Website Design : How To Style And Layout Text
Getting the text part of your website design right is not difficult. All you need to do is adhere to these guidelines…
- Do not display text in small font sizes; if it looks too small, visitors to your website will click the back button on their web browser straight away. You may have good eyesight but many people do not, and so you have to take the middle ground rather than just making your website for yourself. Going with a font size of 11 or 12 is generally recommended for the main body of your written content, and you should make your sub-titles and heading at least a font size or two larger. Be consistent too, by ensuring that you use the same font sizes for your content, sub-titles and headings throughout every page of your website.
- The color(s) you choose for your text should sharply contrast to the color(s) you use for your background. Black text on a white background is the easiest color scheme for people to read, but it is not necessary to limit yourself to that if it does not suit the overall style and color scheme of your website design. If the background color is light, then use black, or dark gray, text, and if the background color is dark, then make your text white. Using non black, dark gray or white text very rarely works, so be extremely cautious if you are absolutely intent on using a different color for your text.
- Keep the width of your paragraphs to about 15 words per line. This is necessary so that people only have to move their eyes to read your website, and not their whole head. This number is based on studies that have been carried out which show that 15 words is as far most people’s field of vision will stretch without them needing to move their head. Not every line has to be precisely 15 words, as some sentences will, obviously, have a greater or lesser number of small words such as ‘to’, ‘and’, ‘a’, etc., so you just need to use that number as a rough guide.
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This article was written by a website design expert who has more than 10 years experience in the industry. He is currently doing website design in Westchester, NY and can be contacted at http://kinneymedia.com
