The right fonts will catch your readers’ eyes and get your message across. Here are four tips to help you pick the best fonts for your next marketing design.
With seemingly endless possibilities available, picking the right fonts to use when creating visual communications can be a mystifying process. It’s important to select fonts that work for your purposes since the typefaces you choose can either highlight your message or detract from it.
Let’s look at some tips to help you select the best fonts for conveying and boosting your message.
1. Decide on display text or body text
There are many typeface options to choose from when you’re creating documents for print or web, but a simple way to break things down is to determine if you’re working with short headlines or longer paragraphs of text.
Some fronts are basic and conventional in design. These block text fonts display well on paper or on screen and improve legibility for longer passages of text. There are also script, cursive, or stylized handwriting fonts. These typefaces may range in style from elegant, to hand-drawn, to casual and fun. Although their readability is not always ideal for large pieces of content, they’re great for adding decoration or grabbing attention with display text.
The purpose of including text in any ad design or other visual communication is to convey your message to readers, which is why legibility is so important. Decorative and handwriting typefaces may seem like a good way to add interest to your design layout, but they can also be difficult to read. Whether you’re designing a document for print or online viewing, consider using a simpler font for large blocks of text. Save the more detailed typefaces for titles, headings, or for accentuating certain portions of content.
2. Consider the purpose of the copy
Keep your audience in mind when you’re selecting your fonts as much as you would when working on the rest of your design layout. For example, older audiences will need simpler typefaces that are easy to make out, while clean and modern fonts may appeal to audiences that have grown up online. Take a moment to think about how the fonts you choose will work where you intend to use them and whether they make sense for your concept, message, and audience.
3. Think about your media format
Not all typefaces are appropriate for every format. If you use a specialized font for a print ad design, for example, the print company you use may also need to have the font in order to print your document as it was designed. Similarly, some fonts may appear muddled on printed documents but add interest and impact on a screen. When you’re deciding which typefaces to use on your projects, take your media form into account to help ensure your font choices don’t detract from your message.
4. Mix and match for maximum impact
While much of the impact you will make with your text is through the content itself, you can catch eyes and engage readers with your typeface choices as well. Mixing and matching fonts within a document allows you to highlight certain lines or clusters of text. It’s commonplace to use one typeface for display text, and one for body text.
Choosing the right typeface can either help engage your audience or turn them off. By working with Shutterstock you can choose from classic, contemporary, and decorative fonts to help make your message pop.
