Comments on: What Is The Best Font For Your Website?

By: Jill Olkoski

Jill Olkoski — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:42:21 +0000

Hi Scott,
While I have read that Verdana is the most readable, I usually let clients pick from any of these fonts: http://aldebaranwebdesign.com/resources-contentfonts.php I think that as long as you used one of these for the content, and made the font large enough (12, 14, 16), you’d be fine…in my opinion. While it’s important that web designers inform clients of repercussions, I do think that ultimately it’s the client’s choice. Great question!

By: Scott Henderson

Scott Henderson — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:19:04 +0000

i am in the process of choosing a font now for a new website design. My readership is older women (55+) so I want to use a large font. My site is also about Victorian things, so I think a serif font would fit the theme better. My site designer is pushing Verdana because it ranks highest for readability. i still want to keep the old-fashioned look. What do you think? Scott

By: Beau

Beau — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:24:14 +0000

A recent study found that the most common font on popular websites is Arial by far. Furthermore, it is usually set with the absolute size "small" which translates to about 13px for most browsers.

By: Jill Olkoski

Jill Olkoski — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:22:33 +0000

And just for Stephen, I’ve added font size choices and some bold and italics to my font selection tool:

http://aldebaranwebdesign.com/resources-contentfonts.php
Other suggestions are welcome.

By: Jill Olkoski

Jill Olkoski — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:20:37 +0000

Hi Stephen,
Yup, it’s Gill Sans – and I was attempting to be more “hip” or “creative”…I think those words are still ok to use. I will definitely expand to be able to let them view different font sizes and font style (bold and italics).

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:46:09 +0000

Hi Jill -

So, maybe I’m just responding to advertising and like Gill Sans because (I think) it’s the new font on your website, so I’m positively associating it with you, but it is my favorite on your tool! It’s hard for me to know how “serious” I want to be on my site. For the last eight months (since launch, that is) I’ve been using Book Antiqua, which is my personal favorite. I fear it has too many serifs, but I like the roundness and readability of it. This font (Gill) seems more, I don’t know, hip? (Is it unhip to use the word hip?? And I like how it looks on subject headers.

Another thought about your tool: you could consider making it possible for people to look at the different fonts in different forms, such as italics or subject headers. One big complaint I have about Book Antiqua is that the italicized version looks bigger than regular script for some reason, and I think that’s distracting, irritating.

And be sure to warn your clients that this kind of stuff really brings out obsessive-compulsive tendencies!

By: Dr. Nicole Sundene

Dr. Nicole Sundene — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:40:11 +0000

Thanks for doing this blog it really helps me to learn things about wordpress bit by bit…and I agree completely about the font thing. Too many fonts are not your friend!