Picking Web Friendly Fontsby Stephanie Creech Screech Marketing
If you are creating a new brand or updating an existing brand you need to think about your font choices. Fonts are part of your image and they need to be consistent. Not all fonts are web friendly so consider backing into your choices depending on how your customer will access your digital assets. Mobile has the least friendly fonts and it is very device specific. Desktop offers you the most options but if you pick a desktop friendly font that is not available on a mobile device a substitution will be made...
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Why You Should Care About Web Friendly Fonts
Fonts saved as images can look blurry online. Saving fonts to outlines creates an image of the font which works for large type but if it’s small it might look blurry. No matter how crisp, sharp, strong or smooth you try to make it, the smaller the font in an image the tougher your challenge.
There is another reason for wanting to work with text versus image. The search engine robots read text not images. Yes, you can place alt text into every image so they can read it but using actual text works best. It can be challenging to get a good balance of text and images but it is a necessary part in building successful pages.
I suggest using two different fonts to communicate your company brand. Serif and Fancy fonts work best for headings. They tend to have more going on and work well in large/bold typeface. Also consider a monospace font for headings. The mechanical spacing of the letters makes it more desirable for headings versus text. Sans Serif works best for text. It’s easy to read in both large and small print and translates well to print material.
There is another reason for wanting to work with text versus image. The search engine robots read text not images. Yes, you can place alt text into every image so they can read it but using actual text works best. It can be challenging to get a good balance of text and images but it is a necessary part in building successful pages.
I suggest using two different fonts to communicate your company brand. Serif and Fancy fonts work best for headings. They tend to have more going on and work well in large/bold typeface. Also consider a monospace font for headings. The mechanical spacing of the letters makes it more desirable for headings versus text. Sans Serif works best for text. It’s easy to read in both large and small print and translates well to print material.
Sans Serif Web Safe Fonts
In typography, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, san serif or simply sans typeface is one that does not have the small projecting features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning "without" and "serif" from the Dutch word schreef meaning "line".
These are your best bet for sans serif fonts. If you use these, most people will see the page correctly.
These are your best bet for sans serif fonts. If you use these, most people will see the page correctly.
- Arial
- Arial Black
- Tahoma
- Trebuchet MS
- Verdana
- Century Gothic
- Geneva
- Lucida
- Lucida Sans
- Lucida Grande
Serif Web Safe Fonts
In typography, a serif /ˈsɛrɪf/ is a small line attached to the end of a stroke in a letter or symbol. A typeface with serifs is called a seriftypeface (or serifed typeface). A typeface without serifs is called sans serif or sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning "without".
These are your best bet for serif fonts.
These are your best bet for serif fonts.
- Courier
- Courier New
- Georgia
- Times
- Times New Roman
- MS Serif
- New York
- Palatino
- Palatino Linotype
Monospace Fonts
A monospaced font, also called a fixed-pitch, fixed-width, or non-proportional font, is a font whose letters and characters each occupy the same amount of horizontal space. These fonts were invented to meet the mechanical requirements of typewriters. These fonts take up more horizontal space which means you’ll get fewer words per page with a mono¬spaced font.
There are not as many monospace fonts that have wide acceptance across platforms. These are your best bets:
There are not as many monospace fonts that have wide acceptance across platforms. These are your best bets:
- Courier
- Courier New
- Lucida Console
- Monaco
Cursive and Fantasy Fonts
There is only one cursive font that is available on Windows and Macintosh, but not on Linux: Comic Sans MS. There are no fantasy fonts that have good coverage across browsers and operating systems.
Smart Phones and Mobile Devices
If you are designing pages for mobile devices, you have even fewer choices.
For Android devices, there are no common fonts, instead use the @font-face tag to import the fonts you want to use.
For iPhone, iPod, and iPad devices, the common fonts include:
For Android devices, there are no common fonts, instead use the @font-face tag to import the fonts you want to use.
For iPhone, iPod, and iPad devices, the common fonts include:
- Arial
- Courier
- Courier New
- Georgia
- Helvetica
- Palatino
- Times New Roman
- Trebuchet MS
- Verdana
