How to Make Online Text Readable
Having a website is only effective if the content of the site is easily readable for visitors. Otherwise, even great content will not be able to do its job. While this may sound very basic, readability is a major issue that a high percentage of websites struggle with. Reading from a screen can be difficult, so readability should be a primary concern during design.
In this article we’ll look at six keys to designing for readability. Keep these points in mind and your content will be much more effective.
Spacing
Spacing is a big issue online. Many times too much text and too many images are crammed in to small areas, which makes it very difficult for the text to be read. When it comes to readability, less clutter equals more effective text.
Whitespace or negative space is a big key. It may seem like wasted space, but it’s actually allowing everything to have a greater impact. Less is more.
Text Size
Some of your visitors may have a hard time reading small text, or even normal sized text. They may need to increase the font size in order to be able to easily read it. If you are styling your text by using ems or percentages instead of pixels to determine the font size, all of your visitors will be able to adjust the size of the text.
In addition to giving flexibility, you can also use font sizes to make certain text stand out. Increasing the size of text will generally make it more noticeable, but keep in mind that the more you use large text the less impact it will have.
Font Choices
There are only a handful of “web-safe” fonts that are universally available to all of your visitors. For this reason, standard fonts like Arial and Georgia are very common in web design. Modern technologies sIFR make it possible to still use other types of fonts if you choose.
If you are trying to get creative by using a lot of different fonts, chances are you are hurting the readability of the site. Stick to about two or three basic fonts to avoid readability issues.
Width of Text Lines
Modern websites are typically being design a good bit wider than they were just a few short years ago, due to the common widescreen monitors that so many interent users have.
Keep in mind when designing that very wide or long lines of text can be difficult to read, as can very short or narrow lines of text. Most content areas are not wider than 600-700 pixels, because anything can larger can get rather difficult to read.
Bold Text
Bold text can obviously be very effective for helping text to stand out, but it should be used in moderation. Overuse of bold, or italics for that matter, can decrease the level of readability and it will lose its impact.
Distractions
Websites that feature excellent readability allow the text to be the focal point of the design. Having too many other bells and whistles for the sake of looking impressive can actually do more harm than good as it will take away from the emphasis on the text.
Steven Snell is a web designer and blogger from New Jersey. He maintains a design blog called DesignM.ag. If you’d like to see more about text and fonts you can find collections at his blog of free calligraphy fonts and bold fonts.
