Do Fonts Matter?

The best picked fonts help tell YOUR story. It wouldn't be helpful to you at all to hear what MY font is. One thing to keep in mind, however, is readability. Your favorite font might be incredibly hard on the eyes.

"Wingdings" would be a very good one to avoid, if you want anyone actually to read your email.

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Choosing fonts depends on what kind of story would like to tell: modern, traditional, dreamy, grunge etc. For all these options exist infinite font options. In general try to avoid fonts that look too artistic to actually can be read, fonts that look too much like handwriting included. Also, try not to use Comic Sans, you know what the Internet and pretty much everyone thinks of this type of fonts. Usually sans serif fonts are easily to read and look more slim, modern and minimalist.

Harrison, as a qualified graphic designer I can tell you categorically that YES fonts matter!

Different fonts evoke different feelings and emotions within the customer.

Of course, real designers never use the term 'font', they prefer 'typeface'.

Yes, font does matter. When? check out your website in mobile version if you want to know whether size/design of font is suitable for your user or not. I prefer large font with line height 1.625 -1.75,because it really easy to read when browsing using mobile/ipad. Thus, it will help visitor to stay lot longer and bounce rate will decrease.

Yes fonts matter. Fonts will dictate if the user can easily read your information and will set a 'vibe' for what you're making. For example, if you're putting together information for a professional and use a comic font...it will be obvious you have no idea what you're doing. But if you use something more professional like Myriad Pro it will look right because it will match the subject...if that makes any sense...lol.

Font size and color also matter.

Totally agree with John here: "it can also be one of those rabbit holes where you can lose hours or days or more fussing over the perfect typeface."

I'm a font freak, it has to be said. I believe they help convey the essence of the delivered material, and as such, I've been known to spend hours, DAYS, looking for the right one. You can buy premium ones and I have a collection that probably equals the price of a nice car. Well worth the extra effort, though, whether buying a font for commercial use or finding a free one.

An easy way to choose the "best" font is to look at the fonts
used by popular sites such as Facebook and Amazon.com.

These are companies that run usability tests, so you don't have
to. You'll notice they all use sans serif (without curls at the end)
fonts. They are easier to read online.

-Ray Edwards

Fonts matter and it should go with the flow of your website.

Design should integrate. That means the font should be appropriate for the SUBJECT. That means that a different font would be appropriate for a website on ancient history, compared to one on computer games.

The general rule, is that if you can't explain why an aspect of the design is the best choice for the subject as a whole, then that aspect of the design is wrong. That applies to images, layout, fonts, and everything else.

A common mistake for newbies in IM as well as in general in business, is to ask for a design style that they personally like, even though it has nothing at all to do with the subject the design is for. Another common mistake is assuming that the more different "graphic tricks" used, the better, such as different fonts, different sizes, different colors, flashing signs, photos, illustrations etc. most of which will make the website worse, not better.

Look at examples of websites that have won design awards . . . they will use ONE font (occasionally two but only for specific reasons), and the design will make sense as a whole, with every aspect of it contributing something and being obviously relevant.

Obviously you've got to make sure that everything is clear and readable, for most uses. These days, since more people use mobile devices to access the internet than computers, good website design, whether WordPress or Html, has to be Responsive, which means that it will automatically adjust itself to display well on all devices from a small mobile phone up to the biggest screens used with a computer. This obviously applies to fonts too, as if you use the same font-size for biggest screens and smallest mobile-devices, it's going to be unsuitable for one of the other.

While images can occasionally help make a point or illustrate something, most websites who do AB testing find that for ad copy (selling something), the images make the response worse, because they take attention away from the words which are what is doing the selling most effectively.

So that's a brief over-view of a few of the main points about things like fonts. Look at the design of this forum, it's relatively simple and there's only one font being used (apart from in adverts), but some different sizes and colors and backgrounds of that font to help make the site more easily usable. So it makes sense, is easy to read, forms a "style" that fits the subject, etc.

I hope that's of some help.

Chris