How do you choose the right fonts for your website and branding

Mar 28, 2024

The font you choose for your website says a lot about your business' personality and values. Utilize these guidelines to choose the right web font.

It's likely that fonts are nothing but a minor thing in the design of your site.

They're the window treatment on the structure, aren't they?

Not quite.

Fonts are an essential part of your brand and can have big impacts on the perception of your company.

Today, we bring you seven essential tips for finding appropriate fonts to use on your site, from choosing the top fonts and where you can download the fonts.

It is able to change the entire world.

However, we must first discuss why a font of different names isn't as sweet.

The importance of fonts for websites?

There's a lot riding on the fonts on your site since they aid in communicating your business persona, brand and core principles.

Through visuals the font on your site conveys a message to your audience in a way that they do not have to read the site's copy.

Consider, for instance, Mailchimp , that rebranded its website using font Cooper Light.

Why did they go with Cooper Light?

Mailchimp believes the font can be "dressed-up and casual, or more formal and accessible". It also is a symbol of trust, honesty, and optimism. These are characteristics that are in line with their brand values.

The right fonts also have a practical use. They help users quickly understand the message of your company across a range of devices and platforms.

Airbnb , for example, chose a font dubbed Cereal because it functions well across a variety of offline and online platforms. Cereal is a font that presents Airbnb as easy to use and a user-friendly experience.

Speaking of accessibility, you must pick a font that's usable to everyone your audience members in particular if your company has a variety of languages.

If you choose the right font, one that is readable by visitors who use different languages, visitors who use an automated translator will be able to browse your site with ease.

In this case, let's take the following text " The quick brown the fox ."

In English, the text is easily read in Merriweather font.

But, when translated into Czech, it's much less readable and aesthetically-pleasing.

So, if a significant part of your audience is translating your website into another language, ensure that the font you use is accessible in all languages.

Beyond the ability to read, many research studies show that fonts have an impact on consumers' views of a brand and its products in general.

As an example, font characteristics such as naturalness, balance, and weight- influence your audience's general impression of your brand.

They also affect your audience's purchase decision-making.

A study has revealed that when consumers shop for a relaxing vacation, an easy-to-read font makes them more likely to spend money on the trip.

On the contrary, though consumers are looking for a more adventurous tour and a font that's difficult to read, it will increase their desire to pay for a tour.

Alongside the above impacts, fonts also affect the experience of your customers beyond the point of purchase, and influence the perception of your product and product experiences.

In fact, in the case of curvilinearity, it was evident that curvilinearity - -or fonts that have curvilinear lines had an impact on diners' and expectations as well as their experiences.

Is there a moral to this?

Website fonts influence how your visitors perceive your brand product, services, and experience They also affect your site's accessibility and ease-of-use.

However, choosing the right font to send the correct message is only part of the puzzle.

Familiarize yourself with our four best practices, and you'll be much further along in finding the perfect font for your needs.

The 4 best tips to pick the right fonts for your website

Tip #1: Use easy-to-read fonts

The best fonts to use on websites are those that can be easily read.

In the event that your visitors may abandon your site because it's not easy to understand. Naturally, this will mean you'll spend less time reading the marketing message and delving into your website's features.

Readability must be your first priority when choosing the font for your website. It'll make all of your content -- from blog's content to call-to action (CTA) buttons, to headers -- more digestible.

There isn't a single standard website font that works well for all businesses, Verdana and Georgia are great choices for text that is long on a website.

This is also backed by this study in which Verdana proved to be great for reading long text on screens.

Reading comprehension is essential in the case of displaying testimonials on your site. In fact, difficult-to-read fonts could negatively impact favorable reviews. Customers believe the credibility of a reviewer in the event that their reviews are easy to read.

However, even though readability is a big priority, it comes with a caveat: easy-to-read fonts may not be as memorable.

So much so that one study found when writing in difficult to read fonts it's more likely to be rememberable in comparison to when you write in a simple font.

The study cautions against going too far and employing fonts that make reading more difficult all-around for people who read.

It begs the question: how can you find a balance between simple-to-read and difficult-to-read fonts on your website?

In simple terms, adhere to this two-part rule of thumb:

Wild Side Design  For instance, it employs multiple fonts to focus attention of users to different parts of their page.

Although the majority of its content is easily readable font however, its CTAs, captions, and headlines use more elaborate fonts.

If you want to see another instance, go for the Mad Hippie , a skincare firm. It displays a font that looks handwritten to emphasize subheadings and short descriptions about its offerings.

Whatever your choice of fonts, here's the gist:

The fonts that are simple to read are typically the best fonts for website text, specifically long pieces of copy. The fonts with the most difficulty to read might be ideal for important information for shorter periods -- that you want people to be able to recall.

Copy lengths and fonts aren't the only factors to play around with. You should also consider size and that leads us to the next point.

Tip 2: Make your font size big (enough)

While there is no uniform font size for websites however, you'll need to make it large enough for your customers to read on any device.

A study suggested that websites with a lot of text use the font of size 18 or larger.

