What is the best way to choose the right Fonts for your eCommerce Website

The brand of your online store is made up of a lot of different elements, from the colors and your logo to the languages you choose to use as well as the level of your customer support. Also the fonts play a large component of this.

The fonts you choose to use for your site will go a long ways to creating the impression of your business which is professional, playful and serious etc. Additionally, they play an crucial role in ensuring the best experience to your users, especially those with vision impairments.

However, how do you pick the correct fonts, and then make use of them in the most efficient manner?

An introduction to typefaces and fonts

Let's take a step back for a moment. It's likely that you've heard of typefaces such as Times New Roman, Helvetica, and the much-maligned Comic Sans. What are they precisely?

The definition of a font is the digital representation of text which includes various styles. As an example, Helvetica has 36 different options, including:

• Helvetica Light (the thin version)
• Helvetica Oblique (the italicized version)
• Helvetica Bold (the bold version)
• Helvetica Black (an even thicker, bolder version)
• Helvetica Condensed (a version that has more letters)
• Helvetica Rounded (a version with the letters rounded)

A font is highly specific with exact weights and styles. Thus, Helvetica Bold is a font. Helvetica is an typeface. To make this piece We'll use the phrases "typeface" and "font" interchangeably.

There are four major kinds of fonts you can choose from, and you can mix and match to create an appropriate look for your website.

Serif fonts include extra strokes that are added to specific letters, in contrast, Serif fonts do not. Serif fonts do not include the strokes. You can see an example of the letters without and with serifs in the following:

Serif fonts generally are more traditional and are perfect for exuding confidence and knowledge. They can also be easier to read, because the serifs help define every letter separately. Sans serif fonts look clean and can feel more easy to read than other fonts. They're still simple and easy to read even in huge volumes of text.

Script and handwritten fontsclosely mimic handwriting, and are sometimes very ornate. They are a lot more readable than others, and they vary widely in their style. Here are some examples

As you can see, one is very elegant, while the other looks quite more casual.

Fonts for displayare extremely diverse and include anything that could be considered decorative. They differ in appearance and feel, but usually, they're used only to create titles. Below are three examples of display fonts:

They don't all look like each other, do they? But they're a great option to build brand swag.

How to choose and implement the appropriate fonts

Now that we've established the basics, let's look at a some helpful guideline for selecting the appropriate typefaces for your store.

1. Consider legibility

The purpose of text is that it should be read -- so legibility is the most important consideration when choosing your font. If visitors can't read your text and understand your offerings or get information the details about your business or even buy anything!

Your body text should always be either a serif or sans serif font because they allow readers to comprehend long paragraphs or blocks of text. Keep script and display fonts for headings. And, even then, make sure they're easy to read.

The next thing to be thinking about is the spacing between your texts. There are three main space considerations to be aware of:

1. Kerning is the amount that space is left between two characters. A proper kerning process ensures that every word is individually legible and that one word doesn't appear to be two words.
2. Leading The distance between two lines of text. Proper leading makes paragraphs of text easier to read.
3. Tracking Controls the spacing between letters for words as a unit and not just individual characters. Therefore, instead of changing the spacing between "t" and the "h" in the word "this" then you'd have to alter the spacing between all four letters simultaneously.

This is a visual representation of each of them:

The ideal spacing between the letters and lines can make it simpler for people to read, especially in paragraph form. Don't worry; knowing more about this will be fun! There are great online games that provide practical practice.

2. Take a look at the brand's identity

The brand's personality will determine what differentiates you from the rest. It's what defines the character of your business. The fonts you select can be a key element that reveals your personality to prospective as well as existing customers.

What emotion are you hoping to instill on your site? Funny and fun? Dependable and reliable? Modern and stylish? Let's take a glance at how some websites make use of fonts in order to express their identity.

Scratch Pet Food has a brand that's super friendly, and their fonts reflect that. The fonts are extra aggressive sans serif to highlight headlines and a more light sans serif font for body text.

Flwr is an interior design company as well as a design studio. Since they make designs for weddings and other special occasions It is logical to have their fonts gorgeous and stylish. They blend a contemporary serif and a thin sans serif font to create a distinctive look that matches the bouquets they design.

Ryanair's corporate website is, well, corporate -- and their fonts reflect that. They've chosen variants of the same basic professional font to use for headlines as well as body text. It's professional without seeming stuffy.

Do you see the way these three organizations use fonts in order to convey what they want customers to feel when they see their logo? It's the same process. Don't be afraid to play around with fonts, either, until you find the perfect appearance.

3. Limit yourself to a few of fonts

Although it's tempting to include all of the great fonts you find on your website but you should limit yourself to a few. If not, your website could appear disjointed and scattered all over the place or cause a confusing experience for visitors.

When choosing your fonts, pair them in different scenarios to see if they work well together. One font could be used for headings, while an alternative as body text. You can also use variations of a font like the bold type or all caps -for a distinct font without straying from the identical font family.

Daelmans Stroopwafels For instance, HTML0 uses the same fonts for headlines and body text. They employ a bold all-caps style for their headings and a lighter one for body text. But, to add even more personality, they occasionally utilize a script font that matches the caramel that is used in their offerings. This script, when used sparingly, is effective at highlighting important concepts and making their site feel authentic and unique.

