A harmoniously selected font not only conveys information to the audience but also visually complements the project. The wrong font choice can ruin the impression and alienate the viewer from the product, be it a poster, a store or cafe sign, product packaging, a website, or an app.
Intuitively selecting fonts for projects is a dream for beginners and a routine task for professional designers. To move from the first category to the second, you need years of training and study of typography, experience, and theoretical knowledge about fonts.
Modern typography provides designers with a choice of thousands of fonts. We will tell you how to navigate the early stages to find the right font.
Basic concepts of typography
Apertures, serifs, strokes, stems, arches, and flares — the terms used in typography can make your head spin. It is especially dangerous to delve into terminology for those who are just beginning to learn about fonts.
Take a deep breath: many of the words used by font designers can be avoided in the early stages of design. However, some terms are useful to know: this will make it easier to understand what criteria to look for when choosing a font.
We have compiled a mini-glossary of typography terms.
- Font family — a set of different fonts in one typeface. A font family can include different fonts in terms of purpose, weight, and even style.
- Weight — a font with a single weight. A font set can have as few as 3 weights or as many as 9, from the thinnest to the boldest. Common weights are: Thin, Regular, DemiBold, Bold.
Serifs are short additional strokes at the end of the main elements of a character and perpendicular to them.
Point size refers to the height of the characters in a font, i.e., their vertical size.
Types of fonts (classification)
There is no single classification of fonts that all designers use.
Fonts can be divided according to the historical periods in which they appeared, their visual form, and their purpose. Let’s focus on the types of fonts that are definitely useful to know in modern typography.
By purpose, we can distinguish between display and text fonts.
Display fonts are sometimes called headline fonts, as they are used to design headlines or highlight eye-catching inscriptions. These are expressive fonts that catch the viewer’s eye.
Text fonts are fonts for typesetting text and can be called typesetting fonts. These are fonts with a calmer character and high readability even in small texts. A good text font does not distract from reading and looks complete and pleasant.
There are many font styles, but let’s focus on the most common ones: sans serif, serif, and block fonts.
- Sans serif fonts are a group of fonts without serifs. These are universal fonts that are functional and often calm in character.
- Antiqua is a group of fonts with serifs. These fonts are often classic, elegant, or conservative in character.
- Sans serif refers to fonts with bold, powerful serifs.
- Many fonts do not fall into a specific group and are at the intersection of styles.
They can vary in terms of weight.
The following weight groups can be distinguished:
- Thin: Thin, ExtraLight, Light;
- Normal: Regular, Normal, Medium;
- Semi-bold and bold: DemiBold, Bold, ExtraBold, Black, ExtraBlack.
The choice of font depends on the task and area of application. For printing large materials, especially posters and billboards, bold fonts can be used, which look better in large sizes. The choice of font for a logo depends on the company’s corporate identity, but for typesetting text on a website or in periodicals, standard fonts such as Regular or Normal are more often chosen.
How to determine a good font
A good font is a typeface that suits the project in terms of character, associations, and visual style. Any font can be suitable if used correctly.
There are no bad fonts, only poor-quality ones. Such fonts are difficult to work with, as text typeset in such a font will not look harmonious, letters may overlap or, conversely, be too far apart. It is impossible to work with such fonts, so check the quality of a font before purchasing it. This can be done by downloading a free version, which is offered by many studios.