A reader is drawn to content that is meaningful, aesthetically pleasing and well-organized. Therefore, it is important to focus on minute details such as font selection and typography. And the perfect combination of fonts makes your website or project attractive and establishes a tone. The right typeface can highlight your design and the wrong one can certainly shatter it. Using a combination of fonts is a tricky pursuit, hence we are here to cut your Gordian knot.
A fun fact for you, in 1984 Steve Jobs introduced various digital fonts with the launch of Macintosh. He was a revolutionary who combined technology with art.
Let’s explore the things you should keep in mind while selecting a combination of fonts.
There are a few things to keep in mind to using the right combination of fonts.
1) MOOD
Each project has nature. It may be formal, informal, serious, modern, classic, or funny, etc. It is essential for a designer to analyze the tone and mood of the project. Thus, choose the typeface accordingly. For example, applying Comic Neue to a medical website is a recipe for disaster.
2) PURPOSE
The main function of fonts is to make information legible or readable. Designers must research which fonts look good in big and small sizes. This way they can easily select them for heading, subheading, and paragraphs. Fonts should contribute to the aesthetic beauty of a website rather than impacting its User Interface(UI).
3) COMPLIMENT AND CONTRAST
While choosing a pair of fonts, choose such fonts that compliment each other. Will you use hot pink and dark red with each other? This is a bad choice. Instead of complementing each other, they both are fighting for the viewer’s attention. The more similar they are, the more likely they will fight. Designers must choose contrasting fonts. For instance, merging serif with sans serif together is an awesome move. Serif is old-fashioned whereas San serif fonts are sleek and modern. Contrast highlights the best.
4) DIFFERENCE IN TWO FONTS
One important thing is to bring out the difference between two fonts. One font must be more prominent than the other. Use the prominent one for heading and important information and the second one for giving other details. Such as use Futura as your prominent font and Garamond as the secondary font. You can also play with size and color in fonts.
Follow these four simple rules to make your website more appealing and aesthetic.
Have a look at the top 10 trending combinations of Fonts
Generally, Oversized Serif and Sans Serif typefaces are attractive. There is a trending usage of Serif and Sans Serif together. It is a classic combination. Serif is decorative strokes on the letters. Sans is a French word that refers to “without”. Sans Serif means without any strokes on the ending of letters. Serifs are considered the oldest modern typefaces whereas Sans Serif is more modern without any strokes. Serif has a serious, formal, confident, traditional, and elegant tone. While San Serif has a friendly, modern, direct, precise, and minimal tone. PT Serif and Century Gothic have great chemistry. PT Serif is great for use in paragraph text and Gothic Futura for the heading.
1) PROXIMA NOVA AND GEORGIA
Proxima Nova is a Sans Serif typeface. It is the most popular commercial font on the web. It is also applied to print media as it is a clear, clean, and distinct typeface. It is easier to read. When Proxima Sans was remodeled, the Proxima Nova family was born. It is a hybrid of Futura and Akzidenz Grotesk. While Georgia is a serif typeface. It looks similar toTimes New Roman. But, it has more height. It offers elegance and a sense of friendliness to the text. Even in small size, the Georgia font is perfectly readable. The New York Times has been using the Georgia Font since 2007. Proxima Nova and Georgia are a great match, a Sans Serif and Serif combination. Proxima Nova can be used for the body whereas Georgia for the headlines and titles.
2) FUTURA AND SOUVENIR
Futura is Sans Serif geometric font. It increases the beauty of your design. It is mostly used in the headline of advertisement, web design, market design, poster design. Souvenir is from Serif typeface. Futura is bold, serious, and optimistic; denotes forwardness whereas Souvenir is light, playful, and amusing. These are two completely different fonts but their combination is clean and quirky.
3) HELVETICA NEUE AND GARAMOND
Helvetica Neue is a Sans Serif typeface. It is a re-working of typeface and consists of the perfect combination of widths and heights. It is best suited for headlines and Garamond is apt for texts. By merging the two typefaces together, you are inviting the audience into the universe of tradition, class, and grace.
4) ROCKWELL BOLD AND BEMBO
Rockwell catches the eye of the onlooker when used in bold. It has a geometric quality like Futura font. Bembo is a versatile serif. It is thin, light, and elegant just like bamboo. Rockwell is fit for headlines and titles whereas Bembo is great at complementing in body text, and subheading.
5) MONTSERRAT AND COURIER NEW
Montserrat is also known as Google font. It was designed recently, especially for online use. It is extremely popular. It is a Sans Serif typeface, sleek and airy in nature. Courier New stands for the old as well as a new style. It is a Slab Serif and was created for the IBM series. This typeface is ideal for legal documents and coding. Montserrat and Courier New is the right combination if a brand wishes to represent its roots in the past and vision for the future.
6) SUPER GROTESK AND MINION PRO
Super Grotesk is a Sans Serif typeface. While Minion Pro is a Serif typeface, inspired by the Renaissance era. It was designed in 1991 for computer system textual content and extended examination. The name minion is based on a naming technique for sizes. Both Super Grotesk and Minion Pro offer a sense of classic beauty with minimum effort.
7) AMATIC SC AND JOSEFIN SANS
Amatic SC is a handwritten typeface. It is a great font for styling and clean texture. It has a natural handwritten look. Josefin Sans as a font feels antique, sleek, and fashionable. It has a touch of geometric shapes in its letters. Both Amatic SC and Josefin Sans are a good match for an artistic project like an entertainment website or a music blog, etc. The match looks free-spirit and fun-loving, thus, not the right option for a corporate project.
8) SOURCE SANS PRO AND TIMES ROMAN
Times Roman is the overused typeface that has become standard for Microsoft word. However, now designers go for new fonts. But we should not sideline it. It remains one of the classic serif typefaces. It is easily readable and offers a sense of tradition and familiarity to our design.
Source Sans Pro is a somewhat modern typeface, compared to Times Roman. Both of the fonts work admirably next to each other. You can use it without any worry if you are a conventional brand.
9) VIDALOKA AND ROBOTO
Vidaloka is a playful and curled Serif typeface. It is focused on readability too. It is generally used in the headlines and short-length content. However, it is difficult to read it in a small size font. It will work well with 16 and above px. While Roboto is neo-Grotesk, Sans Serif typeface. It is recently designed by Google and launched as a system font for the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Both are a perfect match and bring balance to each other.
10) RALEWAY AND LUSITANA
These two are fonts designed by Google. Raleway is a Sans Serif, it stands upright but still