The short verdict
- Inter is a very good typeface. Using it because the tool did is not a decision.
- Type is the cheapest way to make a site sound like a specific company.
- Two families at most, chosen for a reason, tested with your real words.
01Why every site looks set in the same font
Builders reach for the safest choice: Inter, Geist, Poppins or the system font stack, at a predictable scale. Those faces are well made, free and readable. They are also on a huge number of sites, so they carry no personality of their own. When the font, the spacing and the layout are all defaults, the site sounds like the tool.
02What to look for
Start with the voice
Before browsing fonts, write three words for how the company should sound. “Precise, calm, technical” points somewhere very different from “warm, local, hands-on”. Then look for faces whose shapes match: tight geometric forms feel engineered, open humanist forms feel friendly, high-contrast serifs feel editorial or premium.
Check it works hard
A display face only has to look good big. A text face has to work at 16 pixels on a cheap phone. Look for a large x-height, open letter shapes and clear differences between similar characters like l, I and 1.
Check the range
You need at least regular, medium and bold, ideally with italics. Check it covers every language and character you need: accented letters, currency signs, the symbols in your product.
Check the licence
Google Fonts and many others are free for the web. Commercial fonts are often licensed by page views or domains. Read it before you build the site around one.
03How many to use
- One family with a good range of weights is often enough, and the simplest choice for small teams.
- Two families work when they do different jobs: a distinctive face for headings, a quiet one for text.
- A mono can work as a third, for labels or numbers, if it suits the brand. This site uses one for its labels.
- More than that usually looks unplanned and costs page speed.
04Pairing without overthinking
Pairs work when they contrast clearly or match closely. A serif heading with a sans text, or two sans serifs from the same designer. Pairs fail when they are almost the same, so they look like a mistake. If you cannot say why two faces belong together, use one.
“The typeface speaks before the words do. If you did not choose it, the tool spoke for you.”
05Test with your own words
Never judge a font by its specimen page. Set your actual homepage headline and a real paragraph in three or four candidates, at real sizes, on a phone and a laptop. Look at them the next morning. One will usually feel right, and it is often not the one you expected.
06The technical part
Self-host the files as WOFF2, load only the weights you use, and set font-display: swap so text shows straight away. Set a fallback font with similar proportions to reduce layout shift while the web font loads. Variable fonts can replace several files with one when you need many weights.
07Questions people ask
Should I stop using Inter?
Not necessarily. It is a fine text face. Pair it with a heading face that has character, and give the type scale real contrast, and it stops reading as default.
Are paid fonts worth it?
Sometimes. A paid face can be what makes a brand recognisable. But there are excellent free options, and good use of a free font beats poor use of an expensive one.
Will custom fonts slow my site down?
A little, if loaded carelessly. Two families in three or four weights, self-hosted and preloaded, is light.
Can you suggest type for my site?
Yes. Send us the link and a few words on how you want to sound, and we will suggest a direction.
