A key part of the usability of a blog is its ability to be read. In addition to other aspects of the design and format discussed ago, the font we use greatly influence to achieve an enjoyable read for the eyes of our visitors. We think that most Internet users have not yet adapted to the screen reading this, our task is to provide the maximum ease of reading.
The main characteristics that should be taken into account when choosing a font are:
- Meet the character of your site.
- Easy to read computer screen.
- Are available in different browsers and operating systems.
Word Processor Type fonts
The sources can be divided into two groups: serif, sans-serif
The difference between them is that the serifs have small horizontal lines above and below, and a small tail. An example would be for serif is Times New Roman and Arial for sans-serif .
Overall users find easier to read sans-serif fonts.
This is Arial font. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec at dolor sit amet arcu pellentesque blandit. Praesent id varius sapien. Quisque vestibulum eros fermentum mauris accumsan sagittis.
This is Times New Roman font. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Sed vulputate laoreet leo, eget suscipit libero venenatis consequat. Maecenas imperdiet scelerisque adipiscing. Nulla vitae turpis turpis. Sed nunc massa, accumsan ornare rutrum nec, rutrum eget massa. Vivamus pretium pellentesque justo.
Font size
The average size of font used in the webs is 12px (size = 3). One thing that seems clear is the contraindication of use fonts too small, like 9px. This is also discouraged by the W3C . Ideally, give the user the ability to adjust the font size for your needs, however, many blogs offer this option is not possible.
You might have noticed, many popular blogs with lot of Advertisements uses lighter font with lower size. The is that the user will come closer towards the screen so that will become fatigue and spend longer time in the website. The chance of wrongly clicking on Advertisements obviously increases. The practice should be identified by big search engines like Google and these devil-websites should be taken in to account. Making an user leaning towards the computer screen is not a good healthy thing at all. The dummy text written in Times New Roman above is obviously very hard to read than this text.
“Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit…”
“There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain…”
Analysis of different sources
Arial
It is probably the source format most commonly used of sans-serif, their availability is wide.
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It is one of the most used, but loses quality when it is smaller, its character is modern but it can be rather flat and boring.
Its Mac equivalent is Helvetica.
Times New Roman
Its availability is also broad and is the most common serif format. It is the browsers default font.
Its readability is acceptable for font sizes from 12px up but disastrous for smaller sizes.
Its character is serious, formal and somewhat antiquated.
The Mac equivalent is Times.
Verdana
It is a sans-serif with high availability, was included with Internet Explorer 3, when it required a larger font for ease of reading.It is to be noted, this font has been developed for Microsoft.
Its readership, is exceptional even in small sizes.
Its character is modern, friendly and professional.
Georgia
Its availability is good, was introduced with IE4.
Its readability is very good, it is best to read online serif font as it is created for that purpose.
Its character is modern, professional and friendly.
There are other sources such as Comic Sans, whose reading is good, however, does not seem suited to provide a serious nature to your blog, besides being a source a bit hated by designers.
Trebuchet is similar to Arial and difficult to read small sizes. Finally, Courier New, a serif font that mimics the old typewriters and Sule used to represent HTML code.
Conclusions
It seems that the best source to use on the web could be both Verdana and Georgia.
All Type-face preview pictures are property of Wikipedia; we have used for illustration purpose only. Dummy text are produced using Lipsum generator.
About Abhishek Ghosh
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