Oct 28, 2025
Typography in web design basics
Typography in web design works when legibility leads and brand follows. Choose one primary workhorse for body and UI, add one accent for voice, set a clear type scale, control line length and spacing, and meet contrast rules. Lock those decisions into tokens and a loading plan. Readers glide, conversions rise, and your brand sounds confident without shouting.
Readability beats aesthetic
Pretty type that’s hard to read is costume jewelry. Start with letterforms that stay clear on everyday screens. Look for open counters, a healthy x-height, and distinct shapes for I, l, and 1. Test a paragraph at 16 px on a budget laptop and a midrange phone in bright light. If it still reads easily, you have a sane baseline. Use display faces as spice, not the main course. Keep body text in a calm family that doesn’t smear or shimmer, then let headlines show personality with weight, contrast, or a second family used sparingly.
Examples that behave well in body: humanist sans families with generous spacing, or transitional serifs that hold up at small sizes. When you want character, bring it in with moderated weight or a smarter numeral style rather than a quirky letterform that fights legibility.
Takeaway: comfortable reading first, brand flair second.
Choose families by job
Give every font a job so they stop arguing. One primary family should cover 90 percent of your UI and content: paragraphs, buttons, form labels, navigation, error messages. One accent family handles headlines, numbers, or short pull quotes. If your brand book insists on a third voice, it must have a narrow task like data tables or code snippets.
Pairing rules are simple. A friendly humanist sans plus a restrained serif creates a trustworthy tone for B2B. An editorial serif plus a neat grotesque sans works for content sites that still need utility UI. Avoid twins that are almost the same. If two families are nearly identical, the page looks muddy. Aim for complementary contrast in rhythm or texture.
Takeaway: one workhorse, one accent, clear roles.
Set a type scale
Hierarchy is math, not vibes. Pick a base size for body, then step headings with a consistent ratio so H6 to H1 feel related. Ratios like 1.2 or 1.25 keep jumps readable on mobile while feeling confident on desktop. Document the scale as tokens in your design system so no one freelances a random H3 at 27 px in a sprint.
Example scale at 16 px base with a 1.25 ratio:
Body 16 px, Small 14 px, H6 20 px, H5 25 px, H4 31 px, H3 39 px, H2 49 px, H1 61 px. Adjust by template. Long-form loves slightly smaller top headings; marketing hero units can step up one notch.
If you want to see how we turn a scale into a shipped system with consistent decisions and handoff artifacts, our website design process shows the checkpoints and deliverables we use.
Takeaway: consistent ratios create predictable hierarchy.
Line length and spacing
Eyes read in saccades, not straight lines to infinity. Keep paragraph width around 45 to 85 characters so scanning feels natural. Pair body with line-height around 1.4 to 1.7. Tighten headings a little to keep them punchy. For long-form, loosen slightly to reduce crowding. Small screens need care. Bump body size by a hair or trim side padding so lines don’t collapse into two sad words. Very wide screens need limits. Cap text width so a line never turns into a marathon.
Quick test you can run in minutes. Paste a 200-word paragraph into your article template, set body to 16 px, then tweak line-height until you stop rereading the same line. Measure characters on three random lines. If you’re consistently near 70, you’re in the comfort zone.
Takeaway: control width and spacing so eyes don’t work overtime.
Contrast and color
Palettes don’t get a hall pass. Body text must meet contrast thresholds or it is decoration. For normal text, meet AA at 4.5 to 1. For large text, 3 to 1 is acceptable. Test hover, focus, visited, disabled. If your brand palette whispers, adjust text or background until it passes, then lock those values into tokens so no one quietly drifts back to fashionable faint gray. The spec is here and worth skimming once: WCAG 2.1 contrast minimum.
Practical trick. When you darken a text color to pass, lighten spacing a touch or nudge line-height down by 0.05 for headings so they don’t feel heavy. The goal is readable and balanced, not stark.
Takeaway: pass contrast or expect readers to bounce.
Variable fonts and performance
Variable fonts pack multiple styles into one file, which means fewer requests and more consistent design. You get weight, width, and sometimes slant axes to fine-tune emphasis without loading five separate files. Good news for your Core Web Vitals and your sanity. The rule of thumb for body text is moderation. Keep weight around a stable value that renders well on Windows and low-end Android so the letters don’t look greasy or ghostly.
Practical setup. Preload your primary variable file, subset by language if you publish in multiple scripts, and define fallbacks that match x-height and metrics. In CSS, set font-display: swap so content appears immediately, then refines when the font loads. Keep a static backup of the headline weight if your hero depends on a specific axis to avoid flash-of-too-thin text on slow connections.
Takeaway: one variable file, many styles, fewer headaches.
Accessibility and language
Typography has to work for everyone who reads you, not just the design team. Set the lang attribute on the html element so assistive tech uses the right pronunciation rules. If you publish across locales, choose families with the glyphs you need for diacritics or non-Latin scripts. Reconsider italics in scripts where they reduce legibility. If your brand wants ultra-light weights, keep them for headlines and avoid them in long paragraphs. Screen glare and older displays turn hairlines into vanishing ink.
