If you’re a font fanatic (like me), then perhaps you’ve already stumbled over Google’s ridiculously large repository of open source fonts at http://google.com/webfonts. Maybe you squee’d just a little bit (like me) when you realized the new heights to which your website could be elevated so easily by incorporating these fonts (with a modicum of restraint, of course – keep it “clean” people and just use one or two at a time).
Not all that long ago in the land of web design, we were limited to just a handful of what were considered “universal” fonts when it came to typography options on a website. In order to ensure that the font you intended on your website is what someone actually saw when they visited, you had to use a web-safe font meaning that 90% or more of computers generally had the font already installed or a close approximation to it. That’s right – your favorite font might have been Bookman Old Style, and you lovingly built your entire website around it, but there’s a pretty good chance, visitors to your site only saw boring old Times New Roman.
But those font-deprived days came to an end with the release of Google Webfonts a few years back. So this isn’t exactly “we interrupt this broadcast” type breaking news – it’s been around a while. But it’s definitely worth taking a gander if you’re contemplating building a new site or wanting to dust off the old one a smidge.
With almost 700 fonts (and counting), Google has opened up a smorgasbord of fresh font options.
And what’s even more exciting than having access to this amazing font vault for your website is that you can actually download the fonts you love and install them on your computer, too…for FREE! So all of a sudden, you can use that font you fall in love with not only on your website but across all your printed marketing materials, too. Awesome!
So without further ado, away Arial! Be gone, Georgia! See if you can’t find a new favorite to spice up your business:
Arial and Helvetica are graphic and web design industry standards. When you start actually looking at corporate logos and advertisements from a design perspective, you’ll start to see it everywhere. So too with websites. Open Sans is starting to have that same level of prevalence and popularity, but it doesn’t feel as heavy or overused.
For very many of my corporate years, Tahoma was my signature font (in purple no less – that probably should have been my first clue that I may not have exactly been “corporate material”). I still like it and occasionally use it as a fall back when for whatever reason I have to use some of the old standards. But I’m mostly a Lato girl now (the primary font used on this site).
Poor Comic Sans has become a bit of a pariah in the design industry (for some reason, it stirs up some strong emotions in designers). Way back when it first came out, I think it was appealing because it was more relaxed, less formal, and people were plain sick of Times New Roman and Arial, and they were desperate for something different.
When it comes to handwriting fonts, easy-to-read has to be one of the top priorities. I love Shadows Into Light Two for this reason – not too messy (I wish my own handwriting looked like this) but still light and fun.
I’ve always liked Arial Narrow as a web developer because I could squish more menu items in a fixed space on the menu bar without it looking too jam packed. Plus I love a skinny headline with a wider body text – I think it makes a compelling graphic statement. Roboto Condensed achieves the same thing with a slightly crisper, stronger effect.
Verdana tends to be a more square, wide sans-serif font without much panache. Muli, on the other hand, still has the easy-to-read, wider width but it’s more modern. I paired Muli with Roboto Condensed on one of my recent custom sites and I absolutely love how it turned out.
Georgia is formal and distinguished. As a wider-width serif font, it has always been great for headlines and printed text. Kameron is distinguished as well and has a similar letter width, but it’s unique with pleasing uniformity to the letter height.
I could go on (and on and on), but these will get your started. So give a fresh font a whirl and see if your site doesn’t thank you.
