What exactly is typography? It is the practice and art of arranging font type so that it is visually appealing and easy to read. Choosing line lengths, specific typefaces, tracking, leading, and kerning are all involved in the arranging of the type. Furthermore, typography refers to the appearance, style, and layout of the numbers, letters, and symbols made throughout the process.
Typography’s main purpose is to convey the designer’s message effectively to the viewer. If you’re unsure whether your use of typography is communicating your desired message successfully, consider using various messenger solutions with which you may discuss and receive feedback from coworkers or colleagues. Their feedback can validate that you’ve already accurately utilized typography properly. If not, their criticism can help you move in the right direction, and from there, you can easily make the necessary adjustments to deliver your desired message.
For a long time, typography was a skill employed by only a small number of artisans and typesetters. However, since the onset of the Information Age, of the mid-twentieth century, the use and practice of typography became open to a much larger group of people. Now, anyone with a desire and need to adjust the layout and presentation of symbols, numbers, and letters for any publication type, including web design or printing, can use the art of typography.
The Role of Typography in Web Design
Before delving directly into the role that typography plays in web design, let’s quickly discuss web design, in general.
A web designer’s primary goal is to design a functional and eye-catching website for viewers with a web browser. Additionally, web designers may also be responsible for tasks such as webflow maintenance for enterprises to ensure the smooth running of the website. He will often use video, audio, static graphics, and/or text as the main content of their website designs. Usually, though, the most common content type of the preceding items utilized throughout the world wide web is text.
A well-thought-out and designed website will effectively and efficiently send its desired message to the visitors. It’s important that the correct message be conveyed and the message that the visitor receives from the website is as close to what the designer intended as can be positively hoped for, with little to none of the intended communication to be lost.
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When the desired message is consistently delivered to visitors, it can at least be mentioned that the designer of the site was successful with the main purpose and intent of the design, in the first place. Typography, when used appropriately in web design, may prove to have the bonus of enhancing, or clarifying, the desired message to be communicated to the website visitor. However, typography must be used effectively. Poorly utilized typography may detract from the exact directive that the designer and his/her website were aiming for.
7 Popular Typography Trends in Web Design
1- Splashy, Large Headlines
Big headline text doesn’t have to be plain or boring. Of course, the potential is there for such an effect on a website visitor, but when proficiently implemented, quite the opposite can prove to be the case.
When typography that makes up a large and splashy headline is effectively put into place on a website, the message sent will scream, “Notice me, I am here, and I have something to say”. It will consequently grab the visitor’s eyes, mind, and attention, and do so in a manner that is precisely what the designer intended. Check out multiple examples of large typography put into good practice at various websites here, for inspiration.
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2- Skillful Use of Plain Text
Words, or communicable terms consisting of letters, are a good portion of not only the web but of the world we live in. It’s how we discuss things of interest with others and within ourselves. If web design is effectively delivering a certain message, then the message itself consists of words. They’re integral to life, as we know it. We learn them as infants, proceeding into later years, as adolescents, and continue to learn new ones, even into adulthood.
Oftentimes, the careful use and placement of plain text may most practically send the desired information to the reader and visitor. In these scenarios, it’s not the artful arrangement and appearance of the text that hooks the visitor and sells them on whatever it is you’re dishing; but the actual words of the literal message typed and laid out on the screen for the visitor to peruse and read, which leaves the longest-lasting and most penetrating impression.
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3- Highlights in The Text
Another popular trend in the practice of using typography techniques in web design is to highlight text. You’ll remember from your years in grade school the frequent use of a highlighter. It allowed us to emphasize, or highlight text that was considered predominantly important. Thus, it helped the highlighted text to stand out amidst surrounding words.
By frequently highlighting the most critical text that we needed to understand, and memorize, we made it easy to go back and quickly skim through entire chapters, reading only the emphasized text, whilst skipping the non-highlighted words. Moreover, we were able to efficiently glean the most viable points from our study books.
In this modern Digital Age, our attention spans, or at least, most of our attention spans, prove to be short-lived. When we’re visiting websites, we don’t want to peruse and read through walls of text unexpectedly. Sometimes, when a large amount of worded information is placed on screen for the visitor, utilizing highlights appropriately can ensure that the most important information is not lost, but noticed and retained.
4- Monospaced Font
Monospaced fonts, also called fixed-pitch fonts, are fonts in which all characters are the same width. These types of fonts are popular when it is desired to have the text readily aligned.
Although most often used in tabular materials or forms and documents in which it is ideal for the line lengths of text to all be the same, they may also be a typographic-type tool utilized from a designer’s toolbox repository of typography techniques and tricks.
Perhaps the visual alignment of the text in conjunction with other text reads best if a certain segment of the text is monospaced. Or, maybe a technical-type message or information with technical content is the desired overall feel a designer wishes to leave you with after reading it. Well, in either case, monospaced fonts may be the exact typeface you’re after for the desired effect.
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5- The Return of Serif Fonts
Serif fonts are a type of font classification in which little feet or tails are attached to all of the characters. Before 2018, sans-serif fonts were the font type most commonly used in web designs. During this time, serif fonts were regularly considered boring and old-fashioned, in nature. However, with the coming of 2018 and since, serif fonts have resurged and returned in popularity.
These fonts are definitely an “artsy” appearing font-type and have their place firmly embedded on the land and field of typography. There are many times when the ornate, serif font just fits the bill, it is aligned with the text and directive that needs to be sent.
6- Blending Text Onto Backgrounds of Photos and Images
The actual practice of using text in background photos and images has been used for many years, long before the web. Text on an image can evoke a stronger emotional response than a stand-alone element. Besides, it also creates a more fulfilling experience for the person viewing the image with the text.
For this reason, it’s been put into practice for a long while. And now, in recent times with faster internet speeds and available bandwidth posing less of an obstacle, designers are employing this tactic more than ever.
When it’s done right, this combination of text superimposed on the backgrounds of photos and images produces the desired effect almost every time. On the other hand, If implemented poorly, the photo or image background with the text becomes little more than an eye-sore. Therefore, a designer must be careful when using this modern typography trend.
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7- Overlay Text Onto Other Elements
Background photos and images aren’t the only elements that text can be mixed with. Another typographic trend often seen in this Digital Age is the overlay of text onto other element types as well.
Words can stand out when there is a clear contrast. Very often websites will use gradients in overlays of text by providing colors with unique portions of hues as the shading phases from lighter to darker, or vice-versa. This can have a stunning visual effect when superimposed on a background with a color gradient going in the opposite direction of shading from the overlaid text.
Rarely, but it has been accomplished, the text is overlaid onto other text, and an interesting sight with legible wording can be seen. This can be done by using different sizes or transparencies of text, for example.
Conclusion
Typography is an art and a form that shouldn’t be overlooked by web designers, at all. It needs to be embraced whole-heartedly by all web designers of today. A good website delivers its intended message to the visitor and it does so with finesse and clarity. Good typography does the same, but with the focus on type, specifically, and not with websites, in general.
