7 Expert Tips on How to Choose the Best Web Fonts for Web Design

The expert font tips contained in the Computer Arts Collection: Typography are regarded as the most important tips a web designer could come across on how to choose the most suitable fonts to use on a website.  The 7 most important tips are:

• 1. Picking the right font type is not easy because there are many considerations to factor in such as the theme of the site, the content type, mood and tone etc.  As a web designer, you need to be selective and choose a font type that is appropriate for the site content first.

• 2. The typography comes first.  As soon as you can use non-traditional web fonts on a website, you should look for the best font types based on the traditional ones you are familiar with such as Georgia, Verdana, Cambria and Times New Roman.

• 3. Take your time trying different font types, swapping them to see how well they fit and getting opinions from different people if possible.  Do not rush font selection as it takes time to logically compare font types to select the most appropriate seeing the wide selection of available fonts.

• 4. Explore more, get to know what is out there.  Go to fantastic.me and check out the wide selection of available fonts and font types but remember this is just one site, tens of thousands of font types are available to choose from.  Remember to first determine a theme to make it easier to swap almost similar fonts or font types even after the website is up.

• 5. You should also not forget that the font type you choose should not overload the page, the size of the font file size.  A typical web user expects a page to load fast and any signs of lagging or bulk is a total turn off.  Before you settle on a font type, check the file size to make sure it has only the necessary characters browsers recognize.

• 6. Most fonts today have been standardized to display clearly and accurately across all browsers but as a designer it is your job to ensure that this is actually the case.  There are fonts that cannot be used on certain browsers, know them.  Also, check compatibility whenever there is a minor or major browser update on all major browsers.

• 7. You can also get font type suggestions from various sources including forums and blogs like this.  A good web designer should stay up to date on any new developments and trends in the web design industry especially since it is their job to present businesses and products to a public that is seemingly very difficult to please.

These 7 points are meant to guide a web designer choose the right font types but they cannot be used as definite rules.  The whole idea behind creativity in web design is being different and rules should not hinder this, but just like everything else, there are some crucial tips experts discovered long time ago and it is time you use them.