If one aspect of design has suffered most in its transition
to the Web, it is the art of typography. For years, Web typography
involved little more than choosing a typeface and font size. Unstyled
Times New Roman was the norm, and the integration of established
typographical techniques and rules was unimagined.

But times change. Since the adoption of CSS
into mainstream Web design, we have entered a new age of Web
typography. This facet of design has been opened up to the Web designer
in a way that wasn’t possible in the past. We now have the tools to
return typography to its true role within the sphere of design.

However, if we’ve learnt anything over the last ten years, it’s that
the Web is not print. The basic principles of typography will cross
over to any format, but it’s vital that we allow the features of the
medium — in this case, the computer screen or monitor on which our
type is displayed — to define the rules and techniques that we
practice.

So, how can we transfer the established and time-tested principles
of typography to the online environment? The best place to start is to
look at the differences between print and screen, and to understand how
those differences will affect our use of typography in Web design.

By Andy Hume

More here.