Timeless Tool of Web Typography - Typetester
Saturday, June 28th, 2008I’ve been using (or trying to use) Typetester for a while now and I’ve found it’s an invaluable tool for people like me… typographically challenged. I know good, clean, legible typography when I see it, or more importantly, when I don’t. If your fonts aren’t noticeable, then you’ve done your job. And it’s just that kind of unassuming typography that allows a web site’s message to be clear.
One of the old adages from my newspaper days - no one should ever “see” your design work.
Since I have a huge, cinder mental block when it comes to body copy, I love Typetester’s easy to use interface. I have three dialogue boxes to compare and contrast my font choices. I can start with a base font size, then choose the font family, size, leading, tracking, alignment, word space, decoration, color and background color of each of the three columns. (See screen shot.)
I can then not only compare between three different configurations, but I can scroll down and view the many iterations my fonts may incur in any paragraph. Italic, bold italic, small caps - there’s not a font style missed here. And since it’s very easy to while away the time trying out different variations for your theme, Typetester’s included a swift little export to CSS feature for each of your columns.
Give it a try, and see if it’s not the first place you turn when your typography turns on you.
