#playingwithfonts

Sounds simple, but the stakes are high. The right one can help engage target audiences and boost the aesthetic of your marketing materials. The wrong one can confuse readers or muddy your entire message.

There are many things to consider when choosing the right font. The first is simple legibility. 

Fonts are broadly divided into either serif (those with little ornate touches on the ends of the letters) or sans-serif (those without). Serif fonts like Garamond, Minion and Times New Roman or sans-serif fonts like Helvetica, Arial and Futura are all classics due to their easy-to-read designs. 

Serif fonts are more often used in body text than sans serif, partly from habit and partly because serif fonts tend to be slightly easier to read. Then again, when you’re working online there are some studies that say the opposite is true, and sans-serif fonts are easier to read on a computer screen. It’s one of the reasons that Microsoft Office 2007 changed the default font from Times-Roman (a serif font) to Calibri (sans-serif).

Playful or irritating?

Beware of using unprofessional and tacky fonts. Yes, we’re looking at you, Comic Sans. It’s the Court Jester of fonts – funny for a fleeting moment but lacking the style and flair to engage an audience for a long period of time.

You’ll often see Comic Sans used in classrooms – apparently 44 per cent of teachers use it, most of them stating that dyslexic students or early readers find Comic Sans easier to read than other fonts (they particularly note that Comic Sans is one of the few fonts that makes the ‘a’ the way we print it.) The research doesn’t tend to back them up, but by now Comic Sans has become inescapable in education.

But for the rest of us, it’s best used as a headline font, if at all; never use it, or any other gimmicky font, as a main text font.

So many choices

A good rule to follow is never to use more than three different fonts on any individual page, newsletter or website item. Following this rule ensures a continuity of your text. More than three different fonts can be difficult to follow and looks messy. It makes you look indecisive – as if you were uncertain of what to chose, so you chose them all.

Don’t be afraid to mix and match a bit, though. If you have a sans serif font for your headline or display text, use a serif in the body of your text, or vice versa. If you’re going to be sharing your document digitally – or even just sending it to a printer in any form other than a PDF – be sure to stick to the most common fonts. Not every computer has all fonts loaded, and there’s nothing more frustrating than having to try and embed fonts in a document when all you really want to do is get the thing printed. 

In the world of fonts, there are literally hundreds of items to choose from. Keeping in mind a few dos and don’ts along the way will ensure you pick the right one for you and your audience.