Typography - or - How to Keep Your Layout Clean
I learned a long time ago that the rule of thumb is to use up to three fonts in a layout, no more. As clarification, consider that a font is a specific size and style within a typeface. A typeface is a family of a typographic design, it could include different sizes and styles such as italics and bold. Here is an example using three fonts:
The Quick Brown Fox
The quick brown fox jumped over the fence, landing on top of the chicken coop. The moon shone in the starry night sky. Could anything be so perfect?
Using more than three fonts can be visually distracting and even confusing. Consider this:
The Quick Brown Fox
The quick brown fox jumped over the fence, landing on top of the chicken coop. The moon shone in the starry night sky. Could anything be so perfect?
There are several ways to choose fonts for your print piece. You can choose all from the same font family, for example you might choose Times New Roman 24 pt for a headline, Times New Roman 10 pt for body copy, and Times New Roman 10 pt bold for items you'd like to have stand out. Another option is to choose fonts from different font families, such as Arial Black 24 pt for a headline, Times New Roman 10 pt for body copy and Arial Black 10 pt for the pieces you'd like to have stand out. When using the latter option, it's imperitive to choose fonts that are dramatically different from one another. Times New Roman is a serif font, and Arial Black is sans serif, plus Arial Black is very bold compared to Times New Roman, and these two things make Arial Black quite different, visually, from Times New Roman. You would not want to use Times New Roman and Garamond as your two different fonts, because they are both serif fonts of about the same weight, much too similar to each other, and would look more like a mistake than purposely chosen fonts. There are also some great decorative and script fonts, like those used in the Bridge to Health brochure seen here, left, that can be paired with a simple serif or sans serif font in your layout.
The main copy of your piece needs to be easily read, and therefore a plain serif or sans serif font will look the best. Some say to use serif fonts because the serifs make reading easiest, however you'll notice that many web sites are done in sans serif fonts like Arial and Helvetica, because screen resolution can blur the details on serif fonts like Times. (See http://www.instylesalonspa.com/) I like using sans serif fonts for the main copy in print pieces as well, it gives it a clean look, and I find it very legible. In this brochure for Sound Solutions, the sans serif font ads a nice modern feel to the piece, enhancing the product line.
It can be a lot of fun to check out type at web sites like fonts.com and Adobe. Not only can you look fonts up by name, and style, but you can also type them into a "type generator" that will allow you to see what the font will look like for your particular use. If you like it, you can purchase it on the spot. Sigh, I could do that all day.
Remember to match the font style to your project, like the nice rough-and-tumble font used in this hockey ad, and to choose the format that works with your computer and software.
Until next time. Happy font hunting!
I learned a long time ago that the rule of thumb is to use up to three fonts in a layout, no more. As clarification, consider that a font is a specific size and style within a typeface. A typeface is a family of a typographic design, it could include different sizes and styles such as italics and bold. Here is an example using three fonts:
The Quick Brown Fox
The quick brown fox jumped over the fence, landing on top of the chicken coop. The moon shone in the starry night sky. Could anything be so perfect?
Using more than three fonts can be visually distracting and even confusing. Consider this:
The Quick Brown Fox
The quick brown fox jumped over the fence, landing on top of the chicken coop. The moon shone in the starry night sky. Could anything be so perfect?
There are several ways to choose fonts for your print piece. You can choose all from the same font family, for example you might choose Times New Roman 24 pt for a headline, Times New Roman 10 pt for body copy, and Times New Roman 10 pt bold for items you'd like to have stand out. Another option is to choose fonts from different font families, such as Arial Black 24 pt for a headline, Times New Roman 10 pt for body copy and Arial Black 10 pt for the pieces you'd like to have stand out. When using the latter option, it's imperitive to choose fonts that are dramatically different from one another. Times New Roman is a serif font, and Arial Black is sans serif, plus Arial Black is very bold compared to Times New Roman, and these two things make Arial Black quite different, visually, from Times New Roman. You would not want to use Times New Roman and Garamond as your two different fonts, because they are both serif fonts of about the same weight, much too similar to each other, and would look more like a mistake than purposely chosen fonts. There are also some great decorative and script fonts, like those used in the Bridge to Health brochure seen here, left, that can be paired with a simple serif or sans serif font in your layout.The main copy of your piece needs to be easily read, and therefore a plain serif or sans serif font will look the best. Some say to use serif fonts because the serifs make reading easiest, however you'll notice that many web sites are done in sans serif fonts like Arial and Helvetica, because screen resolution can blur the details on serif fonts like Times. (See http://www.instylesalonspa.com/) I like using sans serif fonts for the main copy in print pieces as well, it gives it a clean look, and I find it very legible. In this brochure for Sound Solutions, the sans serif font ads a nice modern feel to the piece, enhancing the product line.
It can be a lot of fun to check out type at web sites like fonts.com and Adobe. Not only can you look fonts up by name, and style, but you can also type them into a "type generator" that will allow you to see what the font will look like for your particular use. If you like it, you can purchase it on the spot. Sigh, I could do that all day.
Remember to match the font style to your project, like the nice rough-and-tumble font used in this hockey ad, and to choose the format that works with your computer and software. Until next time. Happy font hunting!
