I am a self proclaimed type bore but, having been working with the internet, and CD ROM design before that, for as long as I can remember I have all but given up on type on the web. Various so-called cutting edge designers have messed around with font design, but it’s mainly whizzy nonsense. Flash makes a pretty god job of rendering line work on screen but will bastardise anything other than very simple type designs.

But, as a relative newcomer to WordPress as a tool, I am still astounded by the typographical standards available to the mere novice at the click of a button. Most bloggers are not designers, they are just people who want a good tool to keep their thoughts organised and get them up on the net. They are not interested in the relative merits of Helvetica, Arial, Univers and Akzindenz Grotesque [don’t get me started] or in the various fascinating biographies of Caxton, Baskerville and Gill. They just want to write stuff. And they want people to read it. And that must where the answer lies. The web dude creating a cutting edge microsite for a cool new film or must have brand doesn’t want you to read boring old copy, he wants you marvel at how clever he is, how radical in his use of mash-up photography, 3D transitions, and mysterious intuitive navigation. That’s why he sets the type tiny [no more than 8pt].

But if you want people to read and take notice of what you say, you need good old fashioned typographic values. Go Gutenberg.