Typography is the silent ambassador of your brand. Visitors won't name your typeface, but they'll feel it — and they'll judge your credibility by it within seconds.
The Case for Serif Headlines
For decades, the web default was sans-serif everything. It felt modern. It still can. But we're seeing a return to editorial typography — serif headlines paired with clean sans-serif body text — because it communicates something sans-serif alone cannot: authority, craft, and a sense of permanence.
A serif headline says "we care about the details." It says "we read books." It says "we've been here a while."
Measure: The Most Ignored Principle
Measure is the length of a line of text. The optimal measure for readability is 45 to 75 characters per line. Most websites ignore this completely, running text edge to edge across a 1200-pixel container.
When you constrain your text column to a readable measure, your content instantly feels more considered. It's the difference between a magazine and a billboard.
Hierarchy Through Contrast
Good typography creates a clear visual hierarchy through contrast — not through size alone. A 64px headline next to a 16px paragraph creates contrast. But so does weight (800 vs 400), color (ink vs muted), and style (roman vs italic). Use all four.
The Cost of Bad Type
Bad typography is free. Good typography is also free — the best web fonts cost nothing. What costs is the decision to care. Choosing a typeface, setting a measure, establishing hierarchy, and applying it consistently across every page. That's the work.
Practical Starting Points
- Pair a high-contrast serif for headlines with a humanist sans for body text
- Set body text at 17px minimum, 1.6 to 1.8 line-height
- Limit line length to 65 characters
- Use italic for emphasis instead of bold or underlines
- Never use more than two type families
Typography is the cheapest way to make your website feel expensive. It's the first thing we get right on every project, and the thing visitors notice without knowing they noticed it.
