The Aspects of Design - Part 4: Typeface and fonts
One disadvantage of starting a design career as a web designer is fonts tend to take a back seat to other considerations at least in terms how the actual text of your content is displayed. Thankfully I had friends and mentors in my early days of design who taught me the value of fonts. Web designers generally have to design for the broadest possible audience and that means taking into account a lot of people will only have a select series of fonts installed on all computers be they Windows, Mac or Linux. Yes, in the text of a web site the choices can be more limiting but greater consideration can be taken when it come to general graphics, logos and print design. Why are fonts so important? Fonts are an interesting and compelling mix of pure text and imagery. Fonts can look and feel to the eye totally different in print as opposed to an electronic device like a computer screen, TV or cell phone. Also the purpose can dictate the font. Is this a professional document or something more radical or fancy? Is it meant to be read from a distance or up close?
They are many things to consider when working with font and it’s not just about finding a “pretty font” in fact that’s a big mistake a lot of people made when desktop publishing on a personal computers became popular. Just as early web site creators would put anything on their web because they could and they often did and also made a mess of things. choosing a font without thinking about why you should use it defeats the purpose. Yes, the proper font should draw attention but with clear meaning as opposed to making people go huh?
Think about the fonts you see everyday. Some are even lifesaving. Yes, lifesaving. Imagine if someone decided to abandon the Sans Serif style and accepted fonts of street signs just because they thought it would look cool. I’m reminded of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer decided to bring home street signs and paint over the lines in the road as a “service” and special attention to the part of the highway he adopted. Needless to say while a nonfictional comedy the results were disastrous.
The fonts you chose for your projects may not cause a wreck (unless you poorly design a billboard) but they could lose sales of your company or organization. If you want to use something just because it “looks cool” think twice and ask someone who works with fonts daily what you should do especially if it involves your companies brand and identity. Trust your web developer when he or she recommends keeping certain documents in the PDF format if it means preserving the originally intended fonts. Text on a web site is usually restricted or defaults to a limited set of sans serif fonts that everyone has as is easily read.
Want to learn more about fonts and reasons for using them? Here is a list of helpful resources;
