Are There Universal Fonts?

By GearedBull Jim Hood - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Typography is a key design element in websites and in print projects. Yes, print still matters.

When you choose a font you are considering a type but also color, size, and placement. But you are also considering things like legibility and the impression it makes on a viewer.

This post is in Helvetica. Would it change your mind about reading this if it was written in Georgia or if the font used was the very common Times?  It might make a difference if this entire post was in a different font or a different size or in another color.

There are 5 fonts that are described as "Universal Fonts For Web and Mobile Design"
by Nick Babich on uxplanet.org. Are they universal? No. In fact, I'm never surprised that a client can't distinguish the difference between fonts such as Arial, Helvetica or Verdana. But to a designer, the differences do may=ttter in the look of a page or an entire site.

Open Sans is optimized both for print and web. Since this typeface features wide apertures on many letters and a large x-height (tall lower-case letters), it stays highly legible on both large and small screens.

Roboto is a font I will admit that I have never used. has a dual nature. It has a mechanical skeleton and the forms are largely geometric. At the same time, the font features friendly and open curves. It may be something you see every day because Roboto is the default font on Android and other Google services.

Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 which has a high x-height, the termination of strokes on horizontal or vertical lines and unusually tight spacing between letters, which combine to give it a dense, compact appearance.

Helvetica even has a documentary film made about it.

Montserrat was inspired by old posters and signs in the Montserrat neighborhood of Buenos Aires and Julieta Ulanovsky designed this typeface. The geometric type optimized for digital usage and it can be an excellent choice for minimal and modern websites. It works well for short pieces of all caps, such as headers.

Avenir comes from the French word avenir meaning “future”. The font family goes back to geometric style sans-serif typefaces developed in the 1920s that took the circle as a basis, such as Erbar and Futura.