Choosing the Right Type

The article “On Web Typography” by Jason Santa Maria focuses on choosing the right typeface for website designs. It has become more important for designers to have a good understanding of typography and on what typefaces and typeface pairings to use that best represents the overall message of the site. The importance of this issue has increased in the past couple years once typefaces were made available for free on websites and with CSS allowing designers to link to any font-face file. Jason says that it’s important to practice the art of typography by really understanding what each typeface means. 

One of the most important things when choosing a typefaces is readability. Reading is a learned behavior, and since simple serif and sans serif are mostly what we read today, it becomes easiest to read. Besides readability, typography is about the details, like personality and contrast when choosing pairs of typefaces. Pairing serif and sans serif fonts or bold and italic fonts help to add variety and contrast. It’s also important to figure out the qualities of the message that we want communicated and then choose typefaces based on those qualities. They might also have a connection to a certain time period or culture so it’s important to make sure a typeface does’t evoke the wrong connotation. Typography is a powerful tool so use it to your advantage. 

I agree with Jason that it is very important to think carefully about your choice in selecting a typeface. As he stated, “...with great power comes great responsibility. Just because you can use the font that looks like it’s wearing bellbottoms, doesn’t mean you should.” It’s true that having a more wide and available variety of typefaces can help you create an aesthetic for your website. Sometimes, though, less is more. I think that for a lot of websites, it’s better to pick a simple and clean typeface that will not distract from the message of the website but rather draw attention to the website’s content. I think audiences now-a-days really gravitate towards simple and straightforward design. They want a website that is easy to navigate and by choosing a simple typeface, this is the best and quickest way to make that possible.


-k

References

Maria, Jason Santa. (2009). On Web Typography. A List Apart: For People Who Make 

          Websites, 296. http://www.alistapart.com/articles/on-web-typography/