Articles: fonts

Choosing a typeface is one of the few design decisions visible from across the room. The shape of the letters sets the mood before anyone reads a word. It deserves the same attention as colour and paper.

Decorative or plain

Decorative, script and calligraphic faces look wonderful in short lines: names on an invitation, a dish in a menu, a phrase on a cover. Put them into a long paragraph and reading becomes tiring. A safe rule: decorative type for what should impress, plain type for what should be understood.

• Two faces are enough - one for headings, one for body copy.
• Check the accented characters - many pretty faces lack them and the spacing falls apart.
• Do not shrink it needlessly - thin decorative lettering loses its shape at small sizes.
• Watch similar letters - in some faces a capital i and a lower case L look identical.

Keeping the lettering from changing on the way

A familiar problem: the design looks perfect on your computer and completely different when opened elsewhere. That happens when the file points to a typeface the other person does not have. The fix is simple - before sending, convert the lettering into shapes, or save a PDF that carries the typefaces inside it. Then nothing gets swapped.

If you are preparing an invitation, a menu or a leaflet, pick your pair of typefaces first and refine the layout afterwards. Changing the type at the end usually wrecks the whole composition.