A good font plays a crucial role in a successful design. It depends on the type of font you use, spacing and simplicity to read it easily. It has a crucial role in design that it might take minutes or even a few days to finalise the fonts. So how to choose fonts for your design?
Even in graphic designing where the role of colours, layouts, images and illustrations play a vital role, the typography plays an equivalent role in conveying a message.
Why choosing the best fonts matters?
Fonts are important because it conveys the mood and message that is intended to be delivered to the audience.This may come from a brief from client or it might be a requirement for the audience you are trying to reach. It may be either one but the typeface needs a good balance of readability and legibility to balance the design.
So how to choose the right font for your design
Choosing the font can be very tricky and sometimes very simple. To make this process simpler there are a few ways you can try to finalise your fonts. These principles lets you make a choice of what’s appropriate for the design.
Here are somethings you should make note of before choosing your fonts.
What type of design do you intent to do?
Before choosing the font, you should try and understand what is the product you are working with. Who are the people going to read it and what age group they are going to be. This helps a lot for you to choose the font for your design.
For example, if you are woking with a bank or an educational institute, the more often used font is Serif. If its a more modern client they use the Sans Serif font. It does not work always the same but its good to shortlist the best ones.
Simple definition of Sans Serif & Serif fonts
Sans serif and serif fonts
Serif fonts are the ones that have a tail on the edges of each letter and Sans Serif is the ones that does not have the tail. Usually Sans Serif are easier to read for lengthy contents. Most websites are designed with Sans serif fonts for easy navigation through contents.
Serif fonts are used for very assertive fields like finance, real estate, education etc..
Simple definition of Decorative & Script fonts
Decorative and Script fonts made it big during the 19th century. Script font became very popular for use in advertisements, invitations and posters.Decorative fonts on the other hand are eye catchy and artistic. These are used for very small content like headlines and short call out texts.
So selection of the above font families is a must. We have to consider what we are working for and how it relates to the design that you are creating.
Comparing different types of fonts
Compare different types of fonts to see which works for the design
It’s always better to have at least two fonts for your design that should not be totally different to each other. Typing the actual content in these selected font helps you to visualise the design and make a solid decision.
The hierarchy of the fonts play a vital role too. The header and body should be relatable and easy to read. The reader should not lose track of which line they read and reread the same line. So the hierarchy and spacing must be eye pleasing.
And that brings us to the next point.
Legibility is the Key
Readability plays a vital role in design. This is where you should analyse spacing of words and lines.Whether it’s used for print, packaging or website design. When it’s done for printing there are size limitations of how much a human eye can read. So it should not be very small or either too big to avoid the balance of the design.
Crystal clear letters helps in easy readability
People have a very short attention span to read things either on product online or on a retail store. The more the text is clear from far away the more customers you are going to attract.The interaction between the type style, tracking, size, leading and colour is very important.
Another tip is that the line height should be greater than the point height.
Aesthetics of fonts
After choosing font you have finalised type the content in different sizes bold, regular and create a layout of the content. If it does not look good for your eyes try a different font using the same technique. Sometimes the actual content may not look convincing in your selected font. The aesthetics play a vital role as it beautifies the content you have in a presentable way. You can always find a good mockup to make sure your font looks good in a design.
Fonts for printing materials
This is mainly for stationary designs like business cards, letterheads, brochure etc.. These designs should be very easy to read. Main thing to note is the fonts should not overpower the message.
Choosing the right colour
Colour of the font decides the readability
Colour plays a vital role in choosing the font as it eases the strain on the eyes to read. Choose the right contrasting colours to enable easy navigation. Make sure not to choose very bright and saturated colours as it strains the eyes too much. Unless it’s necessary and required by the client or brief.
Stick with a lesser fonts
You don’t want to confuse the reader with too many things going on. So stick with lesser font types.
Packaging designs may require more than 2 and yet it depends on the design purpose.
Look for inspirations
There are endless resources in internet that we can get ideas and inspirations from. I usually prefer Behance and Pinterest. There are countless projects you can look up here and inspire a lot.
Check the works that have been done already and take out things that stand out and implement those font styles as per your requirements.
Final thoughts
Spending time on choosing the right font is not a waste as it creates the brand identity for your design. It will stay with the design for a long time and creates everlasting presence. Learn about fonts and typography so that it will last forever in your design process throughout the time.
Observe more to make the right choices. Things we see everyday around us creates a big difference. Notice the small things in everyday life and you will be surprised to see how much is there.
Hope this article helps you in understanding how to choose fonts for your design !
