Finding your website’s perfect type
Decisions, decisions
One of the first decisions you'll make with a new website is the choice of typefaces, especially those used as display accents throughout your site, such as the Site Title and Headings. Do-it-yourself website builders like Squarespace come with designs that include typefaces that suit the designs as they are, but if you would prefer another typeface, there are many to choose from.
Is it a typeface or font?
A typeface or font family is an artistic expression of letters and numbers that are designed to look similar to one another in their varied styles – whether the characters are emphasized in bold, slanted in italic, or standing upright in regular type. Each of these styles is called a font.
Serif and Sans Serif
There are two main classes of typefaces: Serif and Sans Serif.
A Serif typeface has what I think of as "feet," extra lines that flare out from each letter or number.
A Sans Serif typeface (from the French for "without Serif") has no extra lines.
In addition to those two categories, you may have other specialty categories to choose from, such as Script and Decorative.
Choosing a typeface
Here are some important things to consider when making your decision.
Make sure the text is readable
Fancy fonts can be interesting to look at and, when used sparingly, can spruce up your site. But every word on your site is there for a reason, so make sure that whatever you choose is readable.
Choose a style that suits your business
Consider the design or message of your business and make sure the typeface matches. If you have a high-tech business, you're not going to want a typeface that looks like it was designed for the first printing press.
Consider coordinating logo and website text
If you have a logo or will be designing one, you may want to coordinate the logo typeface with the site title to make your branding more consistent. For example, when I created a personal website, Sustainable Green Life, I changed the site title font to Sansation and I used Sansation for the text in the logo image as well.
Where to make typeface changes
Every website builder is different, but to change the typeface for a design element, you’ll go to the design styling area where the type styles have been defined for your website for the template you chose.
It’s a good idea to write down the typefaces, sizes, and styles that are in use for each design element before changing anything. You may need to revert back to the originals if you don’t like the type styles you’ve switched to.
You’ll have many choices to try and see how they look. Headings can be a bit more dramatic, but they should also be readable. For the main body text that people will read, opt for a readable style always.
Adding typefaces to your website
Adding typefaces to a website is fairly simple, but you do need to use code and upload files to your website. If you're not comfortable with that, you can stick with the fonts that have been provided to you through your website builder. You’ll still have plenty of choices.
When I first started my business, I subscribed to Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and had access to many typefaces that I could upload to websites and to Adobe Photoshop, the drawing program I use to create custom images and logos.
These days I gravitate to free fonts I can download from Google Fonts. If I can’t find a free font I like, I’ve also used FontSpring.com and MyFonts.com for fonts for special purposes (like fancy script fonts) for under $50.
Try and try again
The wonderful thing about do-it-yourself websites is that you can make changes easily and also change your mind if you don't like the result. You can have some fun trying out typefaces on your site, even making them visible to the public if you want, and simply change them back if you don't like what you see. Don't let typeface changes keep you up at night, unless you're like me and browsing through typefaces is a form of late-night entertainment.
I know I'm in the right line of work because browsing through typefaces is almost as good as a visit to a candy store for me!
