Typography has a powerful influence on the design of real estate websites. Our decisions regarding readability and font choice, whether serif or sans serif, can significantly impact how we effectively convey our brand's message. Your font choice can determine the overall tone and personality of your website. For instance, a bold and modern sans serif font may convey a sense of professionalism and innovation, while a classic serif font may evoke a sense of elegance and sophistication.
The primary goal of typography is to ensure that the text on your website is easily readable and legible. After you have the right font and place your real estate website copy, consider the overall layout and experience.
Is the hierarchy of information clear for the reader? Is the paragraph styling in alignment with your brand? Do the paragraphs break in an undesirable way? Mistreated website copy typography could do the same as a crooked picture frame, distracting your client's home's beauty.
Today, we'll examine proper character settings, paragraph settings, orphans and widows, and Indentation. Taking note of these finer details will add to your real estate website's legibility and user experience.
Character Settings
Character settings in website typography are applied to your copy to enhance the visual appearance and readability of text. These settings include font size, letter spacing (tracking), and kerning. By carefully adjusting these settings, you improve your website's content's legibility and aesthetic appeal.
The proper character treatment adds the finishing touch to your font choice, making your real estate website copy shine.
- Text Size: The size of the text is significant. A 10-12 point font is usually large enough when setting type. Anything under 8 is hard to read and usually does not hold up well. Use the following tips to determine the best text size for your design:
- Pixels vs. Points: When setting type for the web, you use pixels, not points. Typically, 13px-19px is ideal for the web. To help you understand, 13px equals 10pt, and 19px is similar to 14pt.
- Line length: Consider breaking long lines of text into two sentences. It's difficult for our eyes to read one long string of text. For website optimization, the best practice is to have a line length of 45 to 75 characters. A website copy line length of 66 is the number most designers aim for.
- Leading: The space between the actual lines is also important to consider. The distance between the lines--called the leading--should be about 120-140% of the point size. If you're using a word processor, you can adjust the spacing between lines. We recommended having a spacing of 1.25.
- Tracking: Tracking refers to how much space you add or decrease between a group of letters. It is best practice not to touch the tracking on lowercase letters as it decreases legibility. Large text, especially all-caps, can sometimes stand to have some increased tracking to increase legibility.
Paragraph Settings
Paragraph settings are an essential detail when formatting your real estate website copy. These settings dictate the layout and spacing of the text. These choices directly impact readability and the overall user experience.
- Alignment- Alignment is how text lines up against the page's side edges (margins).
- Left-Aligned: The most common alignment is left-aligned, ragged right. This is the easiest for our eyes to process. Our eyes can easily flow from line to line.
- Centered: Center-aligned text is beneficial for short decorative occasions, like invitations. In longer forms of website copy, center-aligning large blocks of text reduces readability. The strong column created by left-aligned or justified text guides the eye to follow.
- Justified: The justified setting makes each line of text the same length. This treatment is successful for formal publications like newspapers or magazines where space is an issue. It is not ideal for website copy.
Orphans and Widows
One thing to watch for when left-aligning text is orphans and widows.
- Orphan: An orphan refers to a word hanging out by itself on a line. A way to correct this awkward instance is to adjust letter spacing or where your sentence breaks.
- Widow: A widow occurs when a single word remains alone at the end of the paragraph. Like the orphan, you can adjust the copy settings or line breaks.
Indentation
Indentation serves as a cue that helps improve readability. Without proper Indentation, your website copy may look unorganized. Here's why Indentation is vital in website copy:
- Visual Separation of Content: Indentation creates a clear distinction between different sections or paragraphs of content. This separation makes it easier for users to identify where one idea ends and another begins.
- Hierarchy and Structure: Indentation contributes to the order and structure of the content. Indenting headings, bullet points, or paragraphs helps guide readers and emphasize important information in the text.
- Ease of Scanning: Website visitors often scan rather than read every word. Indentation helps break up large blocks of text, making it more scannable and allowing users to identify relevant information quickly. This is particularly important in the real estate market, where visitors may seek specific property details.
- Highlighting Key Points: Indentation is helpful to emphasize key points, quotes, or callout text. Proper Indentation draws attention to important information and encourages users to focus on specific details.
Typography, like a home's paint choice and landscaping, can affect your bottom line. Understanding type settings and their effects will benefit your real estate website and keep your brand consistent.
With the abundance of self-publishing website platforms and opportunities, real estate agents have more access to typographic web tools. The key to good typography is making choices that go unnoticed by the reader. We hope your real estate website attracts leads and showcases your brand effectively.
Contact Illumine8 for a second opinion or to improve your real estate website copy. Our experienced team can help you stand apart from the competition with beautiful typography and website optimization.