The Ultimate Guide To Choosing Fonts

A good general rule is to stick to about 2–3 different typefaces total for a design. Now of course this might vary depending on what you are designing but it’s a good rule of thumb. how to pick fonts for website Now that we understand what a typeface and a font are, what is typography? Whether you’re designing a website, an app, or a poster, you’re using type to deliver a message.

• You may realize, after a thorough analysis, you need five fonts (not typefaces) to cover your various heading, sub-headings and call-outs.
• The “CUT” and “TO” are two distinctly different bold serif typefaces.
• The logo template above features only one sans serif font Dosis.
• One of my favorite places to find design inspiration is on Pinterest.

The second combination is composed of Clarendon and Bembo, which fits the topic like a well-tailored banker’s suit. Some typefaces are more suitable for a design task than others. Appropriateness is something you can learn by both experience with a typeface, and by other attributes of the typeface, including its history and original purpose. If you work systematically through the options below, you’ll have a winning font choice in no time.

Choosing the Right Typeface

In this handy guide, we’ll help you find the perfect fonts for your brand. While breaking design rules can result in some incredibly creative outcomes, it’s important to do so with intention. Knowing the fundamentals of classic typography is a must-have skill for any graphic designer. Fonts can have many different purposes, from communicating basic information to expressing a complex theme or emotion. That’s why iit’s important to have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve with your font choice, as well as who you’re trying to appeal to.

These are further paired well with a third monotype (think, typewriter) font for the main body copy with the fine details of the event. A serif is a small line or stroke attached to the end of a larger stroke, often referred to as the “feet” shown at the bottom of letters. Some have slight variations depending on the typeface and that is part of what makes them unique. An advantage of using serif typefaces is how many font weights they usually have within a family. One serif family might have a regular, italics, semi bold, semi bold italic, bold, bold italic, small caps, and more. Typography significantly impacts a website’s user experience, readability, aesthetics, and accessibility.

Legibility

On the example below, notice how the implied meaning of the phrase “kick back and relax” is dramatically changed by altering the typeface and readability. Mood is very powerful, and it’s a good idea to have a second set of eyes reviewing your work to make sure you don’t send the wrong message. Let’s take our previous example of Sabon and alter the readability. On the left, we have taken the text and decreased the font size, altered the tracking and leading, lightened the color, and set the block to full justification. On the right, we’ve left the unaltered for an obvious comparison. Changing several independent factors, as you can see, can add up to quite a difference.

Here, you can learn more about how to choose fonts for reading and what qualities they should possess. Do you need a font for brand identity, logo, or another design element? Do you want the font to attract attention and place accents or be a neutral «workhorse» that mainly just communicates information? Or perhaps your project requires not only one or two, but multiple fonts? You’ll find that the designers before you have already figured out ways to use the typefaces you are considering, so you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Look around, and carefully consider what others have done already.

Consider an Extended Type Family

Design immersive experiences your users will love with the world’s most advanced design and prototyping tool. Sign up for a free trial to build your first UXPin prototype today. Use semantic HTML tags, such as headings (h1-h6) and paragraphs (p), to create a clear content hierarchy. This distinction allows screen readers to navigate and effectively communicate the content to users.

Whatever your brief, ensure you’re clear on what your font needs to achieve, how it will be used, or what specific problem it needs to solve. There are some fonts that look great in large sizes but are barely readable when small. For this reason, it’s important to experiment with different sizes as some font combinations can fall into place at a certain point size.

Design Systems & DesignOps in the Enterprise

Your recently used fonts will appear at the top for easy selection. Moreover, if you have any brand fonts set, they will be listed above the standard ABC list of fonts. Read our comprehensive font pairing guide about the 15 perfect font combinations for presentations and infographics to learn more.

By default, all objects in the “Font Pair” template are grouped. You can double-click on a text box to select it or ungroup it for individual element modifications related to placement and sizing. Choosing the right fonts for your design can mean the difference between a compelling, attractive design and a boring, lifeless one. In The 6 Figure Freelance Designer, you’ll learn how building a successful business as a freelancer is possible anywhere with an internet connection. We give you a roadmap to follow to consistently attract high-value clients and make a great living doing what you love.

Plan Your Hierarchy

Below, we have gathered some more tips to help you understand how to choose the best font for your logo or brand design and how to combine different fonts in your project. Just don’t do something so blatantly obvious it took you less than one second to think of it. If you have not avoided these kinds of trite correlations in the past, it’s OK. Let’s pull it all together with some pragmatic ways to get your typeface choice made. You might want to try these tips, which many designers use to their advantage in one way or another.

One of the most well-known geometric typefaces is Futura, notice how open and round the O is in this poster design example. Employ font smoothing or antialiasing techniques, such as -webkit-font-smoothing or -moz-osx-font-smoothing, to improve the appearance of fonts on screens. Addressing potential rendering issues is essential to ensure consistent typography across various devices and platforms. Test your typography on different browsers, operating systems, and devices to identify inconsistencies. Design responsive websites faster with UXPin’s advanced prototyping features.

Sign up for a free trial to create your first interactive prototype with UXPin. Now, consider that you are going to use the fonts you are choosing now for the next couple of years. Hence, make sure your fonts are flexible enough to work well for all your marketing graphics. Before you dive in, you must understand that every font sends a different message. Once the font pair is on your canvas, resize the text boxes and place them as desired.