The design of an alphabet or set of characters is a typeface. For example, Times New Roman, Frutiger, Verdana, and Comic Sans are each a specific typeface. A typeface may belong to a type family which might include bold, italic, condensed, and other specific typestyles based on that typeface.Before you start fretting over which typeface to use for your body copy and which to choose for your headlines, captions, and pull-quotes — consider the beauty and simplicity of the single typeface document.
Why — when most of us now have access to hundreds, if not thousands, of different typefaces — would anyone want to intentionally use only a single typeface in their desktop published documents?
With a single typeface design you:
- Avoid 'mismatching' different styles
- Save time (less time spent finding and matching multiple typefaces)
- Create impact through simplicity
Oh, there are probably other reasons too. Simplicity is a good one though.
But aren't single typeface designs, well, boring?
They don't have to be. One of Chuck Green's examples in his ideabook.com feature Type Palettes includes an all-Caslon sample. It's anything but boring. You can create singular beauty too with some of these ideas:
- Make maximum use of contrast (size, style, alignment, color)
- Float text in a sea of white space
- Emphasize distinctive characteristics
- Use typeface families (including the bold, italic, light, and condensed versions of some faces)
Take a look at these two layouts utilizing a single typeface or type family for more tips on creating single typeface documents.
- Elegant single typeface document uses size and spacing
- Type family provides cohesiveness and variety in a single typeface document
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