5 Principles and Ideas of Setting

Type on the Web

Sean Hodge

There are some basic approaches, guidelines and goals to consider when
working with type on the web. Overall, the medium of web typography
involves readability, accessibility, usability, and brandability. On the web,
these aspects function together to accomplish design՚s goals of
communication and user interaction.

There are many ways to approach web typography in order to create
effective and expressive results. Let՚s take a closer look at some principles,
rules and ideas for approaching web typography decisions — you can
use them as a starting point for learning how to achieve effective type
setting on the web.

1. Approach Web Typography Decisions Systematically

In web design every typographic decision needs to simultaneously
accomplish a variety of results. Each headline you create should be set in
text that is legible and search engine friendly, while the typeface should
fit within the guidelines of the company՚s brand. Furthermore, typography
should fit to the graphic style of the site and meet user expectations of
being able to copy and paste text. As you can see, that՚s a wide array of
needs for a headline to accomplish.