I’ve recently been doing a lot of research into typography.
The common misconception about typography is that it is just about choosing a font. Typography actually entails a lot more than that. Typography is as much about the space around the text, and in between the text, as the text itself.
Good typography is invisible. Its sole purpose is to aid reading.
If you are interested in reading more about typography and its proper use, then have a read over these 2 articles:
- “The elements of typographic style applied to the web” by Richard Rutter
- “Five simple steps to better typography” by Mark Boulton
Did you know there is an optimum width for a Measure? Do you even know what a Measure is?
“A Measure is the name given to the width of a body of type. It is defined by the amount of characters that are in the line. A general good rule of thumb is 2-3 alphabets in length, or 52-78 characters (including spaces). This is for legibility purposes.“
How long is the measure on your website? Have you had a thought about its legibility?
If Mr. Rutter or Mr. Boulton have got you inspired about typography, and how it can be used better on your website, then you might want to experiment with some new fonts. Here are a couple of free font sites that are worth checking out:
If you can think of any other quality, free font sites worth mentioning then leave a comment below and I’ll make sure to add them to the list above.
2 responses
Weird. Typography was one of the chapters in my course curriculum – but other than Varsity I never really gave it a second thought (which is a no-no seeing as im a designer first and foremost). Good article + thanks for the links.
dafont.com is excellent – it’s at the top of my bookmarks list. I doubt you’d find another free site like it.