Monday, August 30, 2010

Finding Right Web Fonts For Web Design

Jim Mowery, a self-described computer geek contacted me recently and expressed interest in submitting an article for our blog. I looked over his material and thought you might find it useful. Ben

Finding Right Web Fonts for Web Design

by James Mowery

Choosing good fonts seem to be one of the hardest parts of a web design. How can you choose a good looking font without using the same 
2 or 3 websafe fonts over and over? You can probably work a traditional font into your design, but even the standard Times New Roman or Helvetica isn't present on 100% of computers. Here are some ways to use the latest technology to make sure that you get the font you want on your site.


HTML 5 / CSS 3 Embeded Fonts



Let's get this out of the way first. It is possible to embed a font in your webpage and send it to users. This would be great, except for the fact that it has all sorts of issues. For one thing, it has major compatibility problems. You have to do quite a bit of CSS and HTML magic to get it to work exactly the same on all browsers. Even if you get it to work, then there's still the issue of getting a font. Technically, this counts as redistributing a font, so you can't do it unless you are licensed to use the font (which is expensive), or use a public domain font (which can work, but there are many bad free fonts out there and only a few good ones).

The Free Way: http://code.google.com/apis/webfonts/"
target="_blank">Google Fonts API



The Google Fonts API is a great free service which lets you use any of the fonts in their (somewhat limited) directory for free. All you have to do is add a header link to your HTML to import a stylesheet, and then you can use the font.

The Paid Way: http://typekit.com/" target="_blank">TypeKit



Same thing as Google Fonts API, only it costs - but they have a way bigger and better selection of fonts. You can sign up and use their service to legally and easily embed fonts on your site.

About the author: James Mowery is a computer geek that writes about technology and related topics. To read more blog posts by him, go to http://www.ledtv.org">led tv.

11 comments:

Jad Smith said...

When we use a good font in our site,our site become attractive as well as unfriendly.
Thank you.
Dallas web design

Alakmalak Technologies said...

it is important to choose fonts which are readable, are in tune with the character of your website and most importantly compatible with the largest number of computers.
Thanks.
sanj

Aidan said...

Web font plays the chief role in creating web design surrey. If any individual use the wrong web font, then the web pages normally appear unprofessional and there will be chances of loosing visitors also.

Steve F said...

Great post, thanks for putting this together. Check out Google Font API is you haven't already heard of it.

Seth Czerepak said...

That's actually a good one...Google API that is. Glad you mentioned it.

Jean Henry Mead said...

Good information but I was unable to pull up either site.

RoseKeys said...
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RoseKeys said...
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Unknown said...


Nice information.!!
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Sekar said...

Bootstrap technology is the one I am not familiar with. The advantages of Bootstrap technology inspire me to use this technology in my website. Great work author.
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