When I started my blog, the first thing I did was explore all the themes until I found one that suited me well. Upon trying to change the font for my first assignment, I hit a roadblock. After thoroughly exploring WordPress and then consulting Google, I discovered that not all themes allow you to change the font. I then went back through all the themes again, searching for ones that had a Typography or Font tab. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find a theme that I both liked and was able to change the font. I did, however, get very lucky and find an attractive theme that had the font types that I wanted.

Nick Babich’s article discusses the importance of pairing fonts such that they work in contrast rather than in conflict. I thought that this was an excellent point. The greatest takeaway I got from his article is that a classic pairing is a serif and a non-serif. This is what my theme has, and I believe it works quite well. I like that both fonts are crisp, clear, professional, and easy to read on a screen.

I was heartened to see that my choice follows Garr Reynolds’s advice in chapter two of his textbook Presentation Zen Design. “It’s generally accepted that sans serif fonts work better on computer screens as they lack the counter strokes and thin lines of the serif typefaces that can be hard to read at low resolutions.” As a side note, I was very surprised that Times New Roman does not get so much as a passing mention in this chapter. This is the font that has been the required standard for my entire schooling career. “Times New Roman 12 point font” was the mantra of all of my teachers for as long as I can remember. In checking the index, it is absent, though other fonts are indexed. Go figure!