My 7 tips for better website typography
Have you ever been on a website where there is too much copy and you lose interest right away? Typography is an important factor to any website. If the text is hard to read it can have a huge factor in how long people spend on your site. Here are a couple of easy tips to make your site enjoyable to read.
1. VARIETY
Put text in boxes to highlight certain areas. Have two columns, make the text blocks more narrow, divide it with headings or icons. Bullet points are also a great way to create quick and short copy that is easy for viewers to read.
2. WIDTH
This is the biggest mistake I see on other websites. If you have one big text block that is too wide your eye can’t concentrate on which line it is on. Best tip is to add space on each side so that the width of the text block is much easier to read.
3. HIERARCHY
Have a font hierarchy where the headings are bigger and the body text is smaller. Depending on your brand identity find out which font is used for each. You should have a main heading (H1), a subheading (H2) and a smaller one (H3). This creates variety and splits up the copy too, making it easier to read.
4. FONT
Your body text has to be easy to read. You can’t choose a script font or use capital letters. Even though a serif font is beautiful, it’s actually easier to read a sans-serif on a screen (the one you are seeing right here), and for print a serif font is better. Your main headings or highlighted text can be a more complicated font, while your body text should be an easy font to read.
5. SIZING
The body/main text should not be too small or too big. Small sizing might look nice, but it’s important to think about the age of the users and font size. Older readers might prefer a bigger font type, so ask a few people if they find it easy to read.
6. COLOURS
Be careful with background colour and text colour, you want them to be able to read all of the text. Certain colours can be hard to read like red f.ex. If you have a dark background use white as the font colour f.ex. Make sure the colours match the rest of your brand identity and that you can read it. A lighter background and dark text colour is best. Also 100% black can be too harsh, so go for a slightly dark grey.
7. CAPITALS
All capitals are good for headings, but not for body font. This is because it takes your eyes longer to read capitals. If there is a lot of text that is in capitals your eyes will get tired.
