Non-Designer’s Guide to Web Friendly Fonts

Non-Designer’s Guide to Web Friendly Fonts

It’s no secret that fonts like Arial, Tahoma, and, of course, the meme-worthy Comic Sans aren’t viewed as the most appealing fonts in the design community. However, designers tend to have their own “mental font book” of go-to typefaces, as well. Helvetica Neue, Roboto, and Gotham are (arguably too) often used by designers today – just to name a few. It’s important to find the happy medium between mundane, you-can-do-better fonts and ones that are way too trendy.

How many times in your career have you been asked to create a presentation, edit a WordPress template, or type up a semi-decent looking one-pager? We’ve found that a majority of the time, the answer is often along the lines of “okay, yeah a lot”. You’d be surprised by how different design materials could look simply by choosing a great typeface. Here are a few of our favorite alternatives to try – whether you’re an avid Arial user or a proud owner of the entire Gotham font family:

PT Sans

Montserrat

Opens Sans

Source Sans Pro

Arimo

Quicksand

Did we mention these font options are all web-friendly? That means they’re compatible with both Mac and PC operating systems, so how you choose to format the text on your end is exactly how it will appear to the viewer on other devices (say bye-bye to weird line spacing or shifting of images and texts boxes!).

There is often a misconception that only graphic designers should put time into picking out fonts, colors, and so on, when in reality, the majority of marketing (and even other technically “non-creative”) roles require design thinking daily. Of course, not everyone has the time to pick out design elements – yet these individuals are still sometimes asked to create simple design materials in their profession.

In a roundabout way, that’s how the idea for ConceptDrop originated. The founder and CEO, Phil Alexander, started out in financial services at a large company and found himself spending the majority of his time creating collateral like PowerPoints and infographics. He not only didn’t enjoy this aspect of the role, but also knew he wasn’t the best person to get those more creative tasks done. From that, the idea sprouted to build a network of creative individuals that could easily and efficiently be connected with businesses who need their talent – and ConceptDrop was born.

At ConceptDrop, we enjoy connecting a client with the best designer for their project based on precise metrics – all for the most successful outcome as possible. We understand that not every company has the resources to have full-time designers on staff, nor do financial specialists want to spend a large portion of their workweek (or weekend) creating presentations or other creative products. So if you’d rather not comb through your laptop’s font book or dive deep into your company’s branding guide, we’d love to help out with your next creative project.

Phil Alexander