5 tips for the perfect free fonts

The font you choose for web design can say a lot about your business. While most organizations online still use Arial and Verdana, you can stand out with something completely different. Choose free fonts that suit you.

Readability above all else

In web design, you need to consider typography. Not only the font is important, size, color, space between letters (margin), space between sentences (line spacing) and white space are also important. This is also why not all fonts are suitable for the screen, where our eyes have more difficulty reading than from a book. And this is particularly important, according to research: after all, how we like the font does not drive sales or contact moments, readability does.

Free font 1: Roboto

The Google font Roboto is perfect for body text. The sans serif font reads pleasantly and maintains the uncluttered design of a site. It is a business and professional font that looks friendly because of its open nature. Moreover, the letters flow into each other in a pleasant rhythm.

• Download Roboto

Free font 2: Montserrat

Good for titles and plain text is the Google font Montserrat. The typeface was inspired by the old posters that used to hang in the Montserrat neighborhood of Buenos Aires. This urban typography was given a modern twist. The font is business-like, but also nice and light and contrasting.

• Download Montserrat

A handwritten font, or one with excessive serifs, negatively impacts the message but works perfectly as a visual resting point in quotes, frames and titles.

Free font 3: Oswald

Oswald forms the perfect subtitle under a main title typed in serifs. It’s a bit reminiscent of titles in old newspapers, which makes it perfect for indicating the date or writing a chapeau. This will give your story or page topicality. It also reads pleasantly on all screen sizes. This is another of Google’s free fonts that offers a total of 832 font families.

• Download Oswald

Try to limit the number of fonts on the website to two. That’s how you avoid a carnival.

Free font 4: Merriweather

A very suitable font for headlines is Merriweather from Google Fonts. This font is constantly being improved so it reads pleasantly on different screen sizes. There are also new styles coming out all the time such as the light, bold and black which are again implemented in an italic option. Additionally, there is a Merriweather sans-serif version that provides nice harmony with the plain text on your site.

• Download Merriweather

Free font 5: Playfair Display

Choose headings, frames and quotes with a classy look by downloading Playfair Display from Google fonts. The font works very nicely with Georgia as plain text. Upper case letters are only a tad heavier and larger than lower case letters. This creates a balanced image which enhances readability.

• Download Playfair Display

Here’s how to install Google Fonts

Installing Google Fonts is easy. When you download them, they are saved as a .zip file on your computer. Unzip these files and you’ll see one or more .ttf files. Those are the fonts. Double-click it for a preview and the ability to install the font. Then it will be available in all programs on your PC or Mac.

Perfect images

2manydots is a specialist in converting websites. To maximize that conversion, we pay attention to the smallest details – including typography. In this series of blog posts, we previously gave five tips for perfect images on your website. Read the article directly. That way, you’re already pretty completely up to speed on all the important design issues for your site.

• 5 tips for professional website images