Typography Mistakes Designers Make

Posted by James Hawk on November 30th, 2017

Typography Mistakes Designers Make

Art of Typography doesn’t depend on only the typeface, text color, size etc. The fact is, there are other aspects and typesetting needs to be considered.

It’s like an invisible art, which grabs the attention of the reader efficiently. But sometimes designers and developers surprisingly misunderstand and abuse them by not using proper typesets in the website. Here are some of the mistakes that designers usually make while choosing proper fonts, colors, sizes and how to avoid them.

1. Insufficient Leading

In Microsoft Word and on the web, it is referred to as line-spacing.

The term defines the spaces between two sequential lines. Often designers use very little space in between the lines which makes it very difficult to read. Similarly, if the spaces are more than enough, the reader will feel disconnected and they most likely, will skip the article.

Actually, there is no specific boundary on how much space should you use. The best you can do is try reading the text yourself to see if you are comfortable with the spacing or not.

2. Tracking

Tracking refers to the amount of space between two letters in a word. Designers generally use tracking to adjust type so that the lines fit perfectly.

Too much tracking means lesser readability and legibility. So it is best to leave the tracking with the default value.

3. Kerning and Tracking

Many designers think that kerning and tracking are synonyms but in reality, they are quite dissimilar to each other. Where tracking refers to the spaces between every character in a line, Kerning indicates the spacing between two particular characters in a word.

Kerning is mostly used for bringing characters closer or increase the distance to the next character that has more than enough white spacing around them. A good example will be the combination of A & W that can sit more closely than most other fonts placed beside them. The complementary angles make them closer to one another.

4. Too Many Weights and Faces

Designers usually try to make the text more visually appealing and eye smoothening for readers. That’s why many think that mixing and jamming multiple fonts in one paragraph makes it visually beautiful. But the result is on the contrary.

You see, too many fonts and weights makes it tough to go through the whole paragraph without being irritated and misguided.

But it is okay to use separate fonts for heading, sub-heading, paragraph, examples and other parts of content.

5. Reasonable Line Length

Excessive line length can make it difficult for readers to find the start of next line. This can irritate the readers as well as make them leave the content half-read.

For a standard measurement, it is worth taking the newspapers and magazine lines. Usually, they only allow 75 characters in a line to keep the lines clean and tidy. This smaller line length helps the reader keep track of where they left and where they can start from.

So keeping your line lengths adequate ensures your reader stays on your web page for a long time.

These are the things that a good designer should avoid while creating a landing page. Remember, messy and congested fonts do not leave a good impression on the visitors and readers. So, don’t forget the tips on spacing and line lengths.