THE FIRST, LAST, AND ONLY RULE OF WEB DESIGN: YOUR SITE MUST BE EASY TO READ.
"Easy to read" means that your text, background images, and the text within graphic images should have the highest contrast possible. And the highest color contrast comes from using basic black and white. Another good combination is a light yellow background with dark blue or black text. Dark blue text on white makes good subheads.
Color combinations that have less contrast can be used in headings, mastheads, sidebars, navigation buttons, and image maps. (But make sure they are still easy to read.)
Do not use graphic images as backgrounds. While they can make a website more "artistically" pleasing, they can also make it more difficult to read ... and take longer to load.
The most legible fonts are standard serif fonts (like Times or Courier) and sans-serif fonts (like Arial or Helvetica). Decorative or cursive fonts are much more difficult to read and should rarely be used.
If your client insists on using a decorative font (for instance, in his logo) bring it into the site as a fast-loading GIF image made in an image-editing program like Photoshop. (We'll discuss image file formats next week.)
Try to stay away from really small type. To keep the site readable, use the equivalent of 12-point or greater. If, for some reason, the client insists on a
small font, make it a sans-serif font - which is easier to read in small sizes.
Italicized, oblique, or condensed fonts are harder to read than standard typefaces. Except for very short runs (such as italicizing quotes), they should be avoided.