|
|
|
3 Easy Steps to Improve the Search Engine Ranking of Your Website
Copyright since 2009 Peter Dobler
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a buzzword that is around
for a long time. There are as many misconceptions about SEO as
there are webmasters. Some webmasters are afraid of SEO,
thinking it is too complex and...
7 Benefits of HTML Validation
You may not bother with html validation or writing simple
and clean code when designing your web site. Later you may
find your site is slow loading, appears incorrectly in the
main browsers and does not rank well for the major search
engines. ...
Beautiful Web Sites Seldom Make More Sales
Designing an E-commerce Web site is not as simple as having a "pretty" site that is a pleasure to visit. While it is important to have an attractive site, as much thought must be given to functionality as to appearance. Many Web designers seem to...
Blending Colors
When you are familiar with software applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Flash and other drawing programs, I know you are also very much familiar with the swatches. Swatches contain selection of different colors that you can use during the...
Bluetooth - Description
Buletooth is a telecommunications technology that allows computers, mobile phones, PDAs, and other enabled devices to connect wirelessly over short distances, and exchange digital information. Bluetooth connections take place over a 2.4 GHz...
Copy any DVD movie with EZ DVD Copy™
Have you ever wanted to copy a DVD movie that you own? Now you can with EZ DVD Copy™. Our powerful, easy-to-use software will allow you to copy virtually any DVD, using a CD-R or DVD-R! EZ DVD Copy allows you to extract all of the features that...
CSS Browser Detection - The complete guide
Different browsers, different CSS interpretations! There will be a time when you'll need to hide some CSS rules from a particular browser, or even all the CSS file! In this articles I'll try to compile all possible types of Browser detection...
HTML for Beginners
For some reason, HTML seems to really frighten a lot of people.
Some have seen complicated HMTL that's been produced by an
editor program, or they've clicked 'View Source' on a few pages
and been scared by what they've seen.
What you have...
Introduction To Web Technologies
There are literally hundreds of difficult technologies available to the webmaster. Making proper use of these technologies allows the creation of maintainable, efficient and useful web sites. For example, using SSI (server side includes) or CSS...
Web Design Is Not For The Squeamish: 9 Things You Should Know Before Designing A Website
The internet has become an integral part of our lives. Everyday
more and more websites are going online. With the advent of
online sitebuilders included with many hosting packages, anyone
can easily create a web presence and feel comfortable...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Web Design Mistakes - Text and Fonts
This article may be published electronically or in print, free of charge, without alteration to any content and the resource box at the end of the article is included in it's entirety without alteration. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.
Web Design Mistakes - Text and Fonts by Breal Web Design ***********************************************************
The main purpose people use the Internet is for research, according to most user surveys. While not specifying the kind of research being done, it is safe to assume that people are spending a lot of time online reading.
Unless a site is meant to be full of graphics, such as an art gallery or promotional page for a graphic designer, the use of graphics should be minimal. To learn more about using graphics, send a blank e-mail to mailto:wdm-graphics@brealweb.com
Your site should be easy to read. There are literally thousands of fonts out there, so why shouldn't you use a special one? Because not everyone looking at your web site will have the font installed on their computer. Your visitor will be looking at your page with their installed fonts. Mac users have different default fonts to IBM and compatible users too.
So how do you cater to the masses? There are a few fonts that are installed by default on most computers and it's best to stick with them (for example: Times New Roman, Arial, Courier or Verdana).
When using these fonts you can specify them in your font tags or in your CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) files. Always include alternatives for different browsers to choose from. Using a font tag for example: your text or <"FONT-FACE="Times New Roman, Times, serif">your text
The worst text and font mistakes include:
ø Making your text too small to read easily. If you are using a style to specify a font size, ensure your font is not under 10 points. The exception to this is the 'fine print' such as a link to your privacy policy or other documentation you are legally required to display.
ø L-o-n-g copy. You don't get your visitor's attention for long. Many readers will stop at 2 or 3 web pages (around 1000 words) or they'll start to skim your document and could easily miss important information. If you have miles of text one on page, you could consider splitting it up into sub pages. Try creating a summarised main version and use descriptive links
to more pages.
ø Using similar coloured background and text. Ensure your text has enough contrast for viewers to read easily.
ø Using garish or extreme background and text colour combinations. Nothing puts me (and thousands of other web users) off faster than trying to read text on a garish background colour. Keep text easy to read.
ø ALL CAPITALS. THIS IS THE EQUIVALENT OF SHOUTING AT YOUR SITE VISITORS! It's also much harder to read a document only written in capitals. It is acceptable for headings.
ø Flashing text, scrolling text and other 'special effects'. Flashing text is not pleasant to watch and puts people off. The only place scrolling text should appear is in tickers and news headlines (and only in the former, in my opinion, as it's very hard to read).
ø Multiple fonts. A good quality professional document will not use more than 2 or 3 fonts on a page. This rule applies both offline and online. Too many fonts are distracting, so if you want variety, decide on one font for the headings, and one for the text - then stick to them throughout your document. When designing a web site, it is best to maintain consistency throughout the site by sticking with the same fonts on every page.
If you do want to use a non standard font in your web page, try making it into a graphic. You can do this easily with a graphic editor. Just set the canvas to transparent, type your word or phrase with your desired font, then save it as a .GIF.
If you haven't specified an absolute text size in your style sheets or font tags, your font size can be changed by your site visitor. On Internet Explorer, it's 'Text Size' on the 'View' menu. So, if you want to fix your font size, ensure it's large enough for the majority of people to read, as older people will want text at 11 or 12 points or higher.
Look around on the web and you'll see plenty of good and bad examples of text. If you're in doubt about your work, leave your masterpiece a day or two, then take a fresh look at it. And, ask a couple of friends to have a look and let you know what they think.
About the Author
Breal provides cost effective web site design and hosting
with a full 30 day money back guarantee. Web hosting even
comes with six months free hosting on yearly accounts. To
find out more visit http://www.brealweb.com
For a complete list of current articles, send any e-mail to
mailto:articlelist@brealweb.com
|
|
|
|
|
|