What font you use is important for a web site because the fonts you choice to use influence the way people will perceive your site, to judge whether the site is business like or a casual site. Some fonts are easier to read than other on the Web.

You want to use a font that is easy to read on a computer screen and a font that fits your site.

There are two main types of fonts, serif and sans serif. Serif fonts have cross-lines at the ends of the letters. San serif (comes from the French word “without”) fonts do not have serifs at the ends of the letters.

The most common serif font is Times New Roman (the same as Times on a Mac) and the most common sans serif font is Arial. Also popular are Verdana and Georgia

Ariel is found on most computers and is the most used sans serif font found on computers. Ariel is the default sans serif font for Windows. It is consider to be a fairly readable font on a computer screen, but is hard to read in smaller sizes because it makes it too narrow and the space between the characters is not big enough. It has a modern look, but is not considered exciting. Helvetica is the same as Arial on a Mac.

Times New Roman is found on most computers and is the most popular serif font. It is the font that most web browsers use as a default. It is also the default font for Windows. It is considered to be a readable font for text sizes above 12pt on a computer screen, but is very difficult to read for lower fonts. It is considered to be a conservative business-like font. Times is the Mac version of Times New Roman.

Verdana is considered to be an excellent sans serif font to use as it is very readable on a computer screen and is found on many computers. It has a wide body that makes it easy to read and it is a great font to use in small sizes. It is considered to be a professional, easy to use font.

Georgia is a good serif font that is considered to be more readable than Times New Roman and it is considered to be the most readable serif font on a computer. It is a professional, easy to read font.

Comic Sans Serif is like the hand writing used in comics. It is an informal, easy to read font. It is not considered acceptable for business web site, but is good for casual site.

Trebuchet is a sans serif font like Arial. It is not considered good to use it for small font sizes.

Courier New is a serif font that looks look typewriter type. It is often used to show sample HTML code on a web site.

Best Fonts to Use
Verdana is considered to be the best and most readable font for web sites. Georgia is considered to be the best serif font to use, but is not considered as readable as Verdana

The standard font used for web pages is Verdana and Arial and the standard size is 2. This is because Verdana and Arial are the easiest fonts to read.

Arial is a good choice to use for headlines and titles, when you want to use a different type than Verdana in a bigger size.

Georgia is a popular font to use for headlines because it looks good in large sizes.

Specifying Several Fonts
If you use a font on your web site that is not on a viewers computer the computer will substitute another font that it thinks is similar if you do not give another options. For instance it is known that most computer contain the Ariel font. So if you want to use the easier to read Verdana you would first list Verdana and then Ariel as a substitute if a viewer’s computer does not have Verdana on it.

It is a good idea that you specify several fonts and not just one font putting the most readable font in front and if a computer does not have that fonts one of the substitute fonts will be used.

The HTML code for this would be like <font face=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans>. The viewer’s computer would first try to load Verdana and if the browser does not have it then it will try to load Arial and if it does not have that it will try to load any sans serif font that it has.

Font and Background Colors
It is best to have black text on a white background for you main text as it is the easiest combination to read for longer period.

Be careful when selecting a background color. You should try to keep the same background color across your entire website.

If you want people to read your text also try to avoid images embedded in your background as it can make it difficult to read the text.

Colors are supposed to affect the mood of the reader and so you should choice colors that are good for the mood you want to impart.