Website’s typography do’s and don’ts

Posted by Offer Tsuriel on October 26, 2009

Here is an example of some general traps to avoid when using fonts.

The XYZ Company offer you the opportunity to take part in our online competition exclusively for customers who have made several purchases over the last year.

E-consultancy (2007) recommends these approaches to typography best practice.

1. Use a consistent typography throughout a site. This will typically be enforced through cascading stylesheets.
2. Limit the use of different font types and sizes.

 
 

3. San-serif font styles such as Arial or Verdana tend to work best on the web, as they look sharper on the screen and are therefore easier to scan and read (unlike print where the reverse is true). Sans-serif is by far the most popular approach online. But a visit to the New York Times (NYT.com) shows that the use of serifed fonts can make the site appear more distinguished -it affects the site personality.
4. Left justified text works best in web browsers and is best for legibility.
5. The widespread use of images for rendering text in headlines and navigation is today generally discouraged for accessibility and search engine optimization reasons (search engines read text, not images), but exceptions includes text used in branding, promotions and certain sites where an immersive experience is required.
6. Where images are used for text captions, alternative text commonly known as ‘alt tags’ should be provided for accessibility reasons.
7. Create separate design requirements and a test schedule for the rendering of fonts in different browsers.