Website
We live in a world where you can do anything with your website these days. But that doesn’t mean you should, especially when it comes to business.
Website building platforms such as https://www.duda.co/ are brilliant for developing sites quickly and easily, and they offer a wealth of different fonts to choose from. But that can be problematic if you’re new to business, or don’t quite know what you’re doing when it comes to design. While it’s easy to set up a website, understanding the fonts you should and shouldn’t be using as a business can be a little more difficult.
Do not fear though, we are here to help. If you’re looking to start a new business or redesign your website, or even looking to upgrade your email templates and documents, then here are the fonts you really should be looking to avoid…
Website
Your website is the first port of call for many prospective clients and customers, so unless you’re a child’s playcentre, it’s probably worth avoiding Comic Sans.
While that perhaps goes without saying, there are other fonts worth giving a wide berth too.
That’s because the text on your website, from the headers to the copy should represent your business’ identity. Therefore, it’s worth avoiding either child-like/overly fun styles of font, as well as the more common fonts such as Ariel, Helvetica and the more hand-written styles of font.
In fact, it’s largely advised to avoid using any font that you can find for free on the likes of Microsoft Word, as ultimately it gives the impression not much thought has been put into your site, as well as corners being cut when it comes to investment.
Documents
When it comes to documents, you essentially want them to be legible. Therefore you don’t need to be as precious as when it comes to a website.
Fonts that have “feet” at the bottom of their letters can be particularly useful for this, and it’s worth avoiding any fonts that are slightly trickier to read in smaller font sizes.
Fonts such as Courier, Calibri, Times New Roman and Georgia are all very good for printed documents. But while the Serif-style fonts are excellent for printed documentation, and online documentation or words that need to be viewed via a screen, you should think about Sans Serif-type fonts like Helvetica and Ariel.
You can consider being a little more creative with your headings to make key messages stand out, but these should be in a larger size and still not stray from your brand, while also being entirely legible.
Emails
Similar to online documentation, fonts on email should be both professional and legible. The core point of sending emails is to deliver information quickly. Therefore, you don’t need to be extravagant with your font usage and, again, it’s worth keeping this to the likes of Helvetica and Ariel.
The latter is certainly a preferred choice of many businesses, and more specifically in font size 12. Another font many use in business today is Verdana at a slightly smaller font size 10.
Of course, if you’re delivering email marketing materials then you can be a little more creative with your fonts. In this instance, your thought process should follow the same pathway as your website font. And more to the point you should keep your fonts consistent across both your website and any email marketing or advertising you create.
This will ensure that brand recognition and identity is acknowledged by users, and thus make them more likely to return to your site and make a purchase.
