Any book designer will tell you that typeface has a great deal to do with conveying the character of the book. If the book is supposed be a serious, authoritative examination of a weighty topic or a carefree, lighthearted pleasure-read, the designer tries to choose a typeface that visually suggests a similar mood or feeling. Not too many books about the Hegelian philosophy have been done up in comic book lettering. Also, the size of the text helps the designer choose the right typeface. Some kinds of type work well at small sizes because they're more legible, while others work better in larger sizes for the same reason. Having said that, Web typography isn't nearly as complex as the print equivalent. There are far fewer typefaces from which to choose, and there aren't as many variables, even in a robust language like CSS, which narrows your design options but, at the same time, makes choosing the best typeface fairly straightforward. Here are a few rules of thumb:
|