From Jacci Howard Bear,
Your Guide to Desktop Publishing.
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Choosing the appropriate type for your greeting card, or any project, involves both personal preference and selecting a style that sets the right mood or tone.

For this lesson we will work with the fonts already installed in your program. If you feel the need to install more fonts, refer to your owner's manual or help files for installation instructions. You'll need to be able to insert a piece of text on your page and make simple changes to the font, size, and perhaps alignment and color. In general, choose the Type or Text tool in your program and click on the page. Depending on your program it will allow you to type directly on the page (such as PageMaker) or you may need to draw a text frame. You can select your typeface and size before typing, or highlight your text and change the font (usually a drop down box or text formatting dialog box).

The same words set in different type can convey subtle or totally different meanings. This illustration (link) shows the same text set in Sans Serif, Serif, Script, Handwriting, Decorative, and All Caps typefaces (you didn't skip over the definitions section, did you? If so, go back and review the definitions).

In general (very loose, general terms) you might describe each of these styles as:

• Sans Serif - semi-formal, modern, "heavier" (than most serif faces)

• Serif - formal or semi-formal, traditional, used for "official" communications

• Script - formal, elegant, stylish, appropriate for wedding invitations

• Handwriting - casual, personal, "fun"

• Display/Decorative - attention-getting, distinctive

• All Caps - attention-getting

However, within each general style you can find quite a bit of variation as seen in this illustration (link).

Mix and match type
In an earlier lesson we selected clip art that exhibited a similar style. To some extent we do the same with our typefaces. If we use more than one typeface we select typefaces that work well together, although we don't necessarily match styles we do match "tone" or "mood" or create contrast.

For a greeting card, you will probably stick with one, maybe two typefaces. More would be distracting and less professional-looking in most cases. Some general guidelines to help you out:

• Avoid mixing two serif or two sans serif typefaces unless they are from the same type family.

• Mix a Serif with a Sans Serif for contrast.
  Example: Gills Sans Bold (sans serif) for short title on front of card and Souvenir (serif) for longer text or poem inside.

• Use two Sans Serif from the same family, one normal or light, one bold.
  Example: Eras Bold (dark, heavy) for short titles with Eras Light (thinnner, lighter) for rest of text.

• Avoid using two script or handwriting fonts (or 1 of each). They clash.

• When using ornate or decorative typefaces, keep the text short and large to make it more readable. If you need a second typeface, choose something simple such as a clean, plain sans serif that doesn't compete or clash with the bold, "here I am" decorative type.

Match type and graphics
Usually you want your type and images to convey the same tone or mood whether that's formal, fun, subdued, or in your face. In the accompanying illustration (link) the loose, casual style of the graphic doesn't match the casual but stiff look of the stencil type or the formal script. Agree or disagree?

Most programs also allow you to change the color of your text (many have a whole toolbox of special effects but let's stick with plain black or single color text for this series). You can choose a color that contrasts with your paper color and other graphics or pick a color that appears within your clip art to tie the two together.

_{Create a Greeting Card > Lesson 6 Definitions | Instruction | Assignment}