ENGTherefore, you need to make sure the script fonts you choose emphasize legibility as well. Companies like Coca-Cola, Instagram, Cadbury and Cadillac use script fonts. For small budgets, you might want to pick a few typefaces and then look for similar options (with smaller families) to be most cost-efficient. Or you might find that you have some flexibility to add a typeface for certain uses as long as it matches a primary brand font. What this means is that your fonts need to work equally well everywhere you want to use them including in print projects, web projects, or digital publishing. Unless you are designing a one-off element, such as a poster or event invitation, trendy or wild font options can be more trouble than they are worth in the long run.
Trendy options can date a project quickly, while wild options can work for one design element and fall quite flat when translated to another design in the campaign. It’s important that all visual elements—not just typefaces—match and support the impression the brand wants to give to the public. Display fonts that look amazing in larger sizes can become illegible at smaller sizes. Typefaces that look great at small sizes in body text can sometimes look too plain or even boring when used at display sizes. Designers should think through whether the typeface will be used only for digital projects or also in print.
Limit your design to 2–3 typefaces
Larger files and more intricate web design elements affect the speed and performance of your site. If you’re using third-party fonts from Google, for example, you can assume that these fonts will affect loading speed more than web-safe fonts. Whether it’s sophisticated and trendy choosing fonts for website or rugged and adventurous, typography design should contribute to your website’s story. Consider your website’s purpose and your overall design theme, as well as the niche that you want to attract. This well-known Google font was originally designed for a private, corporate user.
“For a paragraph, which needs to be highly legible, you shouldn’t use something with ambiguous shapes,” says type designer Octavio Pardo. Decorative fonts like Comfortaa (shown above) can be difficult to read at length, so for long texts stick to highly legible ‘workhorse’ fonts like Alegreya or Bellefair. If using multiple fonts, choose a primary font, a secondary font and an optional accent font. You can also opt for a font family in which each font varies slightly in design but complement each other throughout the same website. This serif font has an old-school newspaper look that still works well for modern design.
What fonts are most readable?
Combine them both to create a contrast while staying on the safe side. Alternatively, thin and stylized sans serif fonts communicate an elegant, sophisticated and expensive personality. Also known as display fonts, decorative fonts are appealing and unique typefaces. You can’t get more creative than these fonts while creating a typographic brand name.
Fonts like Georgia that were designed specifically for readability on low-resolution screens aren’t as well-suited to print work as a font like Book Antiqua might be. Designers should test fonts they’re considering at each size they may use those fonts to be sure they’re readable and don’t negatively impact UX. It’s important for designers to consider the mood of the project and how the typefaces they’re considering reinforce or clash with that mood. For example, using Comic Sans on a website for a law firm would clash.
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This serif font uses a combination of thin and thick lines to make up each letter, adding elegant undertones to an otherwise classic design. With over 18 styles to choose from, Graphik boasts clean, elegant lines and a variety of letter widths. It suits not only for web design, but also marketing assets such as newsletters, logos and advertisements. You shouldn’t choose more than 2-3 fonts for your brand, as we have already mentioned. But even so, establishing visual hierarchy between those fonts is crucial. The combination of Serif and Sans Serif is one of the most popular ones.
The more styles, characters, and scripts a font supports, the better prepared you’ll be. Still, nearly any typographic genre is fair game for large text, just as long as the feelings evoked by the typeface are appropriate for the context. This is the ideal time to use a decorative or handwritten font with swashes and very high stroke contrast like Lobster or Berkshire Swash. Try something highly geometric, retro, or even grungy if it strikes the right tone. Don’t let the name fool you—this sans serif font has a clean, block-like style with rounded edges outlining the letters.
Script fonts
In this lesson, we will show you how to choose the right fonts. Each font has a different use, function and personality and depending on the medium and content you’ll choose a specific font. Typography is one of the most important parts of graphic design, and every element we’ve outlined in the previous lessons will affect how the audience reads a text. If you’re working with an established brand, ask for a brand guideline. Brands usually have already figured out what fonts to use as body copy and display type. If it’s an entirely new design project, choose fonts based on personality traits.
- Designers who want to refine their type selection skills can work on practice projects, such as choosing a new typeface for a well-known brand or a fictional project.
- Now that we understand what a typeface and a font are, what is typography?
- On long-term projects like a brand’s visual identity, larger font families also offer more versatility.
- If you’re trying to make your brand stand out and stay ahead of the competition, include handwritten fonts in your list.
You may even want to consider creating your own custom fonts to really contribute to your project’s own unique visual identity. This is especially true for brands, companies, and names trying to break into a particular market. Just like choosing a color palette, it can be easy to get carried away with all the options available to use for your design.
Break the Rules (Occasionally)
For example, if a brand is formal and traditional, a font like Garamond or Caslon would be a good fit. If a brand is modern and cutting edge, the designer might choose something like Roboto or Raleway. In selecting your fonts, pick ones that go with your project’s overall theme or message.
We have chosen Vollkorn as the title in the logo template above and Josefin Sans as the subheading to give the design a trustworthy vibe. Thus the font has angle cuts in the ascenders, arms and curves in the collars and shoulders. Thanks to the availability of these fonts on various websites such as Google Fonts, Behance, Dribble, Dafont and many others. Before you dive in, you must understand that every font sends a different message. The font has to be licensed for all appropriate uses and work on any computers you will use for the design.
Be Wary of Wild or Trendy Options
Not every website or design project will be translated into multiple languages. But it’s a good idea to determine at the start of a project whether translation is likely. Not all typefaces support special characters (like those that are accented), let alone alphabets like Cyrillic and Greek. If a font will only be used for a single project, then it’s easy to determine whether print or screen functionality is most important. But for fonts that might be used over multiple projects, designers should make sure the font will work in every medium in which it may be used.
