Selecting the right font
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Ninety-five percent of web design is actually typography, according to Information Architects. If that's true then it's time to take a second look at fonts.
Many media companies have their own signature fonts like Bloomberg's bold sans-serif font, sometimes used in all caps, or CNN's black-on-white sans-serif font that differs from the font used in its trademark outlined logo. On the other hand, a large number of newspapers like The Boston Globe and The New York Times use aold-school traditional gothic font in both their print and online banners.
Despite the availability of thousands of fonts to choose from, there are only a few that are web-safe, or will appear correctly on the majority of modern computers. These include Times/Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Palatino, Garamond, Tahoma and Verdana.
Others like IMPACT and Comic Sans are also common among most computer operating systems, but are rarely seen in a professional online news setting. Visit Font Tester for a complete list of web-safe fonts.
To see web-safe fonts in action, check out The Los Angeles Times/latimes.com. The newspaper uses the familiar gothic font for its print and web banner, but uses Arial in blue and medium gray for its web headlines. The Wall Street Journal uses a custom serif font similar to this one for its logo, but uses the more web-friendly Times New Roman for its online copy.
Fancier fonts can be used when working with projects that offer greater design flexibility such as Flash animations, title sequences, etc. If pre-installed fonts aren't doing it for you, download new ones for free at urbanfonts.com (which is decidedly less urban than its moniker suggests) or for more avant-garde fonts try dafont.com. Both offer custom previews of the font before they are downloaded. 1001fonts.com and Font Freak are also great resources, though the former has a comparatively limited selection, while the latter has an expansive selection but no search capabilities.
It's easy to spend hours searching for the perfect font for a particular project. Therefore, it is helpful to have an idea of the font before beginning the search. If you still can't find the font you're looking for and have the creativity and a little bit of time, try creating your own custom font using FontStruct. It's reportedly simple and, most importantly, free.
Many media companies have their own signature fonts like Bloomberg's bold sans-serif font, sometimes used in all caps, or CNN's black-on-white sans-serif font that differs from the font used in its trademark outlined logo. On the other hand, a large number of newspapers like The Boston Globe and The New York Times use a
Despite the availability of thousands of fonts to choose from, there are only a few that are web-safe, or will appear correctly on the majority of modern computers. These include Times/Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Palatino, Garamond, Tahoma and Verdana.
Others like IMPACT and Comic Sans are also common among most computer operating systems, but are rarely seen in a professional online news setting. Visit Font Tester for a complete list of web-safe fonts.
To see web-safe fonts in action, check out The Los Angeles Times/latimes.com. The newspaper uses the familiar gothic font for its print and web banner, but uses Arial in blue and medium gray for its web headlines. The Wall Street Journal uses a custom serif font similar to this one for its logo, but uses the more web-friendly Times New Roman for its online copy.
Fancier fonts can be used when working with projects that offer greater design flexibility such as Flash animations, title sequences, etc. If pre-installed fonts aren't doing it for you, download new ones for free at urbanfonts.com (which is decidedly less urban than its moniker suggests) or for more avant-garde fonts try dafont.com. Both offer custom previews of the font before they are downloaded. 1001fonts.com and Font Freak are also great resources, though the former has a comparatively limited selection, while the latter has an expansive selection but no search capabilities.
It's easy to spend hours searching for the perfect font for a particular project. Therefore, it is helpful to have an idea of the font before beginning the search. If you still can't find the font you're looking for and have the creativity and a little bit of time, try creating your own custom font using FontStruct. It's reportedly simple and, most importantly, free.
