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Choosing Fonts
Choosing fonts is both an art and a science. The designer must understand how to choose fonts that set the tone for a design, provide the best readability, and convey the right image. There are certain established guidelines and best practices that allow designers to quickly and effectively mix and match fonts for the best results.
After you've chosen your fonts, learn how to compose perfect pages of type through these text composition tutorials.
After you've chosen your fonts, learn how to compose perfect pages of type through these text composition tutorials.
Best Way to Choose or Mix 'n Match Fonts
These guidelines on mixing and matching fonts won't always work for you, but nine times out of ten they'll give you the results you want with the least amount of trial and error. Use them when you're in a hurry or when you've hit a mental roadblock and need to jumpstart a design project.
How Do YOU Choose The Right Fonts?
Our readers share tips on choosing fonts and mixing and matching fonts for graphic design and desktop publishing projects. Have some tips? Share them here too.
How to Choose Headline or Display Fonts
These are easy steps to guide you in picking out fonts for titles and headlines. These aren't absolute rules but they are good guidelines and the place to start when you're unsure how to pick the right headline fonts.
Body Copy Type
Without delving into every possibility, every nuance of a typeface, take a look at some of the key characteristics of body type.
How to Match Type Size to Readership
Pick a font that is big enough but not too large for your primary readers to read comfortably.
Use Fewer Fonts - How Many Fonts to Use in a Publication
Consider these guidelines when choosing fonts. Don't use more than necessary.
The Big Book of Font Combinations
From bonFX and Douglas Bonneville we have The Big Book of Font Combinations. It's a workbook for designers (or anyone) who uses fonts. Browse through and study hundreds of font combinations to discover what works well together for your intended use.
29 Principles for Making Great Font Combinations
Douglas Bonneville has a list that offers guidance on mixing and matching fonts covering topics such as contrast, x-height, historical period, too much difference, classics, sizes, and more.
Choosing a typeface
What to consider when choosing fonts for page layout. Matching styles, choosing a font that suits the material.
Creating an image
In Sign Business Bob Trogman shows numerous examples of using type to create a particular image in signs, logos, etc.
Esperfonto
Use this nifty tool from Daniel Will-Harris to help you in choosing fonts for your desktop publishing project. Try this if you find yourself stuck in a rut -- using the same typefaces over and over.
Matching Fonts
After an excellent primer on the history of typestyles, Dmitry Kirsanov offers his own thoughts on what to look for when selecting multiple fonts to work together in a design.
Mixing Type
"A well designed page contains no more than two different typefaces or four different type variations such as type size and bold or italic style." Tips on what fonts to use, what to avoid.
Type Palettes
Chuck Green shows you how to choose a typeface to match your message. Graphic examples show different font combinations. Chuck describes why these fonts work together and what mood they evoke for him.
Type: Mood and Personality
At Poynter Online - The Design Desk, read about how typefaces create different moods. Includes an exercise to try that demonstrates this. Useful to do when trying to make your own typeface selections.