Typography is More Than Letters

Typography is everywhere we look, 95% of the information on the web is written language. It is only logical to say that a web designer should get good training in the main discipline of shaping written information, in other words: Typography.

When you’re planning a website, it’s easy to get lost in the details. Between the architecture and the color palette, there’s a lot to think about – especially if usability and the user’s experience is your primary concern. Just like other aspects of web design, there is plenty of room to get creative with your typography. However, choosing powerful fonts for your design involves more than selecting something that just looks good. As with any type of design strategy, there are several techniques involved.

Focusing on typography during the website planning process is important. Use it to help create websites that speak to their users – not just through words, but also through the characters that create those words.

Let’s remind ourselves of the different elements of typography:

Fonts and Typefaces - Fonts refer to the weights, widths, and styles that constitute a typeface, and a typeface is a family of related fonts. The three basic kinds of typeface are serif, sans-serif, and decorative.

Consistency - Keeping your typefaces consistent is the key to avoiding confusion. Sticking to the same font style will help your readers instantly understand what they’re reading, and begin to notice a pattern.

White space - Also known as ‘negative space,’ white space is the space around text or graphics. It tends to go unnoticed by the user, but proper use of white space ensures the interface is uncluttered.

Alignment - Alignment is the process of unifying and composing text, graphics, and images to ensure there is equal space, size, and distances between each element.

Color - One of the most exciting elements of typography is color. Color has three key components: value, hue, and saturation. A good designer will know how to balance these three components to make the text both eye-catching and clearly legible, even for those with visual impairments.

Hierarchy - Establishing hierarchy is one of the most vital principles of typography. Typographical hierarchy aims to create a clear distinction between prominent pieces of copy that should be noticed and read first, and standard text copy.

Contrast - Like hierarchy, contrast helps to convey which ideas or message you want to emphasize to your readers.

In any given design, you can be dealing with any range of topics and through well-chosen typefaces, a designer can make information a client has, not just easily readable but also make the readers eyes move smoothly along a page.

In conclusion, typography is a strong tool in a designer’s tool kit. Bad typography choices can distract users from reading. It’s essential to make typography readable, understandable, and legible.