A similar study revealed that the readability and accuracy of answers to comprehension questions, increase when using a larger font size.

In addition, bigger size fonts can aid people who have visual or reading impairments.

Additionally, for young and old people, larger font sizes can lead to greater productivity and accuracy, as well as a longer seeing distance and lower perception of task difficulty.

If that's not enough to convince you to use a larger font on your website Here's a second reason for you.

The font size of websites can impact readability and understandability for people who suffer from dyslexia too. The study suggests that you use a 18-point font in the design of a site with those with dyslexia.

To summarize:

While our two tips thus have been focused on the functionality of fonts, our third tip focuses on the aesthetics of the fonts.

Tip #3: Don't use more than three size fonts, fonts or colors

Utilizing a variety of types of fonts, sizes of fonts and colors for your site can draw attention to various elements of your website, like CTAs, testimonials, and other important text.

That being said that you must limit how many fonts and colors you utilize, in order to ensure a consistent, visually pleasing visual experience.

If you don't have a website, it could become difficult or confusing to navigate. You may also miss your mark when it comes to transmitting your message as your page is too cluttered by a myriad of.

If you want to see one example of a brand which does an excellent job using their fonts, colors and messaging, look to Lowe's , which uses white, black, blue and gray text, as well as numerous fonts on their website.

This works in line with the color scheme of the brand and gender-neutral DIY home improvement branding.

Workationing can also help balance the variation in fonts well on their site. The site uses black text for title of articles and more lengthy copy with white text, as well as black for headlines, buttons as well as shorter texts.

Though you're welcome to play around with colors other than white and black It is generally recommended to only use two or three hues.

The reason being colors other than white and black can be difficult to read on a website. Thus, keep the non-black and white hues as accent colors that draw attention to something you want to highlight on your site.

Think about The Abundant Artist as an instance. The majority of their content is black, they employ orange as headlines and for article categories.

If you're trying to choose the right combination for your site take a look at this article to fonts that go together . Also, if you're using Google fonts for your website, don't miss the 21 Google Font combinations .

Basically:

It's fine to spice up your website with various fonts and sizes or even colors. Be sure that each font complements the other and still offers a seamless and clean browsing experience for visitors.

Reduce your flash down to a minimum since you'll need to keep designs consistent throughout your websites.

Tip #4: Make sure you keep your fonts consistent

Our last tip for today is to use consistent fonts across your website.

Why?

In addition to enhancing your image, consistent font usage provides your visitors with an improved user experience and makes perusing your site more enjoyable.

Particularly employing the same fonts in similar formats (such for headlines or body content) aids users in finding details more quickly. In the end, 56% of customers are hoping to find the information they need in three clicks or less, so whatever you can do to make navigation easier is beneficial.

Furthermore, when you display a a unified appearance on your site, you also seem more professional and trustworthy.

It's a huge deal considering a whopping 48% of consumers believe that the website of a company is among the most reliable sources of information.

The process of gaining trust from your site's visitors is a fast process, too. These days, people evaluate a site's credibility in 3.42 seconds by its visual appearance.

Furthermore, the consistency between a brand's image and web page can result in the development of a positive outlook towards the brand, as well.

For you to make sure that you can reap all of these advantages, here are two examples of companies that employ the same fonts.

Amazon uses the Amazon Ember font. Amazon Ember throughout its homepage.

Not to toot our own to the world, but we do use the same fonts for the headers as well as regular text on web pages too.

The main takeaway is using the same fonts and identical elements throughout your site to make it easier for users to navigate around.

Once you've mastered font best practices We'll look at how you can utilize them to select the perfect fonts for your website.

How to find the best font for your website

#1. Determine what message you'd like your font to send

Although readability is the primary consideration when choosing the right font, the message you want it to send is the second.

This restaurant chose a font that tied in the image they portray of high-end food, such as.

Nature  is an academic journal. picked a font known as Harding since they needed an appropriate font to represent mathematical symbols and formulae.

They also chose a new font which gave the impression of "calm intelligent, rational" to align with their logo.

While fonts are simply substitutes for spoken words, they can send off quite different messages.

Take a look at Times News Roman, a popular font. Times New Roman was perceived as more funny and comical in comparison to Arial when study participants used satirical writings in the Times font.

In a separate study, experimental participants were shown email messages written in different styles of fonts.

People who were exposed to an email in Gigi (which is shown below) considered it more rebellious and youthful in comparison to other fonts studied. Participants also believed that Gigi to be less sturdy as well as practical.

Participants also considered the author for the Gigi email to be less trustworthy, professional and older.

This research shows that fonts can say a lot more about your company and personal style than the actual words they represent.

For ensuring that the audience is interpreting the message in a correct manner, make sure you test your fonts before a site-wide rollout.

2. Test your fonts on your target audience

Your font should not only be easy to read, but it should also be fun to be able to.

As they say that time is a blur when you're having fun as is the case for the time spent on your website.

The fact is that the test participants did not realize how long they were studying a text by three mins and 18 secs  in the average when they read a text with good typography.

