When deciding what typeface to use on your website, it's important to remember: don't over think it. I know that many designers hate using Helvetica, because it is wildly overused. I agree with this, but there's one very important piece of information this statement leaves out: why. People overuse Helvetica because it's just so damn good. It fits right in with virtually every design imaginable, it works well in small, as well as huge sizes.

While it may go against your beliefs to set your type in such an abused face, if it works, then go for it.Your body copy is arguably the part of your design that needs to be most readable, so make sure you pick a font that works well in small sizes. What do I mean by that? If you can set your copy to 10px and you can still make out what it says, then that's a good indication you've chosen a readable typeface.

That covers body copy, but what about titles?  Readability in large titles is far easier to figure out than in body copy. If you can make out what it says immediately, then it's readable enough.  What's good about typefaces is that once you've worked on enough projects, you'll have a good idea of what works and what doesn't. From there, you'll be in a better position to make critical choices about fonts.

 
Lavanderia is a script font based on lettering found on Laundromat windows of San Francisco’s Mission District. It features numerous OpenType features such as swashes, titling alternates, figures, stylistic alternates, ligatures. It is available in three weights, with Uppercase, Lowercase, Numerals and Punctuation sets.  Every now and then, we look around, select fresh free high-quality fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually time you should be investing in your projects. We search for them and find them so that you don’t have to.  In this selection, we’re pleased to present Homestead, Bree Serif, Levanderia, Valencia, Nomed Font, Carton and other quality fonts. Please note that while most fonts are available for commercial projects, some are for personal use only and are clearly marked as such in their descriptions. Also, please read the licensing agreements carefully before using the fonts; they may change from time to time.  This new gothic sans serif font was inspired by the late 19th century industrial fonts that contained german roots regarding straightness and geometry. Combined with other sans serifs, slab serifs and serif fonts, it catches the eye when used in headlines and short copy texts. Alternate versions turn the font into a perfect partner for modern, technical and contemporary impressions as well as high-quality, luxury and timeless environments. Free to use in commercial and non-commercial projects. Designed by Rene Bieder.  Valencia is a condensed, art-deco inspired typeface that includes five weights, ranging from hairline to black, with matching obliques for each weight. The typeface has a nice corporate vintage look which makes it a great fit for large headlines and prints as well as any collateral or stationery. Valencia’s distinctive appearance stems from its low horizontal crossbars and its full-circle curves. Released by the Lost-Type Co-Op foundry with the “name-your-price” pricing scheme and hence freely available for personal and commercial use.  Jura is an elegant serif typeface with narrow proportions and distinguishing details. The rounded, wedge-shaped serifs offer a contemporary feel and also achieve to maintain legibility even with its range of small sizes. This typeface is available in four weights: Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic and is available for free download and use.  Nomed Font is a free typeface that can help you achieve a modern and sophisticated look in your designs. The triangular geometric shapes may be a bit hard to read but that’s exactly the highlight of this particular style, and it makes the typography unique and original.  This typeface, designed by Nick McCosker, is a strong yet sensitive slab-serif inspired by letterpress. Its sturdy appearance makes it a perfect fit for posters, headings and taglines, in both classic and contemporary contexts. Released by the Lost Type Co-Op under the “name-your-price” pricing scheme.  This typeface is an uppercase-only font family with some pretty impressive geometric forms that have been inspired by historical European typographic tendencies. It was designed to be used mostly for headlines, visual identities or short sentences — both in big and small sizes. The family contains 471 glyphs and 32 font weights whereas six of the font weights of the wide-version (Light, Book, Normal, Medium, Demibold and Bold) are available for free download and use.  Hero is a crisp geometrical typeface applicable for any type of use: print, Web, logos, posters, booklets. This typeface contains 162 characters and is free for personal and commercial use. Available in the OpenType format for PC and Mac.
 

Movavi is a sans serif font that is available only in the font weights Black and Black Italic. Obviously, the typeface wouldn’t work for body copy, but it might work nicely in short headings or “groovy” art works. Available for free download and use on PC and Mac.  This typeface is a geometric display face which includes OpenType features for an alternate alphabet. The family contains sets for Uppercase, Numerals and Punctuation.

Released by the Lost Type Co-Op under the “name-your-price” pricing scheme and designed by Dan Gneiding. If you decide to buy the font for $30 or more, you will get a beautiful Ribbon Specimen Book as well.  Open Sans is a very clean font family by Ascender Fonts. It includes ten styles (Light, Regular, Italic, Semibold, Bold, Bold Italic, Extrabold) and each one consists of more than 900 glyphs: Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, many of the regular diacrytic letters as well as “hanging” numbers. Also available at Google Web Fonts and released under the Apache License version 2.  A growing directory of hundreds of free, open-source fonts optimized for the Web. Google also provides ready-to-use snippets for integrating the fonts to your website.

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