Design: Fonts

Serif fonts have serifs, or little lines and embellishments at the ends of the strokes of the characters. Serif fonts are more common among printed materials. Be careful about some serif fonts that have extremely thin sections, as they may not print well on low-resolution printers. Examples of serif fonts include:

• Times New Roman
• Gentium
• Newton

San serif fonts do not have serifs, or little lines and embellishments at the ends of the strokes of the characters. Sans serif fonts are more common among digital materials like computer and phone screens. Examples of sans serif fonts include:

• Arial
• Carlito
• Roboto

While sans serif fonts are not as popular for printed materials, sometimes they can be a better choice because the thickness of their strokes are usually uniform, and this results in a clearer result with some lower-resolution printers.

Script fonts are usually cursive or calligraphy. Handwritten fonts can be cursive or regular letters. Both types of fonts are usually not as simple as the serif and sans serif fonts. They can be elegant or fancy and are often used in cards, signs, or possibly short Bible verses. Some can be hard to read, so use them sparingly and judiciously. Examples of script fonts include:

• Alex Brush
• Chopin Script
• CurlyJoe

Examples of hand-written fonts include:

• Domestic Manners
• Always In My Heart
• Comic Sans

List decorative fonts

• Gentium Book Basic

• Most designs look best with at least two fonts, but generally no more than two or three fonts in a document.
• Verify the license of the font, and use only fonts that are legal.

If we use the same font for everything in the project, it may result in a less attractive product. On the other hand, mixing too many fonts in a project leads to a messy and unorganized feeling. Font pairs, when used in the right way, lead to a professional, clean, and attractive look. I don't know of a formula to use in choosing font pairs, but just try different fonts together and see how they look and feel. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind when choosing font pairs.

If you choose two fonts that are too similar, there will not be enough of a contrast between them to be visually appealing. If they are only slightly different, they may give the reader an uneasy feeling. Choose two fonts that are different, but compliment each other.

For the text of a book where you want contrasting headings and paragraph text, try to be somewhat conservative and keep them relatively similar.

• Make sure the paragraph text is very readable (ordinary). The heading text can be
• Try using a serif and sans serif font combination.
• Font size of the heading will probably be just slightly bigger that of the paragraph.

Investigate font families. Try using different weights, styles, and sizes within the same font family. Sometimes this will provide enough variety to be appealing.

For a logo or image or book cover, you can be more artistically free to experiment.

• A display font or decorative font combined with a sans serif font can look nice.
• A bold font combined with a script font can look nice.
• Contrast font size. Try to make one twice as big as the other.

When you choose one font that is more distinct, it is generally best to choose a more ordinary font to match it. Because of this, these pairs do not generally go well together:

• Two script fonts
• Two decorative fonts
• A script with a decorative font
• Two display fonts

See our Font Resources page.