone digital too.
When a visitor first lands upon your website, be it an E-commerce one or a blog, font is often the element that attributes the most towards creating the first impression. I agree that there are several other elements working in conjunction with each other, but fonts often take center stage.
While some people prefer Google fonts, others feel typography or cursive are the best fonts for a website. This article explores the best fonts for a website and things to keep in mind while choosing them.
Why is choosing good fonts for a website important?
- It attributes to a better user experience
Every digital marketer strives to build an impeccable user experience for their website visitors. As for visitors, they too love to run through a website that is designed well. Therefore, choosing a good font for a website helps in generating more visitors and garner higher leads.
2. It acts as your brand ambassador
While you may not have a celebrity as your website’s brand ambassador, you have the fonts to fill the void. In addition, 94% of a visitor’s opinion about your website depends on the design elements you inculcate. So if you want a visitor to not bounce off fast, focusing on fonts and other elements is the need of the hour.
3. Classification of fonts
Every font style has its own story and characteristics. It allows them to be classified into several groups. You have a myriad of paid and free fonts for your web page that can be distinguished into the following categories –
- Serif
Fonts like Times New Roman, MS Serif, Georgia, and Garamond fall in this category. The category is one of the oldest font types known to human beings and is inspired by Renaissance. Known for high readability, these fonts are characterized by transverse or diagonal line endings. Serifs are preferred for headings and logos.
- Sans-serif
Fonts like Arial, Open Sans, Comic Sans, Roboto, and Lato fall in this category. These are the new-age iteration of the Serif. As the name suggests, it comes without serifs. Its discovery happened because computer screens were incapable of displaying serifs in their original form. The default Windows font, Segoe UI, is also a Sans-serif.
- Slab Serif
Fonts like Arvo, Adelle, and Sentinel fall into this category. Slab Serifs have a lower contrast ratio than the traditional Serif. These are usually used for display texts and offer a more contemporary outlook.
- Script
Fonts like Arizonia, Great Vibes, and Tangerine fall in this category. Script fonts emulate human handwriting and are often considered informal for the same reason. But these are capable of evoking emotions and are hence considered as best fonts for websites’ headings and logos.
- Decorative
Fonts like Helios, Cherie Bomb, and Countryside fall into this category. Decorative fonts came to the forefront in the 19th Century and have become popular for web designing and advertising in the last few years. These are highly expressive and do not fit well with other fonts. It means you will have to use them conservatively and in a way that they evoke the requisite emotions.
How to choose the best fonts for a website?
Choosing the best fonts for a website is an arduous task. It is because website designing involves getting a myriad of elements right in unison.
Here is how you can master the art of choosing good fonts for a website –
- Focus on the basics
Choosing the best fonts for a website depends on the overall outlook of what you are trying to create and your target audience’s taste preferences. These should also clearly evoke the reasons behind your brand’s existence to be the most effective.
- Sync your font choices with the overall design
A website has a plethora of elements, such as kerning, leading, and tracking, contrast, and alignment. Kerning, leading, and tracking describe the spacing elements in a website. Kerning is the space between two adjacent letters. Leading refers to the distance between lines of text, and tracking is the spacing between groups of letters.
Contrast refers to the presentation of the text on a web page. It includes attributes such as color, form, size, structure, and weight, and alignment is how you position the text on a website. It also represents the approach that you take while designing it. For example, a fully justified text evokes a formal approach and eliminates disorientation possibilities, whereas left-aligned text indicates focus on making a web page highly readable.
All of these elements combine to form the overall impression. So your font choices must align with these aspects too.
- Make use of typefaces judiciously
Typefaces and fonts are different. The former refers to a family of fonts that share similar characteristics and features. The latter refers to an individual font.
With a plethora of typefaces available for you to choose from, it is probable that you will be lost in the sea and end up in a mess. Instead, it is imperative for you to wait and understand the reason behind building the website. In addition, you will have to gauge who your audience is and what they like. These will allow you to figure out the typefaces you can use.
- Factor load times
As a visitor, would you like to stay on a website that loads as slow as a tortoise walks? Probably, no. It is why slow loading speed has been linked to poor traffic. With so many design elements to fiddle with, digital marketers often end up overcooking stuff and creating a sluggish site. If you are looking to cut some slack, see if you are using too many typefaces. If yes, look to cut down the number and only keep those necessary.
- Go for web-safe fonts
Most popular online brands employ fonts distinct from the world, making these synonymous with the organization’s online presence. While we agree that not every company can afford it, the least you can do is choose web-safe fonts. These are a group of dynamic fonts that are highly adaptable and ensure that your content is legible irrespective of the screen size and other factors at the reader’s end.
Times New Roman, Script MT, and Arial are some of the examples of web-safe fonts.
- Use a mix of fonts and optimize them for optimum results
Choosing the best web fonts for websites is a mix and match of a series of elements. In usual scenarios, you can use up to three different fonts (primary, secondary, and tertiary) for optimum results.
Conclusion
With the digital environment becoming so diverse, there is a lot of legroom. Unfortunately, it not only presents a diverse array of possibilities but also increases your chances of messing it up. So make sure that you make the most of the opportunities available and create a website that is most presentable.
