Most designs are mostly words. A church programme, a price list, a funeral poster and a bank's social media post all depend on text being easy to read. That is why good typography is one of the clearest signs of a skilled designer, and poor typography is the first thing an experienced reviewer notices.
Kinds of font
- Serif fonts have small strokes at the ends of letters. They can feel traditional and formal, and work well for longer printed text.
- Sans serif fonts have no strokes at the ends. They feel clean and modern and are easy to read on phone screens.
- Display fonts are decorative and bold, made for big headings only.
- Script fonts look like handwriting. They suit a wedding name or a single word, but long text in script is very hard to read.
Simple rules that work
- Two fonts are usually enough. One for headings and one for body text. A bold display or serif heading with a plain sans serif body is a safe pairing. You can also use one font family in different weights, such as bold and regular.
- Size creates hierarchy. Make the heading clearly bigger than the details, often two or three times bigger, not just a little.
- Give lines room. Line spacing that is slightly larger than the text size makes paragraphs easier to read.