Typeface Trends in Web Design

The use of specific type faces in web design has always been difficult. Unless you were willing use graphic versions of your fonts (thus eliminating any Search Engine Optimization benefits) web designers were limited to use such generic web fonts as Times New Roman, Georgia, Arial, Verdana, and perhaps Tahoma.

Luckily now, almost all browsers in use these days support the @font-face CSS rule and along with web font services such as Google Web Fonts, web designers are able to embed a wider range of font choices than they could before.

Here are some examples of current web design trends:

1. Large Text
   Fueled by the rise of the use of larger monitors and web designers steering away from the standard 12 pt type size, larger fonts are now all the rage. Larger fonts are easier to read and can work well as design elements.
2. Elegant Fonts
   Fonts with excessive curls, extra glyphs and flourishes, like those found on a wedding invitation, are typically used on more female-oriented web sites more and more these days.
3. Mixed Weight Text
   Designers have started experimenting with mixing font weights in the same design, with dramatic effects. Different letters and words are often assigned different font-weight values, ranging from 100 to 1000 (in increments of 100 – 100, 200, 300, etc). This effect works well for sans-serif fonts, such as Futura, Neue Helvetica and the like.
4. Increased White Space
   For years, the space between letters was not possible with CSS web coding. But now that artists are using more white space in their new web designs, the use of the letter-spacing CSS attribute to increase the space between characters is becoming popular.
5. Low Contrast Font Combinations
   Dark text on light background has been the standard design choice for both print designers and web designer for generations. The main reasons for this is legibility and readability. Some designers are moving away from this and using lower-contrast text combinations instead, even though it decreases the legibility.Some argue that the reduced legibility actually requires greater concentration from the reader. Their eyes are forced to work harder to read the copy, which makes it less likely your text will be glossed over.

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