People decide very quickly whether a website feels trustworthy, often before they have read a single sentence. Photos and colours play a part, but so does something most business owners never think about: how the text looks.
Text that is cramped, too small, in an odd font or hard to read on a phone makes a business look careless, even if the work it does is excellent.
What good typography does
Good typography is mostly invisible. Visitors simply find the page easy to read and the business easy to understand. It:
- makes your message quick to take in;
- shows what is most important on each page;
- works for everyone, including people with poorer eyesight;
- makes the business feel organised and current.
Practical rules that work
Use one or two fonts. One for headings and one for text is plenty; often a single well-made font in different weights is enough. Mixing several fonts looks messy.
Choose fonts made for screens. Many good fonts are free and designed to be read on phones and laptops. Decorative or script fonts belong in a logo, if anywhere, not in paragraphs.
Make body text big enough. On a phone, text should be readable without zooming; around 16 pixels is a sensible minimum, and many sites go larger.
Keep lines a comfortable length. Very long lines on a wide screen are tiring to read. Around 60 to 80 characters per line works well for paragraphs.
Give text room. Generous spacing between lines and paragraphs makes even long pages feel easy.
Make the contrast strong. Light grey text on a white background may look stylish but is hard to read, especially outdoors on a phone. Dark text on a light background, or the reverse, is safest.
Use clear headings. Many people scan before they read. Headings that say what each section is about let them find what they need, and help search engines understand the page.
Common problems we see
- several different fonts on one page, often from copied content;
- all-capitals paragraphs, which are hard to read;
- text placed over busy photos;
- centred long paragraphs;
- text inside images, which phones cannot resize and search engines cannot read.
A quick check
Open your website on your phone outdoors, or in bright light, and read a whole service page. If you find yourself squinting, zooming or losing your place, your visitors are too.
Readable text is also part of making a website accessible, and it is something we pay close attention to on every site we build. If yours could do with a fresh look, get in touch.