The fonts you use on your website can go a long way in setting the tone for your visitors and establishing your branding. Thoughtfully choosing the fonts for your designs and the text on your website will set you apart from the countless websites using default fonts and typography. Fonts can help set the mood and tone by emphasizing the meaning of your text. Read on to discover how to choose the best fonts for your particular website.
Setting the Tone of Your Website with Fonts
You can use fonts to create the virtual atmosphere that best matches the mood of your website. For example, default-style fonts like Times New Roman, Arial, and Helvetica, are designed with little flare and are easy on the eyes for long blocks of text. These fonts can convey a professional tone and help you disseminate factual information or informative articles and posts. These fonts are used by most blogs, newspapers, medical websites and other serious hubs for information.
By contrast, lighter and more playful fonts like Kirang Haerang can help you create a unique and engaging tone that works well for entertainment website. Websites built for media reviews, events, clubs, and other less-serious topics will fare well with a lighter-toned font.
Branding and Fonts
It’s important to use fonts on your website that match your pre-existing branding. If you’re going to make a website before you establish your brand then it’s doubly important to think ahead while choosing your fonts. Create a style guide for your company’s branding so that you can remember the names of the fonts you’ve selected later on and create a coherent, branding scheme that will last the life of your company. Your customers and website visitors may even come to associate the font you’ve selected with your specific brand which can work wonders for marketing and customer retention efforts.
The most important font on your website, in terms of branding, is the font you choose for your company logo. Try to limit your logo and any company slogans or anchor text to the same font or font family. Write down the size and embellishment options you choose so you can match your work in the future if you need to re-create the logo. This includes the use of bolding, italicizing, kerning, and other styling options.
Installing Additional Fonts on Your Website
When you make a website you may notice that you’re only given access to a few font options in your default text editor. Special fonts will need to be imported through a plugin or other application to broaden your options. There are several typography and font plugins available for most website platforms including the popular WordPress CMS.
One of the most popular font packages on the web is Google Fonts. You can install Google Fonts on your website with a plugin like Easy Google Fonts. This will allow you to select from hundreds of fonts for any section of your website. Another popular typographical plugin in is wp-Typography. This plugin will help automate special character placement, give you more spacing control, and allow you to create and customize special symbols with CSS.
Font Colors and Sizing
It’s important to choose the right colors and sizing for your fonts. Headers should be configured with the heading tags available through HTML so your writing gets a universally appropriate display size for all of your users. Choose larger sized header tags for main topics and decrease the header size each time a topic fits into a larger one. Make sure to use a large enough font to avoid eye strain in long blocks of text without making your text obnoxiously big. Most article text does well with 12-point font size.
The colors and contrast on your website can help your readers browse your text more quickly and effortlessly. If in doubt, black text over white background is always a winner. If you’d like to be more creative, try any color combination that allows for good contrast without being overbearing, for example; black text on pastel colors seems to work well for short to medium-sized texts. Avoid super-high contrast colors like thin, neon green text on a black background for long paragraphs. These colors will work great, however, for buttons and two or three word phrases and headings.
Once you’ve determined the fonts you will use for your branding and marketing materials you should make note of them in a style guide. This will help you remember the fonts in the future and compare them side-by-side to make sure they compliment each other. Pay attention to the color schemes used throughout your website to ensure your font colors aren’t straining on your readers’ eyes. Choose sizing that draws attention to headings and important elements like navigation buttons without distracting too heavily from the main text of your website.
