Fonts. Do fonts matter? Yes, they matter quite a lot. Picking the wrong font can be the difference between your website effectively communicating a message, and losing your audience through frustration. There are some basic rules when chosing a font:

• It must be a sans-serif font. If you don’t know the difference, look it up. Sans-serif fonts are much easier to read on screen than serif fonts. Conversely, serif fonts are easier to read on paper.
• Make the text high contrast. It must stand out from your background.
• Write in short paragraphs. Blocks of text are hard to read on a screen. Short paragraphs break up blocks of text, and are also a better writing style for websites – people like bite sized content.
• Keep the width of your text short. There is nothing worse than a sentence that spans a 1280×1024 screen. It’s illegible. Try and keep your blocks of text to no more than 600 pixels or so. Use columns where necessary.
• Increase your line height. Give your text room to breath by putting space between the lines. I would advise a minimum line height of 1.5 times the height of the text. Double line spacing is perfectly acceptable (hint: you’re reading it right now).
• Make your text large enough to read. There is nothing more frustrating than straining to read text. Designers hate text and try and make it as small as possible. That is a mistake. Your site relies on good legible text to communicate. Make sure your users can read it!

Ben