How to Make Effective Use of Web Fonts

Writing for your web site is not the same as offlinewriting. The fonts used for print media are different thanweb fonts. This is because it's harder to read text on acomputer screen and visitors tend to scan your web pagesrather than read them word for word. When deciding on whatweb font to use, take into consideration the character ofyour site and whether the web font type is widely available(accomodates different screens and operating systems).

If you use the wrong web font, your web pages will mayappear unprofessional and you may lose visitors to yourcompetition.

So how do you decide on what web site font to use?

1. Analyze the character of your web site - for most websites you would use a large or fancy font for your headerto capture your visitors attention and a smaller web fontfor body text. When using a fancy font make sure it isavailable on most computers otherwise your visitors won'tbe able to read it. (To get around this, read my article"Improve your web site design with a fancy font"http://www.isitebuild.com/fancyfont.htm).

2. Search engine compatibility - fonts used within imagescan be seen on all computers, however it can't be read bythe search engines. They can only "read" text. Whendesigning images always use the "alt" tag to convey whatyour image is about. Try to include appropriate keywords inyour web site copy. This will help the search engines indexyour site.

3. Use a web safe font - there are 2 types of fonts thatare widely used:

Serif Fonts - these are most widely used for PRINT media ieTimes Roman, Georgia, but are not good for the Web, becausethey are difficult to read on the screen. Serif fonts arethose that have fine cross-lines at the extremities of theletter.

Sans Serif Fonts - these are fonts that don't have serifs.They are the best fonts to use for the WEB (ie Verdana,Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet) but are not appropriate forprint media.

Here's a great readability study that was done whencomparing serif and sans serif fonts:http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt6/html-email-fonts.htm

4. Use the correct font size - alternative font sizes addflavor and character to your web site. If you want yourtext to be viewed correctly for both PC and MAC users, thenit's better to use pixels rather then points. Points maylook all right on a PC but will appear smaller on a MAC(although these days there are only a small percentage offolks that use MACs).

Use a large font size (ie Arial H1) for your main headertext, smaller font sizes (Arial H2, H3) for yoursubheadings and a point or pixel size of 10 or 12 for yourbody text.

Generally I use Verdana 10pt for body text and Arial textfor headings.

5. Utilize Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) - these enable youto easily create a consistent font style across your entireweb site. If you want to change the font on all your webpages, you just need to change one style sheet.

CSS allows you to easily use comma-separated list of fonts(ie Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif). The browserwill use the first one it comes to in the list that isinstalled. If none of the type faces in the list areavailable, it reverts to the default.

Writing correct web copy using fonts that are easy to readand readily available, not only adds character to your webpages, but shows you care about the experience of yourvisitors.

Resources

Web font readability study.
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt6/html-email-fonts.htm

Hundreds of free fonts
http://www.fontfile.com

Herman Drost is the author of the NEW ebook "101 Highly Effective Strategies to Promote Your Web Site"http://www.isitebuild.com/web-site-promotion Subscribe tohis "Marketing Tips" newsletter for more original articles at:subscribe@isitebuild.com. You can read more of hisin-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles