Graphic Designer Amy Reisman helps Curvine with various projects as a contract designer. She also owns Call Me Amy Design. We asked her to share her thoughts about choosing fonts wisely:

I often get a question similar to this when working on a website design, so what a great time to explain!

With the advent of computers, fonts became much easier to create. Thus, today we have millions at our disposal, most of which we can find for free, or they come for free with our computers. You may only use 2 or 3 of them on a regular basis, but many people have a favorite. As a designer, I have over 4,000 on my computer. Do I use them all? No! But I like having options.

Unfortunately, when it comes to web design, there are not a lot of options. We are pretty much limited to 5 fonts for any text:

San Serifs: Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet
Serifs: Times New Roman, Georgia

To make sure we’re on the same page, “Serif” fonts have feet, or embellishments on the characters. “San Serif” fonts do not, hence the “Sans”.

But yes, we’re really limited to just those 5. Let me explain why. We start with 2 major computer types: Mac and PC. Both have a different set of fonts they come with. From there, we have several different web browsers: Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, and a few others. Internet Explorer is no longer available on the Mac, and Safari is new to the PC. This is where we start having problems.

Since each browser is created by different companies, and on different platforms, they interpret websites differently. So you might see a website look one way in Internet Explorer on your PC at work, but look completely different in Safari on your Mac at home. Its because of this problem, that these 5 fonts are commonly considered “safe” to reproduce most similarly on all computers and in all browsers.

In reality, there are a few more fonts you can get away with, but I always stick to these 5. Also, there are some methods to getting around this problem, using things like Flash and other fancy methods. But still, not really recommended.

So what do you do? First look at your logo. Does it use a serif or a san serif font? If it uses a serif font, you can use either Times New Roman or Georgia to match as best as possible. Same with Arial, Verdana or Trebuchet for a san serif logo.

Does your logo use both serif and san serif? Then I would suggest using a san serif font (usually Arial) for the site. Does it use a completely different font, or something out of the ordinary? Then you’d probably be OK using any of the 5 options, but again I’d usually lean towards Arial to minimize any clashing.

Another thing to consider, is what feel you want the site to have. I like to use Trebuchet for a more modern look. Georgia for something a either more old-style, or classy. San serif fonts tend to feel a little more casual, while serif fonts feel more professional.

As you can see, the font game is not an easy one. But I hope that this gives you a little more insight as to why we are so limited on websites, and how you can decide what your best option is.