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More than just a bunch of text placed together, typography has so much to offer to businesses fighting over the limited attention of their website visitors.
The fact is, typography sets the mood of your website design. It entices a user to read a certain line of text, scroll a little more on your web page, and remarkably introduce your brand.
However, only a few business owners see the importance of typography, and this article intends to help you appreciate its contribution to the harmony of a jaw-dropping web design.
What Is Typography In Web Design?
We see typography everywhere. From food packages, and street signs, to a website, it helps us pause for a moment and read what’s written.
In the simplest terms, it’s the art of arranging typeface in a way that draws attention, especially in choosing the perfect font styles, spacing, and size.
In the context of website design, it is the intelligent use of text to draw attention to an important part of your web page and effectively deliver your message to your target audience.
It helps readers navigate your website by just looking at the headings, subheadings, and the body of your content.
What is the relationship between typography and readability?
The text’s typographic elements are crucial; letter size, shape, and spacing all have an important role in ensuring readability across your platform.
It is possible to improve (or degrade) the reading experience by altering the typeface, typeface properties, and page layout. You can boost learning and productivity by making content more readable.
What Are The Four Different Font Types?
Serif and Sans Serif typefaces are the most regularly used sets of typefaces on the internet.
- Serif conveys a sense of formality and traditionalism. They make long paragraphs more readable.
- Sans-serif font improves legibility on low-resolution devices, which makes the web design pop.
- Slab highlights thick and bold text to command emphasis.
- Script typeface is designed to look like it’s a hand-written text. It’s used to bring more human touch to words.
What Is The Difference Between Font And Typeface?
These two names are distinct in that a typeface (also known as a type family) is the designation given to a specific collection of related typefaces. Common examples of typefaces include Arial and Times New Roman.
Meanwhile, font refers to a specific combination or typesetting of weight, width, and style within a specific font.
Each variation of a typeface is referred to as a font. While Helvetica may be the typeface used in a project, the actual font we refer to is Helvetica Regular 12 points.
Why Is Good Typography Important In Design?
Think of a book without titles, headings, subheadings, or any clues of what’s inside. You might close it immediately because all you see is a block of text and nothing seems to give any signs of excitement and fun when you read it.
Similarly, you might just hastily exit if a website doesn’t give you the excitement to know more of what’s inside.
Here are some reasons why typography is so important.
Enhances Readability
Typography helps readers consume information quickly following the concept of visual hierarchy. It means that the most critical information is displayed in bigger text size, and the supporting details are displayed in smaller proportions.
In addition, headlines are given bigger font weights than the body text to allow readers to quickly skim through the whole page and have an idea about the content and its sequence.
Choosing an appropriate typeface, kerning, and line length will increase the flow of the text. People will absorb the information effortlessly, which makes the user experience more engaging.
Maintains Consistency
Consistency is one of the most important aspects of web design typography. It makes a website appear more professional since it follows a consistent style that blends well with a superior graphic design.
Sticking to your unique font choice keeps your user interface simple and easy to navigate. It brings a strong sense of familiarity and harmony that helps your users to understand your content and go through each section of your site swiftly.
Strengthens Brand Recognition
Typography can be your best friend if you want to get ahead of the curve in executing your digital marketing strategies and securing a unique brand identity.
In an era of hyper-competition, many brands are ditching web fonts, google fonts, and other generic typefaces as they want to convey a message that encapsulates their brand’s message just by looking at their unique web typography.
It evokes a particular emotion when someone visits your website or social media accounts because good typography makes the website content more human—and we like it that way.
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What Makes Good Typography?
As they say, a good website design is invisible. You can’t pinpoint right away if it’s a good design- you need to consume more and more of it until you realize that you have just discovered a masterpiece.
What’s visible, though, are bad designs. It distracts web visitors from what they are doing, and you can’t make sense of all the information presented.
To avoid that, here are some elements that make clean-cut typography.
Headers
Headers are there to divide your pages and content into bite-sized information. It makes the reading experience much more straightforward because anyone can skim through the content and look for the information without wasting too much time.
Aside from allowing human readers to feel comfortable, using proper headers is a good practice to boost the SEO-friendliness of your website.
White Space
White space is the most crucial design element the brain employs to understand the relationship of things and command uninterrupted attention.
A layout that uses white space to arrange things properly creates a relaxing reading and user experience.
White space gives breathing room for your text, images, and other elements to convey a message to your users. Specifically, it:
- Regulates the flow of information and aids the brain in perceiving the relationships between the various aspects.
- Assists the brain in determining which components belong together.
- Helps the user fulfill the goal without difficulty by directing their sight toward the items that are most crucial for a certain task.
Text Density
Text density is affected by spacing options such as line height, letter spacing, and text size.
When you want to keep your content readable, the text should not look too compressed or too distant from each other. Be sure to declare the proper sizes of these on CSS to keep your design and web development clean.
Hierarchy
Grouping visual components into hierarchies allow the viewer to understand how the whole and its parts relate quickly. The user may easily determine which difficulties are crucial for each project and which belong together.
By implementing a visual hierarchy, the user may immediately begin the workflow or go to deeper levels of the content more quickly.
People’s brains tend to organize things and make patterns out of them. We search for order in chaos. By demonstrating the priority order of concerns, for instance, by employing white space and text size, you significantly reduce the amount of work the brain must do.
Emphasis of Elements
When you want to deliver your intentions, it’s better to emphasize them in your typography design. Use italics for the important text you want to highlight or have it bold if you want it to be eye-catching.
Ditch the lengthy paragraphs on your body copy. Use bullet points to your advantage to divide some ideas into short phrases or sections.
Having said all this, typography makes your web design more lively and you can never go wrong if you invest more resources in improving it.