Checklist for Better Web Typography

Typography influences whether or not viewers read the content, as well as having a subtle effect on how they perceive your site. Choosing appropriate typefaces and controlling their presentation is critical to conveying your message.

Words and Type

The written word is generally seen before it is read. Typographical layout sets the mood before a single word enters consciousness.

Urban Typography

Some of the “nondesigned” typography will have been made with commercial or political intent, some will be serendipitous, or simply caused by neglect.

The Rhetoric of Typography

It is difficult to imagine any information that does not involve some degree of interpretation. Our contemporary distinction in typography between information and persuasion reflects historic concerns about the merits of plain and ornamental styles of presentation.

Readability

In the early years of a child’s reading development, the attainment of mechanical skills is gained initially with the aid of a finger to help left to right progression and accurate return sweeps from the end of one line on to the beginning of the next.

Legibility

Legibility and readability are not the same. Legibility certainly influences readability and vice versa, but to understand how one influences the other it is necessary to consider them separately.

Typography: Theory and Practice

For the practicing typographer, any interest shown in theory tends to be an indulgence restricted to “spare time.” The practical process of typography is so vulnerable to the pressures of time that anyone who admits to thinking might simply be accused of not working hard enough.

Typography and Communication

Typographic decision-making begins when children start to write, although most children today also encounter DTP software from a very early age at school as well as in the home.

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