All I See is Type

My interest in typography is a product of my renewed enthusiasm for the web in the last couple of years. It goes the other way too: the improvements in typography have made me much more excited about the web. The web is providing the greatest access to information we’ve ever had, and good typography makes it palatable, if not enjoyable.

That people on the web scan instead of reading is a trope in the industry. Judging by the number of people reading on their phones on the Subway, that’s already changing and it will continue to change as Internet-capable devices become more accessible and affordable. Now is the time to get ready.

The era of tiny fonts set in endless line lengths is over, I hope. It’s not just about aesthetics; a shitty presentation makes people enlist services like Instapaper or Readability or go elsewhere, and that hurts the bottom line. Just compare CNN.com — with obtrusive ads and headlines set in Arial¹ — to the new responsive redesign of theguardian.com.

eBook readers are lagging typographically, and it’s starting to bother me. As my infatuation with type grows, I’m putting down the Kindle and returning to paper more often for books that I know or suspect are well designed.