Do you know what your font is saying about your business? Believe it or not, something as simple as font choice may be sending the wrong message. Small details such as fonts can actually have a big impact on how your business is perceived by visitors to your website. From the moment your website loads, you only have a few seconds to impress your visitors. With the advancement of technologies, designers are no longer limited by web safe fonts. As a result, you can be truer to your brand.
What do the following fonts say about a business?
- Georgia – Georgia was designed to make it easy for on screen reading. As a result, it is easy on the eyes. Users perceive it as a serious font and therefore, it is quite acceptable as a font for business websites. However, you may find that it is overused and want to look for a better font to fit your overall branding that is equally as readable on screen.
- Verdana – This sans serif font was also designed for on screen readability. While Verdana excels in small font sizes, it can be difficult to read in regular sized text blocks on a website. If left at the default text size for a website, Verdana will make your site look unprofessional and frankly, not very appealing to your visitors. If you have small disclaimers or other parts of your site that require small text, you may opt to use Verdana in these areas.
- Comic Sans – Comic book in style, this font is dreaded by all designers with a shred of self respect. Your business will be instantly be perceived as childish and unprofessional when this font rears its ugly head in the pages of your site. While this font started out in help bubbles in programs like Microsoft Word, it quickly become the most overused and abused font of all time. You’ll lose visitors almost instantly with this font unless your demographic is young children.
Web fonts in HTML 5 have opened up nearly limitless possibilities for designers. You no longer have to try to make web safe fonts work for your brand identity. Instead, you can modernize your site by updating your font. Ask your web designer to work with you to put together a new brand identity for your site by using HTML 5 web fonts. A modern appearance on your site will make you look more professional and position your business for future success in an increasingly competitive online market.
