The essence of typography

If design is how you dress yourself, then typography is what type of shoes you wear. Footwear not only affects posture and stride, but it also suggests personality and lifestyle; typography is no different. Your mental image of someone wearing sandals probably differs from someone wearing cowboy boots. In this same regard, typography suggests tone and discipline. The typeface, leading, kerning and all other attributes influence how you communicate with others online or in print. Are your fonts big, bold, and loud or are they demure, curly, and bespoke?

A few years ago, it was considered a valiant attempt to use fonts other than Arial or Times Roman on websites. Custom font implementations such as, sIFR, cufón and FLIR were inundated with precautionary notices, which typically addressed certain usage limits and browser incompatibilities. Only recently through services such as Google Fonts, TypeKit, Fontspring, and Font Squirrel have sites been able to easily utilize custom web fonts. If you haven't taken advantage of them, do so now! Don't limit the way you present yourself with a run-of-the-mill font. Choose fonts that speak to you and your users, and they'll appreciate the attention to detail, if only subconsciously.