The Most Popular Fonts
The Most Popular Fonts for Web Site Design
- Helvetica and Arial are the most widely used sans-serif typefaces. Many consider Arial to be a generic imitation of Helvetica.
- Verdana was designed for Microsoft in 1996 for readable at small sizes on a screen. The absence of serifs, wide proportions and loose letter-spacing make this font extremely legible for web sites.
- Georgia -designed for Microsoft in 1993 bears similarities to Times New Roman, but is larger and works well at small and big sizes. It is often chosen for web design as a substitute to the overused Times New Roman.
- Trebuchet MS – designed for Microsoft as a “good web design font” in 1996. It works well for big headers.
- Century Gothic – sans-serif font designed in 1991. It works well for headers, but isn’t recommend for use with large passages of body text.
- Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande – Lucida Grande is the font that’s used throughout Mac OS, whereas Lucida Sans Unicode is a similar Windows font. Both fonts belong to the “humanist” sans-serif type which is the most calligraphic of all typefaces in the sans-serif family.
- Palatino – designed in 1948 with an old style typeface look. Microsoft distributed an imitation of this font called Book Antiqua by Monotype.
- Garamond, Baskerville- Garamond was commissioned for the French king in 1540. The text was set in 12-point Adobe Garamond, a typeface based on the sixteenth-century type designs.
Baskerville – designed in 1757 with an intention to improve legibility.
- Univers Condensed, Linotype Univers – Univers, often confused with Helvetica, was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1956. Frutiger is famous for his unique typeface classification system. Univers is exceptionally legible at great distances, that is why it was chosen by new Swiss International Air Lines, Deutsche Bank and for the keycaps on many Apple keyboards.
- Myriad Pro – designed specifically for Adobe Systems in early nineties. Since 2002 Myriad has become Apple’s corporate font, replacing Apple Garamond. Myriad works well both for print and web typography.
Can font selection can affect reading speed, accuracy and legibility?
A general survey of web site viewers finds that a majority of sites use 12-point fonts (size= 3) for much, if not all of their written content. With this in mind, we examined the most popular font types at this size for differences in effective reading speed (reading time/accuracy), as well the perception of font legibility.
Can font selection can affect user reaction and mood?
In addition, we were interested in the subjective reactions associated with specific font types. That is, certain font types may appeal to a particular mood and
consequently, could affect the tone of a website. Thus, we also examined certain aesthetic qualities that could impact the mood, as well as assessed general font preference. Examined were five sans serif and serif fonts, as well as two ornate fonts (shown in Table 1).
The sans serif and serif fonts represent the most popular font types used in modern web design. The two ornate fonts are, of course, only a sampling of the numerous possible types that do not fit in any particular category. However, an examination of these fonts should help determine ornate fonts’ place in both performance and popularity in comparison to standard font types.
A font testing case study
The testing tools used were PC desktops with 17" CRT and LCD monitors set at a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels.The fonts were kept at 12 points except the Agency font, which was increased from 12- to 14-points in order to have a height (approximately 3 mm) that was comparable to the other font types.
Participants
Male and Female volunteers, from ages 20 to 44, with 20/40 or better unaided or corrected vision. Ninety-five percent of the participants reported to have regularly read documents on computer screens at least a few times per week, and 68 percent of them had at least four years of college.
Font Comparison
To compare which fonts are best for online reading, participants read twelve passages, each of which comprised of a black font from one of the twelve font types on a white background. The reading passages were written at approximately the same reading level, discussed similar subject matter, were comprised of approximately 1000 words per passage, and had horizontal margins set at 640 pixels.
Results
Font Legibility
Most Legible Fonts: Courier, Comic, Verdana, Times, Arial, Georgia, Schoolbook, Tahoma
Least Legible Fonts: Corisva, Agency, Bradley, Goudy,
1 = “Not at all” and 6 = “Completely”
Font Personality
Fonts with the most personality: Bradley, Corsiva, Comic
1 = “Not at all” and 6 = “Completely”
Font Elegance
The most elegant fonts: Bradley, Corsiva
1 = “Not at all” and 6 = “Completely”
Fonts that are Youthful & Fun
Youthful and fun fonts: Comic, Bradley, Verdana
1 = “Not at all” and 6 = “Completely”
Fonts for Business
Business-like fonts: Times, Courier, Tahoma, Verdana, Georgia, and Schoolbook
1 = “Not at all” and 6 = “Completely”
Most Popular Fonts
Font preference: Arial, Verdana and Comic
<< less | Preference | more>>
First or Second Font Choice
The most popular 1st and 2nd font selections: Verdana, Arial, and Comic
CONCLUSIONS
Courier, Comic, Verdana, Georgia, and Times are perceived as being most legible of the fonts studied.
Bradley and Corsiva are perceived as having a great deal of personality and elegance.
Courier and Times were perceived as being the most business-like.
Comic was perceived as being the most fun and youthful.
This information tells us that font selection can help establish the mood of a particular web site or blog. For example, fonts that are perceived as being business-like and elegant may be more effective for corporate web design on a bank or e-commerce website . Fonts perceived as being youthful and fun may be more effective for web site designs directed towards children. Arial, Verdana, and Comic fonts scored high in general preference and are a good choice for a website’s default font, especially for longer web page passages. Arial, Comic, Tahoma, Verdana, Courier, Georgia, and Schoolbook were significantly preferred over the other font types. It is not surprising that Arial is ranked high in preference, since it has been most preferred in many font studies throughout the industry.
The Comic font was significantly perceived as more ‘Youthful & Fun.Times was significantly perceived as having less personality and being less ‘Youthful & Fun’
Corsiva and Bradley fonts are significantly considered more elegant.
Figure 1. Reading time in seconds (longer bars indicated longer reading times)
Times, the most popular default font for word processing packages, has consistently ranked low in preference across all font studies.
