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About Fun With Fonts
More often than not, typography on Web pages consists of chunks of text that have been poured into any available space by the page-builder or some database-driven scripting without any consideration for readability or aesthetics. |
Clearly, there are people who believe that it's okay to deliver text like a courier package. If it all gets there, in time, undamaged, the job is done!
Although a Web page doesn't allow the degrees of finesse practised by typographers in print and other traditional media, it doesn't mean that it's not worth bothering to try.
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At its most basic level, good typography should be unobtrusive and transparent, not getting in the way of the message. That means making the text easy to read and getting the priority of the information just right. Sadly, many Web pages don't even manage to get that far. Lines of text are typically too long for comfortable reading. Font sizes are often too small to render properly or so big that you have to sit back half way across the room to read the text. |
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At another level, typography can enhance the written word. Just as a skilled actor can add so much depth and feeling to the lines he reads or a singer tugs at your heart strings with her song, choosing the right typeface and arranging it on the page with some sensitivity can make that vital difference between the beautiful and the banal.
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There are schools of typography where blocks of text are laid out with mechanical regularity and precision. Members of the 'grid and grot' brigade enjoy controlled order. Actually, 'brigade' is a good word because this is an almost militaristic discipline - just as soldiers march in straight lines at regular intervals - but you wouldn't exactly call that dancing!
Typography should have character. The actor or singer that puts his or her own mark on the material being performed (which is probably written by somebody else anyway) is interpreting the work in a unique way. You enjoy the performance as much as the content, maybe even more.
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On the Web, typography should be 'performed', not just 'committed'. It is a different medium from print and it has its own particular characteristics. It is better to work 'with' that medium than 'against' it. What's more, you should enjoy it. Whether you are the designer or the reader, the performer or the audience, typography is there to be dwelt upon, savoured and relished, or to carry you along effortlessly with the general flow.
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Learn to love type. Don't be afraid to experiment. You will make mistakes, sure, but they are usually easy to fix when you have identified that there is something wrong. Bend it, shape it, move it around. Make it bigger, make it smaller and turn it on its end. Work with it. Play with it. You can have fun with fonts.
Fun With Fonts is written and designed by
Joe Gillespie who publishes Web Page Design For Designers each month and his pixel fonts for screen display are available at minifonts.com.
Joe Gillespie who publishes Web Page Design For Designers each month and his pixel fonts for screen display are available at minifonts.com.