Typographical Design

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Discussion of Typographical Design ... font faces, sizes and colors.

Serif and Sans Serif Font Faces: A Serif font face has little curls on the end of a character stroke while a Sans Serif face does not have the curls.

This is a Sans Serif face.
This is a Serif face.
Serif and Sans Serif Font Faces as Headline and Body: In the world of commercial printing, Serif font faces are normally reserved for body content while Sans Serif font faces are used for headlines. In the web world, because of the lack of common font faces across operating systems, you will find that both Serif and Sans Serif font faces are used for body and content. An example of a Serif face as a headline and as a body is this paragraph.
Serif and Sans Serif Font Faces as Headline and Body: In the world of printers, Serif font faces are normally reserved for body content while Sans Serif font faces are used for headlines. In the web world, because of the lack of common font faces across operating systems, you will find that both Serif and Sans Serif font faces are used for body and content. An example of a Serif face as a headline and as a body is this paragraph.

The font face, color and type size for a website is a matter of preference, usually of the web site owner. The developer's responsibility is to create a graphic look and feel which incorporates the web site owner's preferences, if the owner has a preference. Our recommendation to new owners is that they surf the web and find one or more websites which have the look and feel they are seeking. Then, ask the developer to look at those sites. The font for this paragraph, and for most of the El Valle Consulting web site is Verdana.

Caution

It costs more to specify font faces for all operating systems and for all browsers. The least costly solution is to specify font faces for a complete page which will normally make the page the same across operating systems. The most costly solution is to hard code font faces to solve compatibility issues with browsers.

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