When Arial isn’t so cool for you anymore and its buddy Times New Roman is older than ever, don’t fret because lucky for you – you got options.
Typography in Web Design has been one of the many things to consider as it can make or break how visitors perceive your website. Picking the very basic fonts may be boring but using uber stylistic fonts can be disastrous as well.
Try a little experiment if you will. Surf some random websites for a few minutes and try to observe the type of fonts on every website that you land on. We can tell for sure that most text-based websites would use basic fonts. It is not advisable to gamble on funky modern fonts if you wish to make your site a breeze to read for all users. Not that you cannot ditch the old school trend. Basic is safe for the most part but adding a bit of style is doable too.
Here’s a list of Web Safe Fonts that you can check out if you really wish to try something else on your website. Sorry to disappoint but Arial and Times New Roman are still on that list because we can’t help it – they’re just too friendly. Anyway, these fonts are easy on the eyes so it would be nice to use them on your sites.
Now, if you want to explore a bigger and more exciting fonts list, have a look at Google web fonts. Very nice, I know. Keep in mind, however, that these Google fonts are sitting on a web server so they are made available via browser requests, unlike Arial and Times New Roman which are readily available on your computer. These Google fonts works on most modern browsers, although it may take a couple more seconds to load compared to the basic fonts.
These options made available to everyone. The best advice we can give you is to choose whichever you feel is best for your website and its users.