First the Web’s favorite font was Times New Roman. Mostly, because nobody had a choice. Then it was Comic Sans. Then, Helvetica/Arial.
However, news sites especially are leading the charge into Georgia / Times New Roman fonts being the next widely adopted style. This is most likely the result of an attempt to emulate the serif newspaper-ish feel of sites like the New York Times. This style is especially visible in the navigation of online-only properties that are trying to inspire thoughts of a print product, and therefore, the authority of the printed word.
A few examples:
Divine Caroline:
Divine Caroline opts for Times New Roman, however it is still is the Georgia style. Like every other site in this list, it opts for the roll-over sub navigation. However, Divine Caroline uses the drop down effect.
The Matador Network:
BNET:
Bnet, is probably my favorite design of any news site, as seen on Twitter.
Shine:
A departure from the typical Yahoo! style.
two.one.five::
two.one.five is a Philly magazine trying to be a New York Style mag. But damn do they know how to design.
Any others to add to the list?
3 Comments
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That’s a nice observation- I know recently I’ve started using Georgia or Garamond for headings and other fonts I want to stand out and sans-serif fonts for regular text when I design. I never really thought about why but I’m wondering if it’s because I’m seeing it more and more and am influenced by those designs.
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I really, really want to care about fonts. I really do. …But I don’t. This sure seems like a great post, insightful and thorough, but I simply can’t even feign interest. I have no knowledge, and therefore, just commented on a post of which I read less than half. …Keep it up, Internet Jesus.
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It doesn’t really sound like a big deal, but fonts really can make a difference when it comes to designing–both in print and online media. There’s a lot to think about such as readability or the tone you want to set with your story or publication. Right now, the fonts on my blog are all sans-serif because I don’t know/haven’t figured out how to change that. I’m not sure if I’m going to change it to a serif font (if I ever figure out how to), but we’ll see. What do you think?