Tips to choosing fonts for your website

If you’ve already started choosing fonts for your website, you probably already know that it can be a little overwhelming. There are just so many to choose from and, if you’re a regular reader of ours, you’ll have heard us say that fonts can have a direct impact on your website’s user experience.

Below are four tips for choosing fonts that will help as you begin selecting them for your website.

Company image

The moment a visitor lands on your website, they have an idea about who you are as a company. With your design choices, you’re creating a tone and personality for your business. Things like your logo, your graphics and your fonts are all a part of the identity you’re creating.

As a business owner, you know who your ideal customer is. Your font choice should reflect the type of customer you want to attract. If you’re an accountant, you might pick a more traditional font that’s representative of your professional work. A bakery may opt for something a little more unconventional.

There are four types to consider:

  • Serif fonts have added strokes or feet at the end of each letter. These tend be considered serious and traditional.
  • Sans-serif fonts don’t have the added feet. Sans literally means “without”. They have a modern and casual feel.
  • Decorative fonts feature unconventional letter designs. They are unique and fun, meant for ornamental purposes only.
  • Script fonts imitate cursive handwriting. They can add a sophisticated and elegant element to your content.

There is an abundance of great choices among all four types so play around to see what fits best with your company’s personality.

Selecting a font (or two)

We would recommend 2 or 3 fonts that complement each other. Using too many can be overwhelming, less attractive and difficult to read for your visitors.

Just because a font looks good independently doesn’t mean it will work with your other choices. Try them together to find what works and what doesn’t. You’ll be surprised by what you like, or don’t like, once you starting playing with fonts alongside each other.

It is possible to use only one font for your website. Be mindful, though, using a single one for the company logo, headers, body content and calls to action is quite a lot of work. Adjustments need to be made to the weight, size and line height in order to create contrast between accent fonts and the main body font.

Useful Tips:

If you already have a logo and branding in place, consider using fonts of the same style.

  • Primary font for headers and titles should match the style of your logo
  • Body content and paragraph fonts should complement the primary one and be easily readable
  • Accent font for buttons, CTAs and to highlight certain text when you want to grab a visitor’s attention

Different languages

The world grows smaller and smaller with the internet. Users from around the world, speaking different languages, could be viewing your website. When they are, they’re probably using the translation feature in their browser in order to read your content in their preferred language. Actually, visitors right in your own backyard might be using this tool as well.

If your chosen fonts only have Latin letters, the translate feature will use a different font that has not been carefully selected by you for the accented letters. This will give your content a wonky feel since single words could have two incompatible fonts spelling them out.

It's a small world after all
Es un mundo pequeño después de todo
в конце концов, это маленький мир

Selecting fonts that include characters from other languages will keep your website consistent for a wider range of viewers.

Trends

You want fonts that will stand the test of time. Just like 80’s music, if it’s too trendy and niche, once the trend has passed, your website will continue to live in that time. You’ll find yourself redesigning sooner than you’d anticipated. To avoid this, include a timeless font like Helvetica or Clarendon in your choices.

Final word

It can seem like a daunting task but if you give your company’s image and audience some thought, you’ll be on the right track to choosing fonts that will help create a great user experience.

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