Practical Guide for Choosing Fonts That Support Readability
One of the most important things in a text is readability. Choosing a font is integral to making your text readable, regardless of the media. How does your font affect readability? And how can you make your text easier to read?
What Makes a Text Readable?
The goal of creating text-based content is to deliver information. Whether it is a long-form printed media article or text on apps, you want people to understand what’s written. A readable text means people can have a positive reading experience.
If we need to break it down, readable text means several things, which are:
- Easy to see and perceive
A readable text is easy to perceive. People can read it quickly and understand what is written. Any ideas you communicate in the documents, articles, blog posts, or other content can be understood more easily.
- Legible
Legibility is different from readability, but it supports the readability factor. If a text is legible, it means you can recognize each character. For example, you can easily distinguish between uppercase “I” and lowercase “i.”
- Not straining the eyes
When you write long-form content like an article, blog post, or newsletter, you must be able to retain the reader’s attention. They must be able to comfortably read the texts without straining their eyes.
A legible text allows readers to read a long form without leaving it too soon. Readers with glasses or other mild sight impairments must also be relatively comfortable reading your text. This means paying attention to accessibility.
- Help people read in longer time
If you write a long form, you want people to stay on your blog, website, or newsletter page for a long time. A legible text allows your work to retain its readers for longer. Reader retention will also improve the quality of your website or other digital media.
- Able to communicate the content perfectly
Newspapers, blog posts, magazines, and digital articles have messages to deliver. When you write content, you must communicate your message. Choosing legible fonts allows the texts to shine in such a way.
With legible texts, readers can digest the information more easily. This way, you can deliver your message or point of view more clearly.
How to Make Fonts More Readable
Whether you download your font or design one, ensure it contributes to content readability. Here are several ways to do it:
- Understand the context
Choosing fonts requires understanding about the context of the writing. Even a standard font with good legibility can affect the reading experience if the use is not right.
For example, a font choice like Garamond is perfect for a book or blog post but not for an app interface. However, sans-serif types like Helvetica and San Francisco Pro are the reverse.
- Reduce the decorative aspects
Decorative fonts are beautiful, but too many can distract and ruin readability. This applies especially to body texts or small typefaces.
- Choose fonts with more character widths
Fonts that offer a wide range of character widths tend to be more readable. This is often the case with humanist fonts with a more natural expansion and organic look. It is the opposite of the grotesque style, which has angular and “square” shapes.
- Create more ample spacing
Spacing between letters and lines also affects the readability factor, especially for long-form texts. Ample spacing reduces ambiguity and a crowded feeling. It helps readers discern the characters and understand the content better.
- Use uppercase and lowercase
When choosing fonts, even the most playful ones, choose the ones with uppercase and lowercase. The difference between both allows your texts to look less ambiguous. They also create more discerning elements in texts, which make reading easier.
Examples of Fonts with Good Readability
Choosing fonts with good readability does not need to trap you in “boring” options. Here are several fonts that have both stylish shapes and good readability.
A humanist font with a retro touch, Cheria has an organic feeling that resembles neat handwriting. The slightly asymmetrical form also creates a good distinction between letters. The result is a typeface that is easier to read.
Cheria is a good option for both heading and body text. You can use it for a website, blog, social media header, or image-based post.
Gladolia is a font that combines fun design and readability. This groovy-style display font has a thick design, yet with rounded designs and slightly uneven thickness. They create more distinction between characters, making it easier to read.
Gladolia has fun design elements, such as slightly distended stems. However, they are subtle and will not distract readers. They are great for headings, social media or website headers, and app font.
Choosing fonts with different variations that still offer good readability? Fearlessly Authentic is the answer.
This serif font has elegant strokes and shapes, with open-style characters and subtle distinctions between characters. Proper spacing between letters also makes the texts easier to read. Fearlessly Authentic is perfect for heading and body text.
Interestingly, Fearlessly Authentic has a slightly different variation. Its italic version has a more classic element in its shape, like a script font. However, the design still has elements that make it easier to read.
Minya is a retro font with good readability thanks to its alternating thickness and proper spacing. It has an outline version that you can spice up with various motifs or color combinations. It is a perfect font for a retro typeface with a subtle decorative element.
Minya is a perfect option for a readable header or main title font. However, despite the unique style, it still has practicality above everything. The subtle artistic tweaks are still easy to decipher, allowing readers to decipher the texts easily.
Choosing fonts for readability requires understanding composition, spacing, form, and other design elements. With this guide, you can pick fonts from any category that will still be readable. Your body texts, headers, titles, or brands will be easier to read and understand.