Importance of Typography in Good Web Design
As soon as advertising appeared the need of new, modern and appealing typefaces emerged. While web pages became more and more dynamic, typography and web design advanced and become richer and more and more appealing to the reader and user-friendly for the owners. This is why many organizations started to develop this concept and taking it to a higher level in order to propel their messages.
However, texts have been and will be the main and the most constant part of websites and consequently typography is the very core of any website.
TYPOGRAPHY AND GOOD WEB DESIGNING
Typography
Typography is the art of typesetting for the purpose of making the text legible and eye-catching to the reader. In fact good typography can be essential in a web design project by providing the advantage of being easier to read and understand. The typeface selection can be critical and may give the wrong feeling to the reader, thus impacting the whole.
Web Design
Web Designing involves a complexity of skills and disciplines that combined can produce, develop and maintain websites. However, typography is the component that can or should make the readers continue to read and come back for more. A good web designer should always consider several essential aspects that make the difference as typography is indeed an indispensable part of web designing.
Here are the essential typography aspects to be considered for successful web designing projects:
- Set rules and stick to them– make a plan and stick to it. Be consistent in using designs, bullets and formatting.
- Understand the content of your website and understand your audience’s intent;
- Establish a coherent hierarchy – clearly indicate where the reader should start; use highlights for emphasis and make the white spaces work for you;
- Alignment – confers a classy look and it is easier to read an integrated text.
- Integrate the text into your website – connect your text to the design of the website and maintain the consistency. Consistency makes your work look professional and keeps the readers focused.
- The text must breathe – the letters need their own spaces. Typography creates the atmosphere by telling a story that is beyond the text. Do not overcrowd your web space as it can chase away readers.
- Carefully use colors for your typefaces – support your readers by choosing your background color significantly different from the type colors;
- Consider a typeface that keeps people focused on the content and not on the formatting of your website
- Scaling is also an important as there are many users who zoom in or out a lot. This is why your typography should be able to scale well.
- Continue to learn and never settle for less – never stop looking for new tips and hints regarding typography and web designing as they are continuously changing and developing.
Content represents over 95% of a website so it is accurate to say that 90% of web design is represented by the art of displaying content in a comprehensible and readable manner, Typography for short. It influences the visitors and readers of your site. When typography is done right it can bring positive outcomes for the site owners.
Too much color, too many font styles, an overcrowded page can chase away readers. Use the colors, the font styles and the space of your web page in your favor, emphasizing and bolding only the important parts maintaining the reader connected to your content. Bullet lists are also helpful for the reader to easily surf through your content.
Legibility & Readability
While legibility is the main concern of the typeface designer ensuring that glyphs share the same design features, readability is the primary concern of the web page owner. Therefore, the web designer needs to be sure that every glyph, typeface or text related item share the particularities of the same weight, style and width.
Why Typography is so important?
There are many nonchalant voices saying that typography is just about selecting the prettiest type of font, the Canadian typographer R. Bringhurst defines typography as “the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form”. So, this art and technique is influencing all the web design elements such as color, layout and space. The main duty of typography is to ensure readability and comprehension. Readability is the trigger for the evolution of typography.
Effective typography means successful web design
The efficiency of typography is constantly under assessment in order to find out the new trends that emerge from the reader’s preferences. This type of assessment concluded that the readers nowadays prefer typefaces like Verdana, Arial and Comic Sans. Experiments have been conducted and the results concluded that by displaying the same paragraph in different typefaces readers are influenced and tend to change their choices depending on the typeface they are seeing.
Typography is equally important as the content and it is an essential part of a good web design. By spending more time on arranging text, choosing the most suitable and readable style and using the white space to obtain a user-friendly web page you will encourage people to visit, read and stay connected and return to your web page to see what is new.
