While creating a new website – or updating an existing one – there are a lot of aspects of a website design that require attention. However, between writing your content, choosing the pixel-perfect background image, and making sure you’ve connected your social media channels, some basic elements may fall by the wayside.

The type of font to be used for the website content is one such element that a lot of business owners tend to neglect. And this can cause a world of trouble for the brand in several ways.

More than picking a great font for your website, it is more important to pick the right font for your website.

And, that’s why we have come up with a list of helpful tips on how you can pick the right font for your website design.

Begin with the basics

Ask a professional graphic designer and they’ll tell you the importance of using basic fundamentals of graphic design to choose the font type and style for your website.

With so many fonts at your disposal – including some really alluring ones – it can get difficult to pick the right kind. So, it is always good to stick with the basics and move accordingly.

Here’s all you should consider; 

- Serif vs Sans Serif: When it comes to picking the font style for website content, these two category types are most commonly selected. (Sans Serif is a tad more dominant)

- Kerning, leading, and tracking: In order to ensure a perfect layout and overall look of the typeface you choose for your website content, you need to check these three design elements. Kerning stands for the space between two letters, leading represents the space between lines of text, and tracking (or letter-spacing) is the spacing between groups of letters. 

- Readability: The number of characters per line can be really important when working with fonts for your website pages. Consider the size of the screen where the text will appear and design it accordingly. 

- Alignment and justification: This again is crucial as it will define how your fonts will make your content look when aligned left, right or center.  

- Number of typefaces: It has always been, strongly, advised to not use more than three typefaces. 

- Remember contrast: There must be enough contrast between the text and the background for it to be readable. Elements that contribute to contrast include size, stroke weight, color, and space.

Typography must match the purpose

It is always a good practice to take into consideration the objective or the target purpose of creating the content in order to select the right font type. This will help to understand if the styling of that typeface you’re considering corresponds with the general message that you want to convey to your visitors.

Ask yourself;

- What is the nature of your brand? (Serious, relax, young, cheerful, responsible, tough, etc.) 

- Is it a short term project or long term? (Long terms such as Magazines, newsletters, etc. and short terms such as a product launch or marketing campaign, etc.) 

- Should you aim for practicality and functionality and go for one of the web-safe fonts (Sans, Serif, etc.), or do you want to stand out from the rest and try out a more unique font choice (Script, Decorative, etc.)?

- Is your website going to be more visually driven (graphics such as photos, animations, and video), or will it mostly consist of the large portions of text that provide plenty of information about your brand or products?

Asking yourself these questions will make it considerably easier for you to get a general idea of what you want when you stumble upon a font.

Go for the right combinations

Mixing up your fonts to come up with the right combination can be a little tricky.

With each font style carrying its own kind of emotional aesthetic, it can be a good practice to combine font styles of contrasting moods. Opposites attract after all!

For example, mixing Serif with Sans Serif can hardly go wrong as a typeface combination. The pairing of fonts is all about creating contrast, and serifs and sans serifs are more than sufficient to create a subtle but distinct difference when paired up.

A safer route, however, is to pick styles from the same font family.

A font family is a group of related typefaces that vary in weight, orientation, width, etc., but not design. For example, Roboto is a font family, which includes the ‘normal’ Roboto font, Roboto Condensed, and Roboto Slab. All three fonts have their own styles but are cut from the same digital cloth.

Pairing fonts from the same font family can help you bring a sense of consistency, thus making the process of designing a website a lot easier.

Prioritize the font styles

As explained earlier in this article, it is not advised to go for anything more than three different typefaces. Furthermore, these font types must be prioritized in the order of their application on the webpage.

What we mean by this is, you need to assign the font type for your headings (Primary font), body content (Secondary font), and special elements (Tertiary font).

Primary font would be the most visible on your entire website as it will be used in all the main headings. It is going to be the most aligned with your brand identity so make sure you are using the font type that reflects your brand’s views.

Secondary font will most likely be used for all the content body of your website pages. This includes paragraphs, descriptions, blog articles, etc. The main objective for secondary fonts is to ensure the readability and legibility of the content.

Tertiary font, a.k.a accent font, is the one that is used for a very specific purpose such as, CTA, navigation menu, etc. They should be prominent enough in order to quickly catch the eye of your visitors.

To conclude…

Choosing the right font style for your website – and the brand overall – is much more important than it is thought of. It can have a direct influence on the overall user experience and can make or break your brand’s position in the market.

So, it is highly advised to get professional help when picking the typeface.

GraphicsZoo can help you with not just selecting the right set of fonts for your brand but, also in managing the overall graphic design needs for your business. Contact us today!