Scrollino the shop that sells children's products is using a very friendly and casual serif font to make their headlines. The font is paired with a crisp, easy sans serif font for body text, which gives it a lovely and fun feel.

4. Make sure you choose the appropriate font size

It's important that your font is big enough that visitors can read even those who have visual impairments. It is generally recommended to use 16px for the minimum size you need to use, though that can differ based depending on your font. For example, some fonts can be difficult to read smaller.

If possible, ask for real-life people to look over the text to see whether it's simple to understand. And make sure to review it on devices of any kind -- including tablets, desktops, and mobile phones. Applications such as Screenfly make this process a lot simpler.

Heggerty, a company offering curriculum and other teaching resources, uses pleasantly big size fonts. While they're not so big that they take over design, they're simple and easy to read across all devices.

5. Take into account accessibility

One of those things is to ensure that the text is big enough for readers and not complicatedas we have discussed previously. But you also want to take into consideration color contrast. You need to make sure that the text you write on is simple to read no matter what background is it on, no matter if that's a solid color, design, or even an image.

Contrast ratio ranges between 1:1 (white on white) up to 21:1 (black on white). The the contrast ratio you're looking for when using text is 7:1 for body text , and 4.5:1 when it comes to headlines. It is possible to use the WAVE accessibility tool to evaluate your website for contrast ratios in color, and other accessibility factors.

Track 7 Brewing is a master of contrast in color with dark backgrounds. On their homepage, they make use of either white or orange text so that it stands out from the darkened image behind it.

6. Beware of all caps within paragraphs.

While all caps can be effective in making an impression but they can also be difficult to read within bodies of text. Our brains simply have trouble reading text that is capitalized in paragraph format, which causes reading to be slower and more difficult.

So, if you do wish to make use of all caps, use it sparingly and only in headlines. This is what Veer uses with all capital letters. make great points and grabbing attention on their website, however they avoid it in paragraphs.

What are web safe fonts?

Browsers render and load fonts differently across the web. Web safe fonts are ones that are beautiful and function correctly on all browsers and all devices. And while you don't necessarily want to avoid the amazing personal fonts you select for your brand, you do want to add web safe options to the font library -- the assortment of fonts that you will use on your website.

Doing this essentially sets an alternate font for your online store, and allows you full control over how text displays if, due to some reason, your custom font won't display for the user. You can, for instance, instruct browsers to choose Playfair if your custom font isn't in stock, Georgia if Playfair isn't an option, and then a default serif type if none of them works.

Kinsta gives helpful tips on how to include secure fonts for backup on your website.

Where to find fonts for your website

So how do you find great fonts for your online shop? Your first step is to make sure that you have the legal right to utilize the fonts you choose. Certain fonts are free for all purposes Some fonts are paid for that are suitable for all uses, and still others are available for free onlyfor private use. Make sure you know what the terms of the license mean for your fonts.

Below are some excellent resources for website fonts:

• Google Fonts: Google Fonts has an enormous collection of fonts, which can be downloaded for both commercial and personal use. You can also use their tools to preview fonts in action.
• Your website's theme WordPress theme: A lot of WordPress themes have the font libraries, which are often from sources like Google fonts, that you are able to use to build your website.
• Creative Market A marketplace online to sell digital assets Creative Market offers some really gorgeous, original fonts available with a range of styles.
• Font Squirrel: This resource sort fonts into categories and allows you to preview the fonts. Be careful though -- certain fonts are only for personal use and you should understand the font you're downloading.
• Adobe Fonts: These are high-quality typefaces for businesses who are holders of Creative Cloud licenses.

Change the font of your site

Now that you've picked your fonts, it's time to add them to your website. There are three methods to accomplish this:

1. Utilize your theme

As we mentioned many themes include a library of fonts. Many themes let you apply these fonts on your site through their individual settings panel. Or, you can configure the fonts with the WordPress Customizer.

1. Within your WordPress dashboard, go to the Appearance tab and then Customize.
2. Select the Fontsoption.
3. Select the dropdowns for each type of text -- Headings or Base Font, etc. -- and select the font you want to use. Every time you change fonts, the preview of your website will change to let you see how the site will appear like prior to installing the font.

The Customizer can change the settings for font style (bold, italicized, etc.) and font size.

2. Use a plugin

If your theme doesn't include fonts, or doesn't offer the fonts you want to use, the next most efficient option is using an extension. There's a myriad of choices, however if you want to use the Google font, then the WP Google Fonts is the best choice. It gives you access to the complete Google Fonts library, then allows you to apply individual fonts to different areas of your site, like headings, paragraphs and lists.

If you'd like to utilize a custom font from elsewhere you can try the Custom Fonts plugin. It lets you upload your own fonts and even integrates with popular themes and page builders to provide an easier setup.

3. Use custom code

If you're familiar with the code There are two additional alternatives:

1. Host fonts on your own website, and utilize code to apply them to text areas
2. Download the fonts using a third-party source (like Google Fonts) and add them to the queue.

For further details and directions For more details and directions, refer to this article by Kinsta.

Be creative but keep in mind that simplicity is the best

Have fun with your fonts! Make your brand unique and choose options that best represent the feel of your company. However, at the same keep in mind that simplicity is often the preferred method. Choose fonts that are easy to read, and don't make it too complicated by using four or five different options. Your audience should be your top priority.