Rule 1
Honor the reader.
Rule 2
Honor the content.
Rule 3
Choose a web font that helps you do both.
About the Site
GoodWebFonts.com started in early 2010 as a resource for my web typography students. The quickest way to connect them with good web fonts was to think “free.” Google web fonts wasn’t up and running yet, so all fonts tested were from fontsquirrel.com.
Times have changed. The number of fonts available at google web fonts seems to grow every day, and typekit offers a wide range of fonts for a reasonable yearly subscription plan.
So it’s time to expand this resource.
In order to post new font recommendations quickly, I’ve reworked the site as a wordpress blog. The child theme is held together with bubblegum and toothpicks, so if things go wonky, I apologize thoroughly. It’s a learning experience.
Each font has it’s own web font specimen sheet (based on Tim Brown’s original web font specimen) so you can see how the font holds up at various sizes, styles, weights, and so on. Each specimen sheet opens in a new tab so you can view and compare multiple fonts.
I try and identify common information about each font: it’s classification, how many styles it has, and where I first found the font. I can’t promise that the number of styles and source will remain true as time goes by, so you might need to do a little follow-up research. But I hope you find some new fonts to love.
About Me (Laura Franz)
I’m an Associate Professor of Design in the Design Department at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. I teach a wide range of type classes, including History of Letterforms with an Introduction to Type on the Page; Type as Information; Type in Context: Print and Web; and Undergraduate Research Projects in Typeface Design. I’m also Co-coordinator of The Graduate Certificate In Web and Interaction Design at UMass Dartmouth, in which I teach a Web Typography class.
I present lectures and workshops on Typographic Web Design, my book “Typographic Web Design: How to Think Like a Typographer in HTML and CSS” was published by Wiley in late 2011, I’ve written a course (Typography for Web Designers) for Lynda.com, and I’ve started writing for SmashingMagazine.com.
Through it all, I’m inspired by my students, and am particularly interested in how we teach future typographers the art and responsibilities of our craft.
