In a marketing internet world where content is king, one must be careful about correct typography when writing content and designing websites. As you can read in the other articles, the process of building a website consists of several steps that guarantee maximum quality and efficiency of your website. The second step included in the website building process was web design and branding. This stage includes a number of topics for which the designer/art director is responsible in order to create a spectacular and impressive design that is also effective and correct.
Correct typography, building professional websites and effective content design is an integral part of the design phase and often affects the performance of the website and the effectiveness of the business.
So what is web typography?
The importance of typography in content and media was first discovered in books, magazines and newspapers – When content editors and writers discovered that the correct arrangement of content affects the reading experience of the client/reader and encourages him to read particularly long content without the feeling of being "stressed" or lack of interest in the content.
Many define typography as "art" led by talent or a unique technique that has developed from extensive experience.
In recent years it can be seen that typography on the Internet is an important part of building and designing websites. As in the printed media, the Internet also contains comprehensive content which sometimes requires the surfer to read for a long time and spend a lot of time in front of the computer – In order to convey to the surfer the most important messages in the content and encourage him to continue reading, a correct typography based on a marketing strategy that defines the goals and content to which we would like the surfer to be exposed must be carried out.
How do you do typography on websites?
As we mentioned earlier; The typography step when building a website is part of the website's branding model and content design. When determining a site structure, we will first define which static and which dynamic contents will be displayed to the surfer. The separation between dynamic and static content allows the definition of areas according to the content that will be displayed in them when the website goes up, taking into account the content that will be added regularly – This definition is expressed both in the programming phase and in the technical design phase (CSS/XHTML) where a dynamic physical length and width are usually defined that changes according to the amount of content.
After defining the dynamic and static areas, typography can be done at the highest level for the content, taking into account future content that will be added to the website.
Within the various content areas, it is possible to separate and organize content, usually using a content management system that allows editing in a WORD-like editor that allows copying and pasting content from the computer. The arrangement of the contents is affected by the length of the text, the main paragraphs and the way it is displayed to the surfer – As you can see an example of content arrangement on website building on our website.
Limitations of Internet Typography
Despite the progress of technology and the accelerated development of the Internet in recent years, there are still a number of limitations (having a cumbersome and uncommon solution*) which prevent many websites from functioning properly and efficiently.
A' – Font: The font limitation on the Internet was the most common and it is reflected in all parts of the site (design, programming and updating). This limitation stems from the logic of the computer from the beginning in which the surfer is required to contain on the operating system the font that is displayed on the site. This limitation prevents the use of special fonts or custom fonts and thus creates a "standard" Fonts on websites that contain the most common fonts; Ariel, Tahuma, Times New Roman.
This limitation is solved using 2 ways:
- Graphic font: the practical but non-dynamic solution – A graphic font is actually an image derived from Photoshop and presented to the surfer as a collection of pixels that does not require reading a font from the computer. This solution is often carried out in static areas and is used for phone numbers, logos, etc.
- Reading a font using JS: This solution came to the attention of programmers and website building companies only in recent years and is based on JAVAScript technology for reading the font from a file on the server and displaying it to the surfer. The solution is mainly implemented in customized websites and on specific parts of the content – The lack of regular use of the solution is due to incompatibility with different browsers (IE9/SAFARI) and lack of support and OPEN SOURCE development in a high-quality and efficient script that includes a regulated API.
in ' Content management system: It can often be found that the content management system on which your site is based does not allow content to be arranged optimally and makes it difficult to add dynamic content that changes in length and requirements. Many content management systems are based on content editors which are inefficient and include limited functions. In addition to this problem, there are also many content editors that are not 100% suitable for transferring text from documents on a computer. This problem can be solved when using OPEN SOURCE content editors that are updated according to versions and allow updates to be downloaded and installed on the server. Using content editors such as TINYMCE and CKEDITOR guarantees adaptation at any time to the progress of technology and the various browser versions that are revealed by the software companies.
c' Screen resolution: The advancement of technology, hardware and software creates a number of problems that affect the end consumer and the surfer; One of the main problems was resolution compatibility. Resolution compatibility is affected by the user's computer and requires extensive work on the site from the design phase to the programming phase – But even in typography this problem creates several conflicts. Low screen resolution (800*600) constitutes a few percent of the global market, but these are still customers we don't want to miss when building the website. This screen resolution prevents writing content beyond a certain width which is displayed to the surfer by not scrolling to the sides of the site. Today it can be seen that the Internet standard has progressed to a resolution of 1024*768 in accordance with the surfer. Even when this resolution is not the most common, it should be noted that the various websites take it as the maximum width.
These restrictions are solvable through building a site which expands 100% on the surfer's screen; But this solution does not reach a wide application in the market due to the various problems that arise during its construction.
In summary: Internet typography is done during the website construction process and is usually done by a professional designer or an experienced web person. Adding and updating future content must be taken into account and advanced solutions must be used to achieve optimality.