The Importance of Fonts
Choosing the right type of font to use on a website is more important then you
may think.
There are two types of color systems, additive and subtractive.
An additive color system can be observed on a computer screen while a subtractive color system can be found in print.
A simple black on white combination on a screen can be overly luminous as well as harsh on the eyes when taking the additive color system into consideration.
There is a dramatic reduction in dpi from laser printed text (2400 dpi) to text that appears on a computer screen (96 dpi).
So you may wonder what makes a good screen font? One must keep in mind contrast and stroke, x-height, width, letter spacing,
and punch width when choosing an appropriate font for a website.
Font size is a very important aspect that must also be taken into consideration.
When choosing a font size, one should keep in mind that choosing sizes closer to one another for various levels within your site will
output a more professional and elegant webpage.
Font emphasis is another important factor. Not only will font emphasis aid in search engine optimization,
it also alerts viewers to what is important on a page or where the links are located. Search engine spiders look for phrases that are either in bold,
highlighted or between header tags. These phrases are deemed as important. One can therefore control keywords by placing them in bold or italics.
However, Italics is not always a good way to emphasize text. On low-resolution monitors italic text will not look that good due to slants and
curves found in italicized letters. Underlining as a means of emphasize is always a bad idea almost all web users identify underline text with links.
Using color as an emphasis is also very tricky and can become a accessibility issue. Capitalizing is also a bad form of emphasis as it is harder to read a sentence
in which all letters are capitalized then one containing lower case letters.
All of these issues need to be taken into account with every website. Choosing the proper text is vital to readability as well as accessibility.
