What are the best fonts to use on a website or blog? This may seem like a minor choice, but it is not. Find out more in this article.
Choosing the right font for your website is a fundamental step to guarantee users the best possible experience in reading content. In order for the reader to concentrate on what is written, it is important to pay attention to how it is written: The text, in fact, must be immediately understandable for the reader, whose eyes must not strain themselves in reading. Now let's see what are the best fonts for websites .
What is a font
Before going to identify the best fonts for websites, it is good to clarify the concept of fonts and fonts. Often these two terms are used synonymously, but between the two there is a nuance that differentiates them.
The " character " is a letter (for example the character "c"), a punctuation mark or a symbol. It can be composed of several glyphs ("C", "c", " c ", " c "). The set of characters and glyphs designed with the same visual coherence and meaning is defined in the common language "font", a term that in reality, more technically, would identify the means that allows you to apply a character.
The word "font" is the English transposition of the medieval French term " source ", which originally meant " spindle " (in reference to Gutenberg's movable type machine).
The different types of fonts
We assume that not all fonts are free : for some, as well as for example for photographs or songs, it is necessary to purchase the license as it is covered by copyright.
Difference between Font Serif and Sans Serif
There are two macro-categories: serif (with grace) and sans serif (without grace).
Serif typeface
The first category includes those characters that have particular signs at the beginning and at the end of the auctions, aimed at making the appearance more graceful and accompanying the eye in reading from one character to another of the text. Serif typefaces are widely used on printed paper , while they are less suitable for display on a computer screen because at low resolutions they show a more evident pixel effect.
An example of a serif typeface is the Times New Roman .
Sans Serif typeface
The sans serif typefaces, devoid of those particular signs mentioned above, are simpler and more schematic and, even at low resolutions, are more legible. An example is Arial .
Decorative and Calligraphic Fonts
Among the various types of fonts, there are also decorative fonts (which present particular decorations for the fonts and which are sometimes used on the web for titles, subtitles or banners) and calligraphic fonts (which simulate handwriting and, therefore, are very elegant, albeit difficult to read).
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Font and readability: how to choose
To identify the readability of a font, it is useful to use the so-called " test Il1 " (upper case, lower case, number one): by writing these three characters very similar to each other with the various fonts to be tested, it is possible to identify them quickly and the one that allows you to better distinguish them is evident (for example, using the Gill Sans MT font these three characters are practically indistinguishable from each other).
There are other factors to consider for the readability of a text on the web:
Horizontal spacing
The horizontal spacing can be fixed or proportional : with fixed spacing, each character occupies the same space horizontally while, with proportional spacing, the width of a character is variable. In general, proportional spacing is preferable for elegance , but in some cases it is necessary to create columned texts.
Vertical spacing
The vertical spacing , also known as line spacing , is another element to be taken into account for the readability of text on the web: greater spacing leaves breathe more text and makes it more pleasant to read.
Size of the characters
The size of the characters also affects the readability of a text on the web: the advice is always to find the right compromise between the needs of style and readability, since a text with a smaller size can be very complicated to read , especially on smaller screens like those of smartphones.
The most used fonts on the web
Among the most used fonts on the web there are:
The Arial (also used by Google, Twitter and Facebook);
The Verdana (used by Facebook and Instagram, as well as by ebay);
The Helvetica Neue (used by Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo).
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These are three sans serif fonts and this provides a precise indication of the choice of font for blogs and sites. Another aspect that this data highlights is that a site can also use multiple fonts inside it . In this regard, however, the advice is to not exaggerate in terms of the variety of fonts.
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