Whenever a new website design is planned, there will be debates about colors, images, and layout, but one aspect of a web design is often given little thought. We are talking about the fonts used within the website, which is the type, size, and style of the text.
Many websites are created with little thought about fonts, so the finished website might not perform as hoped. The argument could be made that it is what the text or content has to say within a most important website, and that is true to an extent, but choosing the most suitable font for your audience can also be highly beneficial.
If you are planning or designing a new website, to help you better understand what fonts are available and what websites they might be most suited to, we will outline the seven main font types and highlight some of the most popular fonts.
Serif Fonts
This is a classic font type and one which is used on a huge number of websites. You can identify a serif font as the characters, be they letters or numbers, all with small embellishments, such as a stroke or a line. Serif fonts can be used on just about every type of website, although they are especially suited to those in business, news, and technology niches. Standard serif fonts are Times New Roman, Garamond, and Georgia.
Sans Serif Fonts
Another hugely popular font type with the difference between sans serif and serif fonts is that sans serif has no embellishment at the ends of the characters. This provides a neat font and a simple font that can be used for any text element within a website. Again they are suited to most niches and are ideal for those whose traffic comes via mobile browsing. Standard serif fonts are Nova, Helvetica, and Arial.
Slab Serif Fonts
Often called square serif, this font group has embellishments on characters, however, whereas serif fonts have lines and strokes, slab serif characters have larger embellishments which could be described as blocks or squares. These fonts are great for grabbing a reader’s attention and are therefore used where branding or selling is the objective. Specific fonts include Clarendon and Rockwell.
Script Fonts
As the name suggests, script fonts are text that appears in the style of handwriting. They are certainly more artistic in their appearance to other font groups and are used on websites where a degree of elegance is required. This means they are often found on websites related to art, fashion, beauty, and personal websites, such as blogs. Examples of script fonts are Raksana, Brush Script, and Pristina.
Decorative Fonts
For websites that are colourful and wish to present a more ornamental appearance, a decorative font might be in order for some parts of the site. They are used for headers, headlines, and for drawing attention to a particular part of a webpage, but obviously not for larger sections of content. Examples include Vibro, Tattoo, and Chameleon.
Comic Fonts
A comic font is exactly as the name suggests, and that is a text which is colourful, bold, comes in lots of different shapes and sizes, and may even be considered zany. Used on websites related to toys, children and on many eCommerce websites, they are ideal for when you want your website to stand out from the crowd. Popular comic fonts have some amazing names such as Universal Fruitcake, Crimefighter and Banbang.
Retro Fonts
Anyone with a website related to yesteryear and nostalgia will be interested in using retro fonts. This text is often the type you will have seen in old magazines and billboards, but it is still highly effective today if used correctly. Examples include Smoking Western, Highbinder Display and The Groovy Script.