In contrast to those who read a text with poor quality fonts and who overestimated their reading time in 24 seconds, at a typical.

These findings suggest that a font with a high-quality design can keep readers engaged with your site's text, so it's important to choose the appropriate one.

Your findings might upend your expectations But that's not a bad aspect -- your investigation should help you identify ways to make your site more appealing to your visitors rather than confirm your ideas.

As an example, you might believe that a more simple font can increase conversions for your product and sales pages. However, a study has discovered that using a smoother font was not effective for increasing the rate at which an eCommerce site converts customers.

The lesson here is to test fonts with your audience before applying the same fonts to your website in general. The way that customers interpret those fonts and the way they respond to them -might surprise you.

But, if your findings are not conclusive or if you do not have enough people to survey You can choose our final suggestion.

#3: When in doubt, opt for a common font

In the meantime, until you can determine the best fonts to represent your company, stay with the most popular fonts on websites such as Georgia and Verdana.

We mentioned it earlier that several studies have found Verdana to be among the most effective fonts to use for websites body text.

A research study found that subjects in a study expressed an preference to read Verdana while reading on the computer screen. The participants also read faster and had less regressions (backward movements) in reading texts that was written in Verdana.

An additional study showed that participants preferred the 12-point dot matrix Arial font. Yet another study suggested that people read more quickly in sans serif fonts.

You might be afraid that customers might confuse your company with another you used a common font and it's certainly not unreasonable.

The companies are often criticized for using the same or similar fonts within their brandingtake a look at how similar the fonts used by Google, Airbnb, Spotify as well as Pinterest can be.

However, as businessman Thierry Brunfaut observes, using the same fonts as other companies isn't always a bad thing.

Thierry stated that:

"The amount of visuals the consumer is bombarded by every day is tremendous -on the streets as well as on a laptop or on a mobile.
A visual chaos that can be difficult to get through. Most of the time, clarity have been the key words for every brand.
All these striking and neutral logos send consumers the same story"Our brand and products are straightforward, easy, and clear. They are also extremely accessible."

Basically:

Don't shy away from common fonts- they can often help customers to access your website or convey a more powerful message to customers that a distinctive (untested) font might.

Whether you're sticking with your old font or are looking to try a completely new typeface, look through the font foundries below for adding new fonts to your site.

How do you find the most effective fonts for your website

In the case of finding the right fonts for your site, there are two options. The first is to use what's built into your website builder of choice.

The second is to use a font foundry or website on which fonts can be downloaded and/or sale, which of course, opens you up to more possibilities.

The top online font foundries include:

#1. Google Fonts

Google Fonts is one of the best websites for fonts and is arguably the best website for free fonts. Creators can access hundreds of fonts open source which can be utilized to create fonts in over 135 languages.

Each of the fonts that are available through Google Fonts is available for use at no cost and may be employed to create commercial purposes .

#2. Fonts.com

Similar to Google Fonts, Fonts.com offers hundreds of fonts available to pick from for front -- more than 150,000, to be more exact.

You'll have to buy each font before you can use the font.

#3. Fontspring

Fontspring is a font foundry that also has thousands of premium fonts available for purchase.

What separates Fontspring different from other fonts is the fact that they have a badge for fonts that aren't forced to impose limitations or conditions on their users.

This lowers your chance of not enforcing your contract with a font purchased through their website.

#4. What Font

What Font is a web-based font detection extension which helps you find the fonts on any given web page.

Although it does not have fonts for sale, it helps you identify a font on another site that you'd like to use to create your own.

#5. Type Detail

If you've come across a font you like however you're not sure of how it will look in various sizes and weights visit Type Detail.

Type Details reveals (naturally) details about many popular fonts, such as this one for a font called Neue Swift .

In addition, Type Detail shows how the font appears when it is in different sizes and weights, what makes the font unique as well as similar fonts.

If you're able you can find the perfect font, find out how you can easily alter the fonts displayed on your shopfront.

How to change fonts on your storefront

Your website can be changed the fonts within a blink of an eye if you host your storefront on .

To begin, navigate to the Editor and choose the page you wish to change. Then, select your headings and body type style by clicking on the "Fonts" dropdown menu.

Just click the arrow downwards next to each font box then select the font that you like.

There you are! Now you've added a new font to your shopfront.

Choose the most appropriate typeface for your site in a few simple steps

The fonts you choose to use are not just for words -- they can influence how others perceive your business.

Naturally, choosing a font for your business must be a priority along with choosing the right color scheme, logo, and layout for your site.

If you are using fonts on websites When using fonts from websites, it is recommended to:

Use an easy-to-read font

Make your font large enough to allow most people to read (size 18 font or bigger)

Do not use a lot of different styles sizes, colors or styles

Maintain a consistent font use

Select a font which conveys the correct message about your brand

Check your font's performance with your target audience

Choose a font that is common if you can't yet decide which fonts to go with.

With the correct color scheme and logo the fonts you use on your website can make the difference between creating a positive and poor impression of the visitors to your site. Let's make sure you give them a positive impression.