Have you ever come across a graphic, website, or even an email that was hard to read? Having an ideal typeface for your designs is quite important. Matter of fact it may contribute to your conversion rate on your website and an overall emotional feel to your readers.
First of all we have to talk about something that’s a bit controversial.
Quick Vocabulary Lesson & History
Let’s talk history and what typography is.
Do you know the difference between a font and a typeface?
After really looking into this matter, the differences have really been mixed up due to old school typography methods going digital. The fact is typography is an old world art that has become digitalized to bring the masses to become typographers.
What’s a typographer really?
A typographer is someone who selects a particular typeface for a graphic design, website, book, or other printed material. Basically that’s you and me. Have you written a book, created a website, or do you create newsletters? If you make the decision of the lettering on your material then YOU are the typographer.
That takes us to what the difference is between a font and typeface.
I grew up being Microsoft savvy therefore using Microsoft Word was second nature. I’m sure many people can relate that in many schools they taught off of PC’s and used Microsoft software. Learning to use Word helped develop a vocabulary like no other. The word “font” was for lettering on the page or so I thought. With this vocabulary word, (instilled in me since youth) it’s pretty easy to say all lettering is font. Right?
It’s only until recently I’ve heard of typeface and that’s when I had to find out more. Typeface is the lettering that we see. For example, I can look at lettering on a screen and know that it’s Times New Roman Bold typeface. It’s not font!
Font is the overall categorization of the typefaces. It’s the equipment that encompasses the sizes, the bold, the italics, etc. See back in day they used metal blocks for printing for every size and such. John Brownlee explains the history a little better than I can here and Jon Tan has an awesome metaphor on typeface vs. fonts here. Now that you know the history and a quick vocab lesson, let’s carry on to how typography affects you and your readers.
Typography Affecting Your Business
I don’t know about you but sometimes when I see a graphic or a website that’s hard to read I bounce out of there. There are times when I look at a social media graphic and the typeface doesn’t go with the photo, I feel a bit …icky. That feeling close to embarrassment and you’re not sure why you feel so weird. Here are a couple of examples when I don’t feel so great:
This example makes me want to run and hide…
This example makes me feel sad and now my eyes hurt but I have to tell you I actually saw something similar to this on a website.
Typography has this affect on most people. Here’s a cool infographic from Neil Patel on how typography affects conversions and Neil knows A LOT about conversion.
What You Can Do To Improve
Here’s some more help on identifying bad typography, this article is jam packed with WordPress.org plug-ins that can empower you to beautify your website along with make it clear for your readers.
When creating your social media graphics, website graphics, newsletters, etc. you can use Canva’s Design School, which is brand new with teaching materials on using fonts. If you need video lessons you can go to my Canva School to get lessons on using Canva for business.
A couple of questions for you:
- What sort of typography makes you a bit uncomfortable when you see it?
- What’s your favorite typeface?
I’d love to hear from you and if you feel that this post has some helpful hints please share.
Take care,
Lillian De Jesus
Tigerlily 
Hi Lillian,
I’ve learned a lot here. I didn’t realize the difference between fonts and typeface. I do agree that some sites I go to that if I have to strain to read or highlight, I’m outta there.
Thanks for the great information
Hi Monna,
It’s been a lot of fun to research. I agree, if it’s hard to read then I leave.
Thanks for stopping by!
Lillian
Exciting stuff! I have learned a lot today. I know there are quite a few times when I go to a website or blog and barely can read the article. It turns me off and many times i leave unless the content is very interesting. We can all learn some valuable information from this article. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Nate,
I’m happy to hear this article was of interest to you. Thanks for stopping by!
Take care,
Lillian
I feel I’m not the best when it comes to design. Either that or I just don’t like doing it but putting together a piece of work that comes out looking great due to good typography feels great. Any training on how to do this better?
I will be getting a training video together on typography on Canva. Stay tuned on that!
Thanks for stopping by NT,
Lillian
Hi Lillian!
I really enjoyed this article as I too was uneducated as to the difference between ‘font’ and ‘typeface’.
With so many options available, I play around with these sometimes but I am still looking for a uniform look to my site where all articles are written with the same appearance for ease of reading.
I’ll come back to check out your Canva School as soon as I can 🙂
Hi Soni!
Glad I wan’t the only one… I know there are SO many options. I’ll get a training video on typography on the Canva School soon!
Take care,
Lillian
Thanks for pointing out the differences here Lillian. Personally, I have a few favourites I tend to always return to. They are clear and easy to read. I have been guilty of running away from hard-to-read blogs. People don’t have the time these days to persevere and it can also hurt eyes from straining to understand what has been written.
Take care….
Thanks for stopping by Liz! It is all about making it easy for readers.
Take care,
Lillian
Enjoyed your article – and very attractive infographic! I read a lot of blogs and can’t off the top of my head think of any examples of bad topography I’ve seen, other than the fact that some have the font way too small or way too BIG – which are equally annoying. Thanks for the inspiration!
Hello there!
Thanks for visiting and I’m so glad you enjoyed the article.
Take care,
Lillian
Thanks for explaining those terms, Lillian. I was not clear on them.
Grey on white is hard for me to read, and so is white on black. And of course small type is always hard to read.
Hi Lillian,
What an informative post! I had no idea there was a difference between typeface and font.
Definitely agree that typography is very important. I know I get frustrated when I go to websites that have many different fonts, hard to read, etc., therefore I was cognizant of it when I created my site.
Thanks for the important lesson!
Best,
Monisha
Thank you Lilian ,
I did not know what typography really means .
Thanks to you now I know it and even more .
Great post
Erika
Hi Erika,
Thanks for stopping by! I’m so glad you learned something from this post.
Take care,
Lillian