Although typography may seem like a minor component of web design, it can actually have a big impact on the overall effectiveness of any website. One reason is because fonts can determine how easy or hard it is for someone to read the content on a site. Another reason is typography can affect how visitors perceive the site and the brand it represents.

Since web design typography plays an important role for any site, it’s vital to make the right choice. For many businesses, that choice is the font Garamond. However, Garamond isn’t a font that’s naturally supported by all browsers. In the past, that meant it was quite difficult to use. But thanks the current availability of web fonts, there’s no longer a reason it can’t be utilized.

In fact, the most challenging thing about utilizing this type of font is that there are multiple options for integrating it into your website. So if you’re wondering which one you should choose, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the different available options:

Google Fonts

As with most of Google’s products, you can use this service for free. It allows you to create consistent typography across any operating system. However, the downside is there aren’t that many fonts to use. While there are some quality open source choices, Garamond isn’t a font that’s supported by Google Fonts.

Font Stacking

Although fonts like Garamond aren’t available on every system, they are supported by quite a few browsers and operating systems. If you want to ensure this font is displayed whenever it’s supported, the key is to declare it, as well as fallbacks that can be utilized when your site is loaded on a system where that font is not supported. So in the case of Garamond, you may include fallbacks like Georgia and serif in your CSS font-family declaration. While this is arguably the easiest solution, the downside is your site won’t look the same on all computers.

Webfont Services

This type of service is basically the same thing as Google Fonts. The big difference is they offer a wider selection of fonts. Not surprisingly, the reason they do that is because they charge for usage. So while the selection is nice, the potential downside is having to pay an annual fee of $25-$100+ just for using a font.

Self-Hosting

The difference between self-hosting and a webfont service is you pay a one-time licensing fee instead of an annual one. So while self-hosting means you’ll own the font you purchase, it does have a higher upfront cost.

As you can see from the different options we covered, each method of delivering a font has its pros and cons. What this decision really comes down to is which option is going to be the best fit for the other components of your website. Keep in mind that if you’re having trouble figuring out the answer to that question, you can always turn to a web design company for guidance.

Do you need a better website for your company? Web Strategy Plus offers a free quote or consultation to help you identify the areas of your marketing plan that need improvement. Learn More