How To Choose Fonts For Your Design | Tips
A good font plays a crucial role in a successful design. It depends on the type of font you use, spacing and simplicity to read it easily. It has a crucial role in design that it might take minutes or even a few days to finalise the fonts. So how to choose fonts for your design?
Even in graphic designing where the role of colours, layouts, images and illustrations play a vital role, the typography plays an equivalent role in conveying a message.
Why choosing the best fonts matters?
Fonts are important because it conveys the mood and message that is intended to be delivered to the audience. This may come from a brief from client or it might be a requirement for the audience you are trying to reach. It may be either one but the typeface needs a good balance of readability and legibility to balance the design.
So how to choose the right font for your design
Choosing the font can be very tricky and sometimes very simple. To make this process simpler there are a few ways you can try to finalise your fonts. These principles lets you make a choice of what’s appropriate for the design.
Here are somethings you should make note of before choosing your fonts.
What type of design do you intent to do?
Before choosing the font, you should try and understand what is the product you are working with. Who are the people going to read it and what age group they are going to be. This helps a lot for you to choose the font for your design.
For example, if you are woking with a bank or an educational institute, the more often used font is Serif. If its a more modern client they use the Sans Serif font. It does not work always the same but its good to shortlist the best ones.
Simple definition of Sans Serif & Serif fonts
Sans serif and serif fonts
Serif fonts are the ones that have a tail on the edges of each letter and Sans Serif is the ones that does not have the tail. Usually Sans Serif are easier to read for lengthy contents. Most websites are designed with Sans serif fonts for easy navigation through contents.
Serif fonts are used for very assertive fields like finance, real estate, education etc..
Simple definition of Decorative & Script fonts
Decorative and Script fonts made it big during the 19th century. Script font became very popular for use in advertisements, invitations and posters. Decorative fonts on the other hand are eye catchy and artistic. These are used for very small content like headlines and short call out texts.
So selection of the above font families is a must. We have to consider what we are working for and how it relates to the design that you are creating.
Comparing different types of fonts
Compare different types of fonts to see which works for the design
It’s always better to have at least two fonts for your design that should not be totally different to each other. Typing the actual content in these selected font helps you to visualise the design and make a solid decision.
The hierarchy of the fonts play a vital role too. The header and body should be relatable and easy to read. The reader should not lose track of which line they read and reread the same line. So the hierarchy and spacing must be eye pleasing.
And that brings us to the next point.
Legibility is the Key
Readability plays a vital role in design. This is where you should analyse spacing of words and lines. Whether it’s used for print, packaging or website design. When it’s done for printing there are size limitations of how much a human eye can read. So it should not be very small or either too big to avoid the balance of the design.
People have a very short attention span to read things either on product online or on a retail store. The more the text is clear from far away the more customers you are going to attract. The interaction between the type style, tracking, size, leading and colour is very important.
Another tip is that the line height should be greater than the point height.
Aesthetics of fonts
After choosing font you have finalised type the content in different sizes bold, regular and create a layout of the content. If it does not look good for your eyes try a different font using the same technique. Sometimes the actual content may not look convincing in your selected font. The aesthetics play a vital role as it beautifies the content you have in a presentable way. You can always find a good mockup to make sure your font looks good in a design.
Fonts for printing materials
Choosing the right colour
Colour plays a vital role in choosing the font as it eases the strain on the eyes to read. Choose the right contrasting colours to enable easy navigation. Make sure not to choose very bright and saturated colours as it strains the eyes too much. Unless it’s necessary and required by the client or brief.
Stick with a lesser fonts
You don’t want to confuse the reader with too many things going on. So stick with lesser font types.
Packaging designs may require more than 2 and yet it depends on the design purpose.
Look for inspirations
There are endless resources in internet that we can get ideas and inspirations from. I usually prefer Behance and Pinterest. There are countless projects you can look up here and inspire a lot.
Check the works that have been done already and take out things that stand out and implement those font styles as per your requirements.
Final thoughts
Spending time on choosing the right font is not a waste as it creates the brand identity for your design. It will stay with the design for a long time and creates everlasting presence. Learn about fonts and typography so that it will last forever in your design process throughout the time.
Observe more to make the right choices. Things we see everyday around us creates a big difference. Notice the small things in everyday life and you will be surprised to see how much is there.
Hope this article helps you in understanding how to choose fonts for your design !
One reply to “How To Choose Fonts For Your Design | Tips”
Esther Ford
It’s very simple to find out any matter on web as compared to textbooks, as I found this article at this website.