A major decision whenever we are designing a new website is what fonts to use for headings and the body etc. Typeface can completely change the way a website looks and I often spend hours trawling for the perfect font. A current favourite is typeface: Lato which is part of the Google Fonts stable. Google fonts can be incorporated easily into a website and works well across most browsers. Not that long ago, using a typeface that wasn’t a regular web safe font (arial, georgia, tahoma…) was a little challenging.
Cufon, a font-replacement technique that uses javascript and vector graphics to write fonts from a font file (TTF, OTF or PFB) to your browser was the safest and simplest bet for designers who wanted to spruce up a website with sexy typography. WordPress Template developers have been happily using Cufon technique for a while now with really great results. The downside to this is that Cufon essentially turns your text into an image.
Enter Google Web Fonts : A couple of years ago Google introduced a service allowing the use of hundreds of previously non-web safe fonts on websites. In the past, using non-web safe fonts meant that if site visitors didn’t have that font installed on their computer, they possibly wouldn’t see it on the website and even worse, might get Times Roman as a default. Super clever Google saves the day again!
LATO – our font is part of the Google family and so dashing. The Lato font team have designed it in a bunch of styles including black, light and super thin. It’s easy to read, modern and a nice change from Arial or Georgia. Go team Lato!
Grumpy wizards make toxic brew for the evil Queen and Jack.
