Fonts: What are your thoughts?

[LMC]

Hey,

I was wondering, as a designer, we try to use cool fonts that shine and are bold, but when it comes down to copy...

What font is good for the headline?
What font is good for body text?
What font is good for testimonials?

I appreciate your time.

LMC

[Alexa Smith]

For myself, I prefer to see different sizes/colours of the same font on the page. I think it's friendlier on the eye.

I think that using different fonts for different areas of the page can make it look somehow "cluttered" or "clumsy" and heterogenous.

You can still get all the variety/emphasis you want out of a single font, with changes of size, colour, bold/italic, and so on.

[I Write Junk Mail]

If we're talkin' online stuff, I use Verdana exclusively for body copy. Why? It was created by Microsoft just for screen use. You see, the human eye is strained an extra 20% or so reading screen type as compared to print. Using a print type, like Helvetica or Arial, simply adds to that eye strain. But Verdana (and its serif counterpart, Georgia) are more "open" designs. The spacing in and around each character a just a little bit bigger.

For headlines, I really like Impact, a sans serif font. It's got a compact width which allows for either really big type or lots of type in any given space. My second choice would be Helvetica or Tahoma.

If you're fixing your font size with CSS, do consider your audience. I keep my body copy at a 14px minimum and increase it with the age of my audience. Some of my copy can be very long. I want to make sure readers can make it through to the "buy now" button.

The most important factor in deciding on a screen font, is to not choose something so exotic that you're the only one on the planet who can see it. If the reader doesn't have the font installed on his computer, he gets the default font instead.

In print, I'm a Times kind of guy when it comes to body copy. Just about any of the aforementioned fonts will work well for headlines.

Hope that helps.

Roger

[Ideefixe]

Well, there is no 'best font size'! Just don't 'fix' your font size absolutely.

Because of the wide range of settings and equipment that people might be using to access the World Wide Web, there is no "best font size". Font sizes should be specified using relative units like percentage or EM, (in external CSS files) since these will allow the user to adjust font sizes up or down to suit their own requirements. Avoid using graphics of text, as this locks the text size, and makes it impossible for users to change it.


Most common fonts on Windows systems to 11 April 2009

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by I Write Junk Mail

... I use Verdana exclusively for body copy. Why? It was created by Microsoft just for screen use.

Very interesting. I didn't know that! But, now that you mention it, it is very readable.