To read the first part of this blog see Fonts Part 1: Keeping It In The Family.

Choosing the Right Font

Serif or sans-serif…what’s a serif? Serifs are thesmall lines at the ends of each character in a font. Sans-seriffonts don’t have these small lines - they’re straightat the ends of each character.

Serif fonts are easier to read because the eye can differentiateeach character faster than reading a sans-serif font. This is whymost people use serif fonts when typing large amounts of copy, suchas books and almost every other type of print material. However,for the web it’s traditional to use a sans-serif font foryour website’s main content - why is that?

• Sans-serif fonts look good at almost all sizes online
• Most operating systems render them smoothly
• They tend to have a more modern or business look and feel
• Serif fonts lose readability at smaller sizes

Use Web Safe Fonts

Always be sure to use fonts that are “web safe”. Websafe fonts are fonts that will work on multiple operating systems(Mac and Windows) and are easy to read online. The fonts below areconsidered to be web safe:

Arial(sans-serif)

TimesNew Roman (serif)

CourierNew (serif)

Verdana(sans-serif)

Georgia(serif)

ComicSans MS (sans-serif)

TrebuchetMS (sans-serif)