Typefaces and fonts online

Whether you are an editor, designer or a blogger, you definitely need to know which typeface to use and where to use them. Think of it as handwriting. Let’s say that people still write letters, you wouldn’t write the same way to your lover and to your boss. You would put some cursive and some edges when expressing emotions and love ,and straight lines would dominate in a letter for your boss.

Typefaces and fonts aren’t a new thing. They have existed for a long time. Even old-time typewriters used typefaces to some degree. Typewriters mostly used Serif, more precisely – Courier. Courier was the the most dominant back then because it was very convenient to have one universal font. But now we live in the future, and there’s no excuse for using a wrong font, now that we have a plethora of typefaces and fonts to choose from.

The Web

Internet is vast and full of different websites. Naturally these sites don’t have a universal typeface, nor a font. But when it comes to that, there’s a general rule of thumb on which fonts and typefaces to use and there are statistics to prove that.

More than 25% of news websites use Helvetica for their headlines. Helvetica is simple and bold, perfect for headlines. Georgia is the second most used font. It looks traditional and clear. In the same rank as Georgia is Proxima Nova. Proxima Nova is mostly used because it’s simple and bold and expresses importance. When it comes to content, the most popular fonts are Georgia, Helvetica and Arial. These fonts are also defaults on a lot of word editors, so they are used because they feel familiar to readers.

Blogging

Blogging isn’t all that homogenous as news sites. This is mainly because blogs are more personal and therefore allows more personalization. Nonetheless, there is still some fonts that dominate blogging.

Georgia is used the most for headings, mostly because it familiar and friendly. As for the body of the text, the most common font used is Arial. Arial is closely followed by Trebuchet and Helvetica. Arial and Trebuchet are both used because of their simplicity and familiarity. Helvetica is used because it looks like fonts used in novels, thus is perfect for storytellers.

Print

Novels and magazines used to be dominated by Helvetica. Nowadays, Futura has surpassed Helvetica by a long stretch. Helvetica is still in the second place, followed by Gotham in the third.

Print isn’t common as it used to be, since internet is now vastly more popular. That’s why novels, papers and magazines tend to use bold fonts to catch your attention. They also tend to use fonts that require less space and less ink in order to save money.

Fonts are used for many reasons, to convey a message, to make something clearer, or to save ink and money. That’s why you should consider to use the right typeface and font to convey a right message. Just remember not use Comic Sans!