Typography is important on any website since it ensures that we can comfortably read and comprehend its text-based content. We won't notice if a website's typography is good. If it fails, we'll most likely exit the page.

There is text on every page, and where there is text, there is either good or awful typography. As a result, as a website owner, you must devote effort to the typography of your site. By focusing on the appearance and readability of your words, you ensure that your work will not challenge your readers. Custom web design Melbourne company helps you with that purpose. Your attention to detail will express professionalism, empathy, and design smarts to the few who appreciate fine typography.

What is Website Typography

Typography, in general, controls how text appears to the reader, and how the words appear on a page or screen.

It is helpful for our purposes to focus solely on the text that we read on websites. This is because standard practices for web content frequently differ from printed text, and there is much more to consider online.

Aside from readability, You must consider the following points:

Shorter attention spans - there are nearly limitless internet selections available, many with better letters.
Users tend to visit web pages looking for something specific and want to discover it quickly, therefore immobility is important.
Because not all internet users interpret or interact with web text similarly.
The text should be legible across numerous device kinds and screen sizes.

Why Typography is Important

Typography is more than just selecting attractive fonts: it is an essential component of user interface design.

Good typography will create a strong visual hierarchy, bring aesthetic balance to the website, and set the overall tone for the product. Typography should guide and enlighten your users, improve readability and accessibility, and provide a positive user experience.

Web Typography Terms

There are some important terms in typography. Before moving to guidelines, it's important to know the basic typography terms.

Typefaces And Fonts

A font is the appearance and feel of a set of alphabetic and numeric characters. Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Courier, and Calibri are examples of popular typefaces.

But wait, aren't those fonts? Not quite. A font is a specific example of a typeface. Every font within a typeface has its weight (bolder or lighter), size (e.g., 16 px vs. 24 px), and other distinctive stylizations (e.g., italicised or non-italicized, rounded or unrounded).

Serif And Sans-Serif Fonts

Many fonts are classified into two types: serif and sans-serif. A serif is a tiny decorative protrusion of a letter's primary stroke. Serif fonts are those that have this styling. "Sans" is French meaning "without," and sans serif fonts are those that lack certain ornaments.

There are other font styles, such as script, which is significantly less widespread on the web than serif and sans-serif fonts. Script fonts mimic the various and frequently flowing strokes of handwriting. The script is a more difficult-to-read style than serif and sans serif and should be reserved for special occasions such as prominent headlines and beautiful party invitations.

Kerning

Kerning is the horizontal gap that exists between two distinct characters. To improve legibility and minimise awkward gaps, fonts might have narrower or broader kerning. Every pair of neighbouring characters in a common typeface has its own kerning, so all letters fit together snuggly.

Tracking

Tracking, like kerning, describes the spacing between letters. On the other hand, it refers to the general spacing between characters in a whole line or block of text, rather than just two specific letters.

Another typographic feature to consider for legibility is tracking. We can identify if a line of text is too widely spaced or appears to be squished.

Leading

The vertical gap between lines of text is referred to as leading (pronounced similarly to the term "lead"). Leading is commonly represented in phrases like "single-spaced" or "double-spaced," but it can also be expressed in pixels or points. Again, the proper amount of leading aids readers in navigating material; too much or too little is difficult to read.

Hierarchy

Most web pages, especially text-heavy ones, divide content into topical sections. Headings indicate and label these parts. The hierarchy of the page is comprised of the order of text from most prominent to least prominent.

Hierarchy is essential for making pages easy to navigate and digest. Readers should be able to skip to any area that interests them simply by looking at the headings. Typography uses distinct font sizes, font weights, font styles, and possibly different fonts or typefaces entirely to imply hierarchy.

A typical blog post hierarchy, for example, begins with the title text (also known as "Heading 1" or "H1"), followed by section headers of increasing specificity and decreasing visual prominence (H2s, H3s, etc.). Finally, we arrive at the body text, which may be the shortest yet provides the information that readers seek.

Guidelines of Typography

You've probably never given much thought to typography on the web. This is because successful websites have typography down pat. Years of trial, error, and experimentation have resulted in the following 5 best practices – utilise them to ensure your site's typography satisfies expectations and keeps users reading (or at least skimming).

Limit The Number of Typefaces

Use no more than two different typefaces throughout your website to preserve aesthetic consistency. Many websites work well with a single typeface, especially if different fonts within the typeface are used for diverse purposes (like headings, body, button text, etc.).

Use Sans-Serif Font For Body Text

While serif fonts are commonly used in printed writing, most typography experts agree that sans serif fonts are more readable in digital situations. Without embellishments, our eyes can follow web content more easily.

This isn't to say that serif fonts can't be used on your website - serif writing in a title, heading, pull quote, or ornamental area can capture attention and give excellent contrast. However, your content is better "sans" for blocks of text that demand more effort to read and understand.

Size Your Text Accordingly

Web designers specify font size with pixels (px) rather than points (pt). This is because a pixel is a standardized unit online, whereas a font point is not — two people reading 12pt text on the same website might see different things depending on their devices or web browsers.

A common practice is to set all website text to a minimum size of 16px. This is roughly the size of the body text in printed media and is the smallest font that most people can read without needing to zoom in. Of course, you can and should increase and vary the size of your text to assist readers further and establish hierarchy, but don’t go overboard with massive fonts either.

Don’t Use All Caps

This is a simpler guideline — "all caps" is superfluous in almost all instances except decorative writing, branding, and the occasional set of headings. Bold the body or heading text to emphasise it. This has the same effect but is more readable and visually appealing.

Provide Proper Spacing

Readers can easily follow single lines of text and return to the next line after a line break if whitespace is appropriately used. Vertical space is typically allocated by accessibility frameworks based on the font size of the appropriate text.

Start with a spacing of 1.5 for body text, which implies the leading is 50% the height of the text line. This distance should be slightly greater for headings. Start with a spacing of 2.5 between paragraphs and modify it up or down from there.

Conclusion

Typography is an essential part of web design which is often overlooked. A website with good typography always attracts people. Moreover, it is one of the main factors to engage users for more time. So, we suggest you follow these guidelines to come up with an effective UI design.