A first principle of typography

From the first page of Bringhurst's
"The Elements of Typographic Style"

I think this is a principle worth remembering in web design too


Typography exists to honor content.

"In a world rife with unsolicited messages, typography must draw
attention to itself before it will be read. Yet in order be read, it
must relinquish the attention it has drawn. Typography with anything
to say therefore aspires to a kind of statuesque transparency. Its
other traditional goal is durability: not immunity to change, but a
clear superiority to fashion. Typography at its best is a visual form
of language linking timelessness and time"