Essential Web Typography Tips

Communication, like the internet, has come a very long way and is completely digital. The digital world has enticed us with the written word for conveying our thoughts.

Writers use different fonts and typefaces to draw in readers, set the tone of the content, and get their message across. This is where Typographers come into play. These unique, professional people fully understand how important the written word is to capture and inspire readers on the internet. They understand readers’ attention span and know how to stay within those boundaries.

There are many web design courses that will inspire you in the basics of typography which is a critical part of an effective platform for writing online. Having skills in typography as web designers allow them to stand out from the crowd, allowing them to provide more engaging, artful, and practical platforms.

Whether you are new in the field of web designing or are seasoned, experienced professionals working for a well-known, reputable web design studios San Francisco,  it can be quite daunting trying to keep up with all the strange and wacky things going on with typography.

If this interests you, you might not know where to get started, you might not know if there are rules that must be followed, etc. On a positive note, typography is pretty open but there are rules that must be followed. Keep reading to discover some good ideas for creating good web designing:

Keep the Hierarchy Clean and Clear

You might not know but topography hierarchy is extremely important when working with web designing.  Consider every time you are on the internet and the amount of text you run into. You deal with headers, sidebars, text embedded in images, paragraphs, etc. Simply put, there is a ton of text surrounding you. This leads to another question, how can you take this information and make it clean and clear content that is easily understood?. You have to create a type hierarchy for ranking purposes!

When you create a good hierarchy, you are guiding readers where to start, where to pick up reading, and realizing what is important information vs not important. When you have an effective hierarchy, you do not have to rely on the placement of text in order to readers know where they should start taking in the text.

Be Consistent with Your Typography

One of the biggest mistakes that designers step into is not having consistency in typography. Unlike print designers, you do not have to carefully design each letter on the page, it’s not necessary

You should not try to design each letter on the site. Instead, think about the Cascading style sheets. Just set up your font and size, what line spacing works for you, the color of the font, and any other features you have in mind.

Read Through the Text

As a professional web designer, you don’t just stick images and text into a web layout. You need to hone your professional skills to make your web design stand out. Start by reading through your text before putting it into a web layout. If you have access to the text you will be using, read it carefully, it will help you make better decisions regarding the design and the content.

Make a note, once you have finished laying everything out, go back through and check all the elements and text to make sure you have not made mistakes or left something out. It’s actually quite common with web designers to forget to handle simple things because they have gotten wrapped up. Check simple things like bullet points, are they in place?

Both Macro and Micro Typography Matter!

For a web designer to have a successful design, Pay attention to the fine details of micro and macro typography. Even if you think you have the best layout, things can go south in a heartbeat if you overlook the micro-side. The best micro-typography won’t mean a thing to readers if it’s not laid out clearly using the proper principles for topography. This is important.

It seems that designers are either really good at one but not the other. Sit back and consider where your strong point is micro or macro. Once you know, start working on the one you are weak at. Practice and pay attention to the details you are missing with the weaker skill.

Matching Colors and Typography

Most designers realize that the color of the text is very important and must be taken into consideration. There are far too many sites out there that do not realize how important the font colors are and end up with a color that doesn’t work and is difficult for readers:

• The typography is too difficult to read.

• It’s boring

• Stay away from the strange! You do not have to use every color in the rainbow all over your page. Stay away from colors that are really terrible such as red text with a green background or white text on a very light beige background! Choose colors that are simple and easy for your fonts and make sure what you choose can be read. Make sure your links all have color so readers know they can click on them. Most software has a blue default.

Use “Live Text” When Designing

When you are in the process of designing the site, understand there is no replacement for the “real” text. You can use an imitation text to see how it looks in the layout but once you are almost done, go back to the original text you or your client is planning on using. This is the only way you can coordinate the design with the text and see the impact on the website’s appearance. Things that are overlooked, even if they are small, can harm the design. Take your time and use the live text before saying the design is done.

Make Your Typographic Personality Visible

The best part of typography, there are so many distinct approaches when designing. Every designer has his or her own style and there is no right or wrong way. The best way to think of it, your type has its own personality so go ahead and play around with it with various creative ideas.

Conclusion: Practice Makes Perfect

Web designing takes work to master several different things to finally create a great layout. Typography is one of those areas that come into play. Web designers do understand how important typography is will find success many times over. It takes practice to find the best layout for your work but it’s not that complicated to understand the topography. Just know it takes some work to find the right paths for your project.

Find some time to practice. Find an article to re-design, maybe you read an article that has stayed with you. Re-design it and see what you think. When you practice, use your own ideas and you will find each time you are getting better results. The more you practice, the more you will understand the basics of design and realize it’s not as difficult as you thought.