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Home » The Famous Blog » How to Choose a Typeface for Your Blog

How to Choose a Typeface for Your Blog

June 26, 2012 - Last Modified: March 29, 2014 by Jacqui MacKenzie

Blog Typeface

Typeface selection is important to the success of a blog. Your content might be great, but how much of an impact is it making if people can’t read it? An unappealing, difficult-to-read typeface will turn readers away, while the right styles and sizes can improve the look and readability of your blog.

Consider the following as you design your blog and choose the typeface that work best.

Company brands

Company brands often have a chosen typeface that remains consistent across all branding materials, including the website and blog. If you write a blog for a company that already has a brand in place, you may have little to no say over which typeface to use. That said, if you want to create a brand for your blog, typeface selection plays a big role. Choose a typeface that matches your brand’s style and message – for example, if you have a blog about custom metal fabrication, you might want a more modern, industrial look, and should choose the typeface accordingly.

Blog headlines

The blog’s headlines and titles are meant to draw readers’ attentions and let them know what the content is about. Headline text should have a bold, expressive typeface that is larger than the body text. A typeface like Verdana is not often used for headlines because there is too much spacing between characters, making it not as tidy to read when large. The most popular typefaces for headlines include Georgia and Arial.

Content body

For the body of the blog, choose a typeface that complements the headline and is easy to read. A body typeface that clashes with the headline can be hard on the eyes. Many websites use Arial, Georgia or Verdana in the body.

Other text

Don’t forget about the text for date headers, tabs, sidebars, menus and call to actions. Each of these plays key roles in your blog’s navigation and design, and should be in a typeface that makes them stand out without dominating the page.

Text size

The size of your chosen typeface is important – not only does a larger typeface help to draw attention, such as for headlines and call to actions, but they also determine the readability of your blog. Small typefaces create a light or dark texture to the text that can make it easier or harder to read, depending on the selection.

Letter spacing

Consider spacing between characters as well as spacing between lines when choosing a typeface. Crowded characters can make for difficult reading.

Combining typefaces

You may choose to use one typeface for your headlines and a different typeface for your body, rather than simply changing the size. Be careful that the typefaces do not cause tension – for example, a headline with a playful typeface and body text with a more traditional, formal typeface will clash and create a conflict within the blog’s overall design. Keep the style consistent throughout the entire blog.

Most popular

Some of the most popular typefaces, according to Smashing Magazine, include Georgia, Arial, Verdana, Lucida Grande and Helvetica.

Least popular

Times New Roman and Baskerville are some of the least popular typefaces, along with the much-ridiculed Comic Sans.

Whether you write a blog about Web design or for a knife safety gloves manufacturer, the typeface you choose truly matters. What are your thoughts on choosing a typeface?

Photo © nebari – Fotolia.com

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Filed Under: Blogging, Design

About Jacqui MacKenzie

Follow @StraightNorth

Jacqui MacKenzie is a writer for Straight North, an Internet marketing agency based in Chicago. Straight North services include social media marketing, SEO, Web design and more.

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{ 6 Responses }

  1. Salil Tembe says:
    Excellent information you have presented here. Although I had mentioned some of these tips in one of my own blog posts. And these tips really do work when you want to attract visitors form stumble upon.
  2. Soumitra says:
    Hi , The blogpost is great , though I just take care to make the posts Readable , Clear & large spaces. And I often use to use capitalization to words which i wish to emphasize.
  3. GreenLava says:
    I use Verdana on all my blogs. As for spacing between characters, you can always use CSS's letter-spacing to reduce it.
  4. Joe Boyle says:
    Typefaces. They give me a real headache in modern web design - everything is so complex nowadays because of how fancy things are looking universally. Users no longer are okay with the most basic of fonts - they wont something that really looks nice. Once you find fonts that you think look good, you are into the problem of universal web-safe fonts - that's a battle in itself. When I was working on the redesign of my website, I had the trouble of trying to figure out what fonts people liked, while also catering to my wide variety of users - I have users all across the board (Windows, Mac, Linux, different browsers, different resolutions). I think one of the greatest tools you can use to figure out what fonts is Google Analytics (or your hosting providor if they offer detailed analytics) - you can figure out what browsers and operating systems the majority of your users use and work around it. The only problem is that with progression, your audience will generally widley change, and so fonts will also have to change often. I'm in strong support of Arial and George (and Times New Roman, of course).
  5. Ivin says:
    Hello Jacqui. I generally go with what typeface the theme I'm using already has in it... But I reckon if you really want to get down and dirty, or you want your blogsite to look really original, or different from others within the same theme, you change the typeface. Also, the problem with a fancy typeface is that not all browsers can accommodation them, and then not all PC's have the font in stock. Many people don't know this, but if a font used anywhere on your PC is not in the Pc's font file, it won't show... The list you gave here from Smashing magazine is the most common and most used ones.
  6. Simmeon says:
    Hi Jacqui, The typeface I use the most is Verdana, it just looks professional and is easy to read. Looks nice in print aswell.

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