One time, during a fairly boring lecture in one of my unremarkable college courses, something amazing happened. My professor put up the title page from a student’s essay and began mercilessly berating said student for one simply failure. They used …

With a move that can only be described as “sheer brazenness,” Google’s weblog service, Blogger.com, has introduced a feature that may just be the tipping point between order and chaos in society: the introduction of 35 additional fonts to their blog service.

Perhaps “unleashing” captures the moment better than the word “introduction.”

Google announced today that Google Docs now supports web fonts using the Google Font API. To start off, there are six new fonts available.

Google has launched a new feature for its font directory that lets users preview fonts and generates code to use them. The font directory contains fonts that are part of Google’s font API.

Google has introduced a new Gmail Labs feature, which gives Gmail users control over the default style of their text. In other words, you can set how you like your text to appear normally, and it will automatically appear that way.

Google is updating the default font faces associated with specific AdSense ad formats. The decision to do so is based on findings that different fonts perform better with different formats.

Clean is better. Eye-tracking studies say so. Web copy should be bulleted, concise, easy. Photos should be informative, not decorative. White space is good. And guys like looking at George Brett’s protective cup.

You weren’t expecting that last part were you?

I wasn’t either. But this post on effective news article design proves it.

Newspapers have had trouble transitioning from print to the Web. They’re used to doing things differently.

Just as it’s important to choose the right colors for your design, it’s also very important to make good choices about the fonts you use in your design.

When writing so people can find you better on search engines, keep it simple. Use short words, not complicated ones. Precise words are even better. But most importantly, use words people know.

I’m prejudiced against certain fonts. Like others, I’m a product of my environment; I was raised to believe that fonts with tails were superior to fonts without. Serifs (the little tails) have personality (even chutzpa!) that draws the reader in, satisfying his need for connectivity and deeper comprehension. No tails, no soul.

The fonts used in a publication affect not only its appearance, but also its commercial printing cost.

A typical challenge faced by Flash developers like me is getting fonts to look like you want them to.

Fonts make a big difference to the look and experience of the website. Usage of fonts requires sense of aesthetics and discretion. We have the liberty to use any font we want in an image but when we specify the fonts for the text on a web page, we need to ensure that we use only “browser safe” fonts.

In a previous article, I mentioned that it’s important to know how your pages will appear to surfers, so that you have more control over your image. You should choose a sensible font that most surfers will have installed on their system, and include at least one other similar font as a back-up alternative in your font tags or style sheet.

I am a woman of plus size and was very interested in viewing your site as I have an interest in your product. I am using Internet Explorer 5.0, 800 X 600, my screen is about 13″.

Overall I like the design and layout and I think it works well. The colors give it a very classy look and suggests a high-quality product. The product page seems very intuitive and I am a big fan of the “We also recommend..” cross-sell approach. I think this sets the stage for a functional shopping cart, which maximizes impulse puchasing trends. I think this a great design. It is easy to use and again, very intuitive.

Choosing a font is something that most of us give little thought to. After all, most fonts are more or less the same, right? Let’s face it, most writing is presented in a stock-standard font like Times New Roman or Arial.

Choosing the right typeface for your website copy is important, since it will affect the way your readers perceive your page (serious and formal, or friendly and casual). Aside from this, there are also important usability concerns. For example, some font types are more easily readable than others, and some are more widely available.

Do you spend money on a product if the presentation looks unprofessional? Case in point: As my husband and I approached a small family restaurant, I spotted two hand-scrawled signs in the window: Help Wanted. Cook Wanted.

The main purpose people use the Internet is for research, according to most user surveys. While not specifying the kind of research being done, it is safe to assume that people are spending a lot of time online reading.

Web is a constantly changing medium, so does web design. Designers like to experiment from time to time. Some of the results may be attractive, but do they really add to the overall value of a design, or are they there just to decrease usability? I believe the latter is true for the following five design decisions.

Robin will answer any questions related to the search engine marketing industry. If the question is highly technical, or if she doesn’t know the answer, she’ll contact experts in the industry or search engine representatives for the answers.