13 websites with inspirational typography

Browsing websites with beautiful typography is always a pleasure. I personally prefer a site with great type and minimalism elsewhere rather than the other way around. Here are 13 of my favorite websites with amazing typography.

Shaun Inman

Shaun Inman invented sIFR (read more about sIFR), so you would expect the best of typography from him, would you not? The bold post title font looks really beautiful in oodles of whitespace.

Jon Tangerine

Jon Tangerine probably has a hatred of images – even his logo is made of pure text!

Ordered List

Ordered List uses image replacements to bring in bold type with subtle shadow (which adds depth).

A List Apart

A List Apart blends in serifs and sans-serifs beautifully, and uses font size to indicate hierarchy.

Jason Santa Maria

Jason’s site has good typography, also check out the variety of designs depending on the article you’re reading.

An Event Apart

Chunky type overlay for images and a liberal sprinkling of serifs for body copy completes An Event Apart, held by some of the members of A List Apart (above).

The Netsetter

Netsetter uses sIFR for post and sidebar titles, and unusually large serif for body copy.

The Deck

Deck is a premium ad network boasting of large corporate clients, and its owner, Jim Coudal, has designed the site with large type that shout its message. Even the logo could be built with type (although it isn’t).

Monday By Noon

Monday By Noon uses sans-serif of varying weight and size, aided by a minimalist design and lots of whitespace.

Omni Ti

Omni Ti uses serifs and sans-serifs in a delightful combination. Also notice the beautiful tagline to the right of the logo – the ampersand in particular.

Gr0w

Gr0w manages to look web 2.0 thanks to the design, but by using classy typography and color variations, it does not look too cheesy.

Geekaholic

Good combination of serifs for body copy and sans-serifs for headers.

Sushi and Robots

(Italic) Georgia looks beautiful when used properly – Sushi and Robots is proof of this.

I realize there maybe some notable omissions – i Love Typography, for example (which is because the new design is less typography-oriented than previous version).

Recommend your favorite designs with excellent type in comments below – if there are several suggestions, I will compile them in a future post here on Design Blurb. I have also added a Twitter profile field to comments here – and comments by users who entered their Twitter URL will have a Twitter bird in their comments, linking to profile.

To get our latest articles, subscribe to RSS feed or sign up for our free email newsletter.
Recommended for designers
Related
Comments
  1. Piotrek K. said at 11:17 am on June 10, 2009

    “A List Apart” is a real gem.

  2. Farid Hadi said at 11:49 am on June 10, 2009

    I’m planning on designing and developing a new WordPress blog that I’ll be giving away for free and I’ve been thinking of focusing the design on typography. This roundup could serve as a great source of inspiration for me. Your timing is great :)

    Thanks for sharing.

  3. Line of Design said at 1:15 pm on June 10, 2009

    I think you could have touched -or linked to an article about – the subject: sIFR… I use sIFR on my website, and although it’s still not perfectionated, I love the overall appearence it gives…

    But you’ve got some nice obersvations. i love the point about Georgia in italic. I should consider using this more… It looks lovely!

  4. Sumesh said at 3:53 pm on June 10, 2009 Post author

    @Piotrek K. : Agreed, ALA is awesome, but wouldn’t it be a disgrace that you don’t like others? Like, Shaun Inman, or Jason Santa Maria? :)

    @Farid: Glad you found this roundup useful, I’ll be doing some kinds of roundups regularly (typography, minimalist design, fonts, logos are the ones currently planned, suggest more?).

    @Line of Design: sIFR is so well known in design and type that I ignored adding info about it, will add a link about it soon.

  5. Callum Chapman said at 5:50 pm on June 10, 2009

    Nice collection! Ah there’s a photo of me at the bottom! ;D

  6. Sumesh said at 6:40 pm on June 10, 2009 Post author

    Callum, glad you liked it :) And yes, I did add that image with the intention of getting your attention ;) (just kidding, the real reason was, most others did not have their Twitter profile URL added).

  7. Roberto Blake said at 12:47 am on August 10, 2009

    I feel that these are quality and were very well done. It really is a good collection of typography based web design. Inspiring!

Leave a Reply