8 Tips to Master the Art of Putting Fonts Together
When was the last time you saw the cover page of your favourite novel and appreciate its design? When was the last time you took the time to laud the design of your favourite social media app? When was the last time you admired the design of the logo of a product you use? Seldom!! Design is to the product, what salt is to food. You may never feel its presence. However its absence is badly missed.
Generically, the word ‘design’ creates an imagery of marvellous structures like The Statue of Liberty, The Golden Gate Bridge and The Eiffel Tower. While these are undoubtedly epitome of graceful design, the word “design” is much broader and goes beyond the realms of physical and structural design. Design in software is equally essential and artistically appealing. While I believe proper design is both a science and an art, we can keep this argument for some other day! Today let’s call it an art (wink wink).
There are several instances in the life of a person when she/he gets into a situation where one has to put variety of fonts together. It could be that office presentation next Monday (boy it’s scary!!), that annual report, or simply that school project you are helping a kid complete. Such situations take people from their plush comfortable home into deep sea waters. Either they screws up big time or hire professional help. Today I bring you 8 simple tips that you can use to combine multiple fonts and at the same time make your work look neat and eye pleasing. So are you ready to be a designer? Read on.
1. Make a clear distinction between the heading and body.
Headings are called so for a reason. It is the first line that catches the eye and needs to be attention grabbing, yet relevant. One of the most common place we find this practice put to great use is the daily newspaper. There is always a clear distinction that separates the headline from the body. We tend to have less attention span and we’ll easily skip the message if it is not accompanied by a strong headline. In other words the headline is like a rubber band that keeps your message together.
2. Make the heading bold and/or uppercase.
The most simple and efficient way to separate the heading from the body is to capitalize and/or customize the font to bold. Research on human psychology shows that people give more emphasis to bigger and bolder looking objects. In addition to it, this gives us the added advantage of using the same font for both heading and body. Now by using just one font a lot of our woes are addressed. We no longer have to rip our heads apart to find the right combination of fonts that looks good together. Furthermore, the design looks minimalistic and clean. The images below carries the same font for heading and body. Note the distinct differentiation it makes in the first case, while the second illustration is rather grimy.
3. Use font with more letter-width in headings.
Various fonts have varied letter- width. A font with wider letters is great for a headline. It attracts attention for its relatively larger size and makes a good first impression. However avoid using these fonts for the body of the message because these fonts tend to tire out the reader when read for longer times. Look at the image below. The heading uses a font with wide letters and the body with regular letters. This adds a hint of class to the image and subtly differentiates the heading from the message body. No fuss. Right?
4. Use font with more inter-letter spacing in headings.
A font with more spacing in between the letters, provide a false illusion of a bold and larger font. Furthermore, it also gives a much needed breathing room to the writing and makes the reading experience smooth and pleasant. So this characteristics make such font a suitable candidate for headlines. It’s an additional benefit if the letters are both wide and have larger spacing between them. However avoid fonts with unnaturally larger inter-letter spacing as it disconnects the reader from the message and also requires more effort to read and assimilate the text. These type of fonts are best used in situation where the heading is meant to be attention grabbing and force the reader to think about it. The image below covers a common topic of women empowerment and the font used in the heading triggers a thought in the reader’s mind.
5. Use the right colours
Imagine a world without colours. It would be boring and monotonous. In design also, colour plays a vital role. Using the right colour at the right place can bring an image into life. Headlines should use attention grabbing and bold colours. Colours like red, navy blue, orange, etc are perfect for headings. However the background should also be taken into notice. On a darker background, white can add emphasis and hence goes down as a heading colour. Thus apart from the font we have to also take into account the background colour. The image below shows one background and separate headline font colour. Watch how the font colour is emphasised keeping in mind the background colour. Putting the right mix of colour is very tough and comes with experience. While the right colour combination can add class to the image, I caution you against a wrong combination. A wrong colour combination can be disastrous and suicidal. Have a look how the image on the right leaves a nice and professional feel while the one on the left looks untidy. Even if the same image, fonts and font size are used. See what a pivotal role the colour plays!
6. Using hand-written fonts.
Hand-written fonts are stylish and add a bit of personalisation to the written text. It is however not recommended in business writings as it may appear too informal. Putting two different hand-written fonts can be tricky. But if you are able to pull it off, it looks hell lot stylish and you get instant accolades as a retro designer. Keeping all the above mentioned rules in mind like using a more dominant (more letter-width and more inter-letter spacing) font, we can create that magical combination- that is stylish and yet legible and looks perfectly designed.
7. Less is More!!
It takes a lot of time to master a design suite. A design suite these days comes with numerous options for customisation and personalisation. Today a designer has more options than say 15 years ago. But this freedom of numerous options is often accompanied by confusion. This confusion is clearly visible in the design one makes. Often the designer is confused as to which customisation he should use, and ends up using a lot of them. This makes the design look cluttered and leaves no breathing room. Just because we can use lot of options, does not mean we should do so. Restraint is important. My favourite design mantra is something that Steve Jobs said about Apple- “We are as much proud of the things that we don’t do as we are of the things that we do”. So in a design, choose the elements wisely and remember “Less is more”.
8. An Art and A Science.
As I said, we will keep this debate for some other day! Combining fonts together requires understanding of how our brain receives data. Any font that’s bold, wide and has more spacing qualifies for a good heading font. Whereas using them in the body gives a feeling of detachment and you will be better off not using them in the body. So there are rules in design, and anything that has rules is a science.
On the other hand, design is all about creativity and breaking the boundaries. Thinking out of the box is just a synonym of design. We have the liberty to experiment on variety of things and see for ourselves which one works and which one does not. So there are no rules. Hence it’s an art.
I believe design engages the left and right brain equally. Both logic and creativity are required to pull off a phenomenal design. We will talk extensively on this in my next articles. Till then- Happy Designing!
