Comments on: A Basic Look at Typography in Web Design

By: j_hatfield

j_hatfield — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 19:54:31 +0000

This is a great tutorial, I’ve been looking for a blog to show my clients who know very little about type (the kind that thinks “bleeding cowboys” looks good on anything) and I love the example websites you provided. I did find this article that gives a brief tutorial that might be good for some people who have a good idea about fonts but maybe just need a refresher course:

http://www.back40design.com/news/m.blog/22/communicate-trust-through-typography

By: Anni

Anni — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 23:04:10 +0000

Thank you, Shannon, for this helpful website!

By: Nick Gassmann

Nick Gassmann — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:17:26 +0000

Didn’t see the post date. Blame it on the twitter bot that linked here. You’re probably already dropping sIFR from your suggested rotation.

By: Nick Gassmann

Nick Gassmann — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:09:50 +0000

Shannon,

sIFR is kind of dead. Hasn’t been updated since 2008 and even the developer knows that it is not the best solution. With @font-face, cufon and the rest, I think it’s time to stop talking about sIFR. As much as I liked it and used it, I have since moved to Cufon and Typekit. Best and easiest IMO.

By: Craig

Craig — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 20:19:52 +0000

Great overview of the basics of web typography! Fantastic perspective with valuable practical tips. Thanks!

By: Robert Seaton

Robert Seaton — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 04:48:36 +0000

Hi,

I notice that you claim sans-serif is more readable on computer displays, but you link to an unsourced sentence in a Wikipedia article. Why not just say “because your cousin’s uncle said so?”

I don’t mean to sound harsh, and sure, maybe sans-serif is more readable, but it would be nice to see some actual evidence backing up that claim before I base any design choices around it.

By: kiran

kiran — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 07:04:36 +0000

Thank you Shannon

By: NoeliePoelie

NoeliePoelie — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 18:34:10 +0000

I am an old, retired typographer and it is great to read an article by someone who loves type. Go raibh maith agat.

Dublin, ireland

By: Davie-Boy

Davie-Boy — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:12:25 +0000

Good news for all you font lovers out there. A revolution is slowly taking place regarding the use of fonts on the internet. Keep an eye on the fontshop. They’re one of the original font developers from way back when photo-typesetting was a new technology (late 1970′s- early 80′s). This is what they’re saying:
“Most fonts are designed to be used in desktop applications for design that will be printed or output as an image file or PDF. Web fonts are an entirely new category of fonts optimized for use on web pages using the @font-face rule. This fairly new addition to CSS allows fonts to be linked in web pages and downloaded by browsers so that anyone who visits the page can view the fonts declared by the page’s designer. This means your website can display indexable, editable, resizable, dynamic HTML text in a font other than the handful of “web safe” options we’ve had to rely on for years.”
Read more here:
http://www.fontshop.com/blog/?cat=80&utm_source=NewsletterFeb2410&utm_medium=email&utm_content=WebVersion&utm_term=em&utm_campaign=FF52Web

By: josh

josh — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:16:18 +0000

“In my opinion, it is *how* the font is used which determines whether sans serif or serif fonts are best for any given example.”

Correct, however correctly used serif trumps sans for printed work 100% of the time. Screen is somewhat different because serifs break at smaller sizes due to low res (compared to print).