8 Definitive Web Font Stacks [Design Tips & Tricks]

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Michael Tuck

8 Definitive Web Font Stacks

“Web design is 95% typography.” — Oliver Reichenstein

“Typography is not ‘picking a cool font.’” — Jeff Croft

“Typography is ... about shaping text for optimal reading experience.” — Oliver Reichenstein

Over the last few months, I’ve spent more time than I intended on exploring the whole idea of fonts and typography for the Web. (My friend, typography expert Simon Pascal Klein , writes, “The former is a stylized set of glyphs of characters,” while “the other [is] the whole art of creating type and setting it into the written word.” For more clarification and illumination, consult Jon Tan and Mark Simonson .)

In the process, I’ve been considering the idea of font stacks —using the well-known font-family CSS property—to list as many different fonts as possible in order to optimize the web site experience for a maximum number of users.

What About User Preferences?

There’s a strong argument for leaving well enough alone, and simply specifying serif or sans serif fonts, thus letting the user’s own settings determine the font display. I can understand this philosophy, but personally I prefer exerting more control over the display of my sites.

Fonts matter more than we may realize; they’re as important a choice in determining the visual impact and informational flow of a web page as the color scheme or the navigation layout. And as a designer (even an admitted amateur), I’m unable to leave these crucial elements to whatever settings a user may have.

Different Categories of Fonts

Of course, there are more distinctions among typefaces than just the presence of a serif. The traditional categories, especially for web use, are: serif sans serif monospace cursive/script , and decorative or “fantasy” fonts, which are useful primarily in snazzy graphic creations.

Daniel Mall has a useful list of categories for his ...

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