Typography can be a very powerful tool in creating an overall positive user experience on your website. The best fonts for websites can help you communicate your message much more effectively and engage your visitors. Good typography can spell the difference between an amateur-looking site and a professional one, so it’s important to choose your fonts wisely. Here is a good starter guide to choosing the right fonts for your website.
How to Pick a Font for Your Website
“What font should I use?” is one of the questions that always appear when you are planning a website.
Does font matter?
Just choose the default fonts, right? Isn’t any font good if people can read your writing?
While readability is a must have quality for a font, you should also consider several things. There are brands of your company to consider and a niche and content of your company.
In short, it is complicated. But fear not, here are several things that you need to consider when you are choosing best fonts for websites.
1. Your Website Fonts Should Match Your Brand Image
When choosing the best font for website content, you don’t need to follow and use what is on-trend. Trends come and go but your brand and your website will stay for the long haul. You want to select a font that matches your brand’s personality and style. You don’t have to go bold if your brand leans more on the conservative side. Your audience will feel a disconnect between your brand and your website design if you choose a font that is a total opposite of your company’s image.
2. No More Than Three Typefaces Is Enough
There’s nothing worse than a cluttered and confusing website content. Keep your design clean by choosing up to three good fonts for websites. Too many different fonts for websites create a disconnect and give the impression that one group of text is not related to another.
3. Learn the Different Font Classifications and How They Are Typically Used
When looking for good website fonts, it would help to know the different font classifications and when they are usually used. For instance, Serif fonts are popularly used in print media such as books and newspapers. They are seen as more elegant and classical, and they appeal to an older audience group. In recent years, they have been applied to websites particularly those whose design leans toward the rustic and vintage.
Meanwhile, Sans Serif fonts are some of the best fonts for websites because they render well on computer screens and mobile devices. They are also modern looking so they work well with websites whose audience consists of a much younger crowd.
Finally, the Script fonts refer to handwriting style typefaces and are divided into formal and casual variants. These typefaces tend to draw focus on the text because they tend to stand out but you want to use them more on titles rather than paragraph text.
4. Mix It Up a Bit
Don’t be afraid of mixing different font styles to find the best combination that will represent your brand. There are hundreds of fonts on Strikingly website editor for you to play around with. If you’re on a Pro account, you can also upload your own font to make your website more unique. Test things out through the site editor and view your website through different screens to give you a good idea of how your page will look like with different font combinations.
If you want to be on the safe side, you can also opt to use fonts from the same family. This is a group of typefaces that may just vary in width, weight, or orientation but not the overall design. A good example is the Roboto font family. You will find Roboto normal which is a sans serif typeface, a narrow version called Roboto Condensed and a serif type called Roboto Slab. You can combine these fonts on your copy.
5. Think About Your Content
Your choice of the best fonts for websites would also depend on your content. If you have a text-heavy site, it might make sense to choose sans-serif typefaces on paragraph text to make it easier on the eye. Using script fonts on this portion of the content may affect readability, especially when your site is viewed through a smaller screen. Also, if you have a lot of content, you don’t want to use typefaces that may be too narrow.
Best Fonts for Websites
While you need to consider several things before choosing a font, there are several fonts that are considered the best website fonts that you can use to suit your needs. Some of these fonts have a neutral look, meaning that you can use them in almost any situation or context, while some are more specialized. Here are some of the best website fonts you can use on your website:
• Arial
It is the font that has won the hearts of Google Docs developers as they used it as the default font for the web app. It is a safe bet if you don’t want to experiment with many things as it looks neutral.
• Times New Roman
The go-to font when you want an instant professional look. This font has become the media favorite and if your website is news or journalism oriented, this is definitely one of the best fonts for your website.
• Helvetica
Designers loved it, so why won’t you? The font looks neutral and suitable for any kind of content. Even many top tier companies, such as BMW, have used the font. So, if you are ever unsure what kind of font you should use, this font should be one the best fonts you can ever use on your website.
• Times
This font is the younger sibling of the Times New Roman. If you ever feel that Times New Roman is overused but still wants to maintain a professional or even an academic look, then this font can suit your needs.
• Calibri
Try to open Microsoft Words for the first time, and what did you see? Calibri is used as the font, that is what you will see. It is the default font for the biggest word processor software, so you do not need to worry whether people will find this font readable or not.
Best Places to Find Fonts for Websites
There are several websites where you can find all the best fonts for your websites. You can find a paid one and a free one. Let’s us take a look at some of them:
• Adobe Fonts
Image taken from Adobe Fonts website
This one comes from Adobe, one of the best creative softwares developers. This service gives you access to more than 14.000 fonts. You can use fonts that you found here on both online and desktop.
• Adobe Fonts Marketplace
If Adobe Fonts is a subscription service, meaning you paid for a service and get access to their collection of tonts, Adobe Fonts Marketplace is where you can find and buy individual fonts. This service offers a free sign up and you only need to pay when you want to purchase a certain font.
Once you make a purchase, you gain access to Adobe’s subscription library and you can use fonts that you bought for personal and commercial purposes.
• FontFont
If you are in the mood to experiment and want to express your website’s brand and content in different ways, FontFont is the go-to place to find fonts for your website. You can find almost any types of fonts that you can imagine here.
It is the home to almost 3000 fonts and 400 font families. So, you really have plenty of options to choose from here. You can also visit its shop in FontShop where they offer many new fonts and deals. It also offers additional plugins to help you work with Adobe CC (Creative Cloud).
• Google Fonts
Image taken from Google Fonts website
You know Google as the biggest search engine already, but what you might not know is that Google has an open font library with plenty of fonts to choose from.
As Google is a big company when it comes to data and such, Google Fonts also offers analytics regarding usage and demographics of a certain font. You can also find the people behind the fonts and the creation process of the fonts that you choose.
• WildType
If you ever wanted to experiment but do not have the money to do so, WildType is the go-to place to find fonts that can express your inner creative side.
As the name suggests, you can find many wild type fonts. You can find brush lettering and even futuristic looking fonts. They also offer priced fonts, but their free collection can be enough to satisfy your creative side.
Find The Best Fonts For Your Website with Strikingly
Image taken from Strikingly website
At Strikingly, you don't have to bother looking for fonts from outside sources for you to use on your website. Strikingly has a collection of more than 100 fonts that you can use to build a brand on your website.
Image taken from Strikingly product
Not only that, if you feel that you still lack in the font collection that Strikingly has, you can upload the fonts you have taken from outside sources to your website at Strikingly. You can upload up to 25 custom fonts to your website.
Image taken from Strikingly product
All of this you can get for as little as $ 192 / year with a Plan Pro subscription from Strikingly. Apart from getting font choices and customization, you will also get other features from Strikingly that you can use to help you build your website brand.
Image taken from Strikingly website
So what are you waiting for? Start branding your business by creating a website using Strikingly!