Serif vs. Sans-Serif in Web Design: The basics of online typography

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When you’re creating a website or specific page on your site, one of the last things you might be thinking about is the nuts and bolts of typography. However, what type of font or typeface you use could have a profound impact on how viewers engage with your site. While there are many different graphic elements in the anatomy of a typeface, this article is going to focus on the old debate between serif and sans-serif fonts.

The basics of serifs and sans-serifs

If you’re new to typeface, you probably never really noticed the difference between these two elements. A serif is basically that little tail you see coming off most letters in a font like Times. They often look like feet, caps or flags jutting out from the letters. Sans-serif on the other hand are those fonts without those extremities (sans is French for “without”). You might have noticed these look a bit cleaner than serif fonts. Examples of san-serif fonts include Verdana and Arial.

Why should I care about serifs?

By now you’re undoubtedly asking yourself why you should care about these tiny little feet coming off letters. The answer to that question is simple: it could be the difference between having your visitors stay and actually read your content and completely ignoring the body text. If you want readers to stick around, you should be aware of the type of font you’re using.

Serif vs. Sans-Serif: what’s better?

There’s no straightforward answer to whether serif or sans-serif font is better because it is mostly a matter of taste and preferences. Nevertheless, there are a number of instances in which one fits better than the other. When I was in college majoring in the ancient field of newspaper journalism, I was told the basics of print. Headlines were always sans-serif while the body was always serif font. The logic behind this is that serif supposedly has better readability on paper because it helps guide a reader’s eye along the same line.

However, this is the age of the Internet, so that old-fashioned rule is no longer a given. Most news sites still use serif fonts for everything, but other sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google use sans-serif. There are debates as to what is more legible on screens, but many people believe sans-serif fonts are much more agreeable on screens than serif. Since sans-serif is better for screens, you sometimes see a flip on the classic logic where serif is used for headlines and sans-serif is used in the body. Again, it’s really a matter of preference.

Size matters

There’s usually a consensus that really small text should not be written in serif font. The reason for this is that text is extremely difficult to read when it’s small and serif only makes it more difficult. Also, when small serif font is blown up, the pixels blur together. When sans-serif is blown up, the characters retain the general shapes.

Mix, match and experiment

Aside from some really basic rules, you should never be afraid to experiment. It’s good to break outside of the box as long as it doesn’t negatively affect how your readers interactive with your text. Designers never rely on one method and usually mix the two typefaces to convey different emotions. Once you’ve settled on a sans-serif or serif font, you still have decide on a whole world of other style, typefaces and fonts.

Timothy Martinez Jr. is a freelance writer and blogs about a number of topics, including camping chairs for Camping Gear Outlet.

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