When you are starting a new project, there are many things to consider, from the UI and UX to the actual technology used. From the speed and optimization to the security steps. Among all of this one of the challenging hurdles you will need to overcome is finding the perfect font.
The perfect font should be in-tune with what you want your project to communicate and the kind of impact you want to leave on the end-user. The copy claims the most weight in any web project, which why it is challenging. It is daunting to even begin to look for the “right” font where you so many sources and thousands of fonts.
Let’s look into what needs to be taken into account before selecting that perfect font
First and foremost, consider the context and the audience. Where and how your content will be viewed will heavily influence your font choices.
Is it social media post? Consider a Decorative font – they more often than not look different than your average fonts. They may be large or bold in size and are meant to grab the reader’s attention. If it’s a print media, consider body typefaces, which are easy on your eyes and allows the reader to scan or skim the text.
If it’s a blog post on a website, consider the fact that in most probability it will be viewed on a mobile device. In such cases, not only the font should be easy to read on small screens but should load pretty quick as well.
Check out this link to find out the load time of a particular font and determine if it works for you.
How to pair your fonts
More often than not you’ll have to work with a pair of fonts at minimum, and sometimes more depending on your requirement. You’ll have to pick a powerful font for your headings and one for the main copy (although this is broad generalization and depends entirely on your design and requirement).
If you are working with more than one font, you’ll have to make sure they pair well and work in harmony with each other. One shouldn’t overshadow the other or stand out too out of place or look too similar to each other.
Go to the link below to see some of the perfect font pairs in action :
- Typ.io : Fonts that go together
- Font Flames – Tinder for font pairing
- Font combination by Canva
- Font Pair – Helps you pair Google Fonts together
Free vs premium
This is one debate that is sure going on for a long time. As far as free fonts are concerned, there are a few cons that will never be able to overcome such as
Unavailability of the entire font-family : Font-family is the variations of a font which includes in style (roman and italic), serif-use, weight (thin, light, regular, book, semi bold, bold, extra bold, heavy and black), and horizontal scale (extended and condensed). Many times free fonts come with only one or two variations and can really limit your use.
Overuse : Due to their availability, there is a chance you will find the free font used on almost every website and can lessen the impact of your brand or even it’s uniqueness.
After all said and done it really comes down to your own requirements. If it’s a side project or your personal project, you couldn’t go wrong with a nice free font. If it’s a client or branding project, it is always better to invest in a premium or subscription based font.
Free Fonts :
- Google Fonts
- FontShop – Although a site for paid fonts, FontShop also offers a selection of free fonts to use.
Premium Font sources :
Readability
Readability of a font depends a lot on where it is going to be used, more so on the design. Is the font going to be on a colored background? Is the font itself going to be of a different color other than black or white? Is the size of the font (based on your requirement) going to be too small or too large? Is the real estate going to be tight (many times in case of social media posts) ? You’ll also have to consider your demographics. Will the target audience be seeing your content on a large device or a mobile device. Are they going to be old or young.
When it comes to readability, even the best font can fail if the above questions are considered before selecting the font.
Type Hero is one of the best places to “try” out the fonts in action before using in your project.
Here’s what’s being used the most
Further Reading …
- The 25 most admired typefaces by typographers, type designers and letterers.
- Typewolf – Typographic inspiration for the modern web
- The 40 best free web fonts – Creative Bloq
Thank you for reading!