Serif fonts have small strokes at the end of the main strokes of each character. (Sans-serif fonts don’t.) You can see them fairly easily even in my small illustration, in the word “Serifsâ€. You can’t see them in the words you are reading.
Many twentieth-century experimental studies suggest that serif fonts are easier to read on the printed page. More recent studies suggest that sans-serif fonts are easier to read on a computer monitor. However, these studies were mostly carried out before monitors and graphics cards reached their present high levels of definition. (Older configurations blurred characters with serifs.) And many printed books use sans-serif fonts throughout.
I suggest that this is an area for the designer’s judgment. Look at each available font, and decide the impression each one creates. On a test page, put up a paragraph in every single available font. Which one will work best on the site you are designing?
I mainly use sans-serif fonts, especially Verdana (designed for the Web, and probably its most ubiquitous font). They tend not to draw attention to themselves (i.e., only other designers notice). However, I do occasionally use a serif font.
For the Calpe bookshop LibrerÃa Europa, I set a font-family of ‘Book Antiqua’, Palatino, serif. Book Antiqua and Palatino are almost indistinguishable, and one or the other can be found on almost every Web user’s computer. I liked the slightly ‘bookish’ air it gave the site’s few pages. What do you think?
