Typography is one of the essential weapons for web designers. Web designers need to create a design that is not only visually attractive but also readable. More and more designers are adopting a content-first approach.
As a result of web designers often try to bring variation in the typography, they use to change the overall look of the site.
We need to keep the readability in mind constantly along with the view, says John Costa, web strategist of a Melbourne-based web design agency. Use a consistent visual style in the images and fonts you use.
In the effort to do so, they often end up using typography tools to bring in variations. As typography is a vital aspect, we cannot but literate ourselves on some typography tools that can ease the job of the designer and help the newbies in the related field as well.
Below goes a list of five such tools that will help you in your typography related issues:
- Adobe Fonts
Google Fonts is the most used and familiar tool for typography. And so, we have made our list excluding it. Adobe fonts is a healthy alternative to Google Fonts.
You can browse form a whole lot of fonts and see the preview of your desired text directly from their “Browse Fonts” menu. “Browse Lists” lists all the similar fonts together.
You can create kits for individual projects and navigate through a variety of available fonts.
It offers you a free version, but you can select from one of their paid versions too if necessary. “Portfolio” costs $49.99 and “Performance” costs $99.99 per year. It has four different plans for organisations as well. Choose the right one for you if you are purchasing it for your organisation.
- Fontface Ninja
Fontface Ninja is a free browser extension that lets you inspect, try, bookmark and buy fonts on any websites.
Ever liked a specific font in a website and wanted to use that? Fontface Ninja helps you in this regard.
After you have installed the extension, hover over a font to see its name, size and other specifications.
Fontface ninja is free to use.
- Gridlover
Gridlover is an excellent tool that helps you produce the basic styles of typography for your design. This tool comes with line size, margin & height along with a user interface that’s typically a simple slider.
Gridlover works on gauging font sizes and spacing on a web page when you’re considering how big your H1 and H2 titles need to be.
It’s also an excellent tool for when you need to hand over designs to a developer. The output CSS and rules are useful for ensuring consistency between design and code.
Gridlover is a free tool.
- IDEO Font Map
Designers tend to fall back on age-old, reliable font pairings. However, original font pairings are becoming a sure-fire way to distinguish your site and brand.
IDEO Font Map offers an imaginative way to generate original and unusual font pairings. It’s an interactive map of more than 750 fonts that uses AI to surface new relationships across fonts.
- Calligraphr
Despite having a lot of fonts and tools available, you couldn’t find your desired one and wish to create one for yourself. Don’t worry. Calligraphr does the job for you.
This app provides you with a template to download. You can complete it with handwritten letters, and Calligraphr will then translate your writing into fonts. You can then go on to edit and perfect your fonts within the software.
Calligraphr offers you a free version along with a paid version of $8 per month. If you opt for a six months upgrade; it will cost you $4 per month.
Conclusion
“We recommend every new designer to take some time to learn the fundamental of typographical design,” said Nicholas Santana, head of Vizualus. When you understand the characteristics of typefaces “it will be a lot easier for you to choose the right font and help you design anything that will communicate the message in a comprehensible manner.”
We have listed some of the best typography tools for you. There are many more, and the good news is most of them are free to use, and the free versions are likely to do the job for you. Just get started with any of them and bring variation to your design sticking to the ongoing content-based design concept.
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