What Is Typography? Its Impact on Web Design

However perfect a design is, it becomes less effective, even meaningless, without suitable typography. Typography plays an important role in shaping the message for viewers in general and a brand's target audience in particular. This article explains Mona Media look at what typography is, and why it matters in design.

What is typography?

Typography is the art of arranging type, using basic elements such as typeface, size and spacing in many ways. It helps you use lettering skillfully to make an impact across a range of designs, including website design, brochure, print, books and computer graphics.

In today's increasingly competitive business environment, brands need to build a distinct identity. They have to know how to capture customers' attention and deliver the brand message as effectively as possible. Designers use typography as a powerful tool to turn text into a message that reaches viewers directly. It makes your content more meaningful and engaging. The more distinctive your typography, the better your brand connects with customers.

Typography also lets designers create a visual identity for their brand. However, a few important things need to be considered before deciding to use it: the choice of typeface, size, placement, text content, white space and other aspects of lettering that make a design stand out.

The different elements of typography

Typefaces and fonts

A typeface is a family of characters in different weights and sizes. Put another way, a typeface is a collection of different fonts. Arial and Helvetica are two of the most widely used typefaces in designs and documents today.

A font, on the other hand, refers to the style, weight and width of a typeface. Font is often understood as the height or width of a typeface, and of course it carries its own style. That is why every typeface comes in different font sizes.

See also:

• Fonts commonly used in website design
• Top 5 best WordPress font plugins

Leading

Leading is the vertical space between lines; in other words, the distance between the baselines of two lines of text. Leading is usually set between 120% and 200% so text is easier to read. Following current typography trends, 140% is the ideal leading value designers should consider.

To make design easier, here is the formula for calculating leading:

Leading = font size x 1.4 (coefficient)

Where:

• Text with a smaller font size has a coefficient >1.6
• Text with a larger font size has a coefficient <1.2

Tracking

Tracking is the spacing between characters, in other words the overall length of a word or a block of text. For a clearer look, tracking or letter-spacing should be between -0.08 and -0.4. A few notes on tracking: text with too much tracking (2) is hard to read, while text with little tracking (0.2) is easier to read.

Kerning

Kerning is the term for the spacing between adjacent characters in the same font. Without kerning, characters would sit side by side with no space between them. With kerning applied, characters do not stick together; two neighbors are clearly separated, do not overlap, and do not share the same vertical space.

Line Length

Line length is the standard length of a line of text. Paragraphs usually run at least 40 words and at most 75 words per line. If the line length of your text box is too long, viewers get tired from having too much to read. So text should be concise and short.

Hierarchy

An article's hierarchy consists of a title, subheadings and the other kinds of content in the text. The system is built on the size, weight and arrangement of the characters. The main title is usually the boldest and largest, followed by subheadings, and finally the longer body text in a smaller size.

Size

Size helps designers establish the hierarchy in a text. This is done by using spacing, size and color sensibly. Size applies to 2 kinds of headings: the primary heading and subheadings.

The primary heading is the largest on the page. Its size usually falls between 180% and 200% of the body font size, with a margin of 0.5x the size of the primary heading.

Subheadings clarify the primary heading and are smaller. Designers typically set subheadings at 120% to 150% of the body font size. The margin is then 0.5x to 0.7x of the subheading size.

Colors

Color makes text stand out. It conveys the brand's message quickly and effectively. Designers need to balance the three key components of color: value, hue and saturation.

Alignment

Proper alignment keeps typography consistent across the whole text. Each character gets equal size and space, and it ensures suitable spacing between elements.

Contrast

Contrast is another element of typography that helps designers bring out their ideas or message. Used well, contrast makes text not only more meaningful but also better at holding readers' attention.

Why is typography important for designers?

Grab viewers' attention

When customers land on a website, the first thing to do is catch their attention before they think about leaving. This is where designers show their skill and the power of typography.

Typography comes in many styles, shapes and sizes, which play an important role in creating distinctive designs. Many people now like to create designs with kinetic type to grab viewers' attention quickly.

Make text easy to read

When using typography, make sure visitors can read the text on your page easily. Choosing the wrong font makes the content cluttered and confusing. A common example is small fonts with serifs, which strain the eyes.

How readable content is depends on how the designer arranges and aligns the text. Designers usually align text to the right, left, center or justified.

They can also align text however they like with help from CSS and Photoshop. The main aim is still to guide viewers to the most important, essential information.

Clear content through hierarchy

With experience, a designer knows how to combine size and font so the reader's eye goes to the most important information first. Viewers can locate information by skimming the text. To do this, designers use different font sizes for the primary heading, subheadings and body text.

Fast brand recognition

This is especially important for every business. Getting brand recognition right helps the business compete more strongly against rivals in the market. In each design, the font is what lets visitors and target customers remember it easily. Many large companies have gained recognition from most customers thanks to these very visuals.

Many logos today rely on typography to help people recognize the business's brand, so careful use of typography is essential. It makes sure customers quickly recognize what sets the business apart. The Coca-Cola, Disney and Netflix logos, for example, are easy to recognize and remember thanks to effective use of lettering.

Adds value and personality to the brand

Typography is an extremely useful tool for establishing brand value in many ways, because it can represent the business. That is why there are so many typefaces to choose from: each one has a different effect and expresses emotion in its own way.

Take sans-serif typefaces. They are often preferred for text pages and designs because they are easy to remember and easy to read. Serifs, on the other hand, are sometimes seen as too ordinary and a bit “outdated”. Still, they remain quite readable, which is why most long-form text such as books and blogs is usually set by designers in this kind of typeface.

Creating overall harmony

Designers also use typography to set the harmony of a design or web page layout. The more harmonious a design, the more artistic value it gives viewers. When designers use the same font for similar content, viewers recognize it immediately.

Typography is a key element that lifts designs and websites. For designers, it is also a handy way to convey a brand's message without words. MONA Media hopes you use typography wisely and effectively to quickly strengthen your business's brand identity and help deliver core message to your viewers.