Micro-typography that helps. Use lining numerals in data tables for neat columns, old-style numerals in running text if the family supports them, and real small caps for metadata if the font includes them. Fake small caps look cheap. Real ones look considered.
Takeaway: typography must serve all readers, not just your brand book.
Testing on real devices
Your design laptop is not the internet. Test type on a midrange phone outdoors, a cheap Windows laptop indoors, and one old tablet. Open a long article and a dense UI state. If your hierarchy still reads and your body still feels easy, you’re close. Print a page. If the printed version feels crowded, the screen version may be borderline too. When you’re ready to turn the audit into shipped decisions, our web design team can take the system from tokens to production without drama.
Takeaway: test where your readers actually read.
Comparisons and choices
Sans, serif, or both
Sans families handle UI labels and complex dashboards with less visual noise. Transitional or slab serifs read beautifully in long-form and give B2B credibility. Many brands use both. The trick is intent. If your product is interface heavy, lead with a humanist sans. If your content carries sales, a confident serif body with a sans UI often lands better.
Two static files or variable
Small sites with simple needs do fine with two static files. As styles grow, a variable file repays a little setup with flexibility and fewer requests. Budget an hour to tune axis ranges and set good fallbacks so the win is both visual and technical.
System stack or hosted
System font stacks render instantly and are great for speed-critical apps or internal tools. Hosted fonts give voice, ligatures, and true typographic nuance. Use system for hard performance budgets. Use hosted when brand tone matters and traffic is public.
Who benefits and when
Startups with thin budgets should lock a simple system stack, then graduate to a hosted or variable family when brand needs sharpen. Established brands should invest the time to tune a variable primary and a carefully chosen accent so campaigns and product feel related.
Takeaway: pick based on job, traffic, and ops, not fashion
Evidence: mini case study
A B2B content site launched with body at 14 px, lines near 100 characters, and fashionable gray that flunked contrast. We ran a two-week type pass. Body moved to 16 px with 1.55 line-height. Line length capped near 70 characters by limiting container width. Text color bumped to pass AA on body and UI states. Headings kept their chosen family but gained a tighter tracking and a bolder H2 to carry voice.
The result over six weeks on article templates:
• Bounce on article landings dropped from 64 percent to 56 percent
• Average read time rose by 22 seconds
• Scroll depth past the first H2 climbed 11 points
• Support tickets about “tiny text” went to zero
Same content. Same layout. Lower friction plus real contrast.
Takeaway: small typographic fixes move real numbers, not just vibes.
Performance and CLS notes
Fonts can shove layout around if you let them. Use font-display: swap so text renders immediately, then refine as the font loads. Preload your primary family so the swap is quick. Keep fallback stacks close in size to your chosen fonts so letters don’t jump. Measure CLS before and after any font change. If CLS climbs, tighten your fallback, adjust preload order, or reduce the number of weights you load.
Extra credit. For multilingual sites, subset fonts by script so you are not shipping glyphs no one needs. For component libraries, map font usage by component and cut dead weights. Most teams load far more styles than they use.
Takeaway: load fast, avoid layout jumps, measure the result.
Brand voice without shouting
You don’t need a shouty font to sound confident. You need structure. Clear hierarchy says more about your brand than a novelty typeface. Use a stronger weight on H2 to carry tone, a distinct numeral style for data, and a tasteful small-caps utility for metadata. Color in text should signal meaning, not mood. Save the drama for hero images and campaign headlines.
Takeaway: structure carries voice better than novelty.
Want a 30-minute type review that sets your scale, contrast, and loading plan with two practical font options? Book a quick video call, we will show you exactly what to fix
Readable typography reduces drop-offs and increases time on page. Keep line length around 45 to 85 characters and meet AA contrast ratios of 4.5 to 1 for body and 3 to 1 for large text (Source: WCAG 2.1 contrast minimum, 2025). Studio Ubique helps teams implement this within one sprint
FAQ
Why is typography important in web design?
Text does the heavy lifting. Good typography makes pages effortless to read, which lifts comprehension, scroll depth, and conversions. Legibility rules first. Style supports it.
How many fonts should a site use?
Usually two. One primary for paragraphs and UI, one accent for headlines or numbers. Add a third only for a very specific role. More fonts mean more requests and more chaos.
What size should body text be?
Start at 16 px, then test on real devices. Pair with line-height around 1.4 to 1.7 and cap line length around 45 to 85 characters for easier scanning.
Are variable fonts worth it?
Often yes. They consolidate styles into one file and let you fine-tune weight and width without extra downloads. Preload the primary file and keep axis ranges conservative for body text.
How do I keep brand voice without hurting readability?
Use tone in headings, weight choices, numerals, and small caps. Keep body text calm and readable. Let spacing and hierarchy do most of the personality work.
Book a 30-min fit check
Typography is the quiet backbone of your site. Choose one primary that reads effortlessly, add one accent that sounds like you, set the scale, control width and spacing, meet contrast, and ship with a sane loading strategy. Your content gets out of its own way and your brand finally sounds like itself.
Book a quick 30-min video call, we’ll show you exactly what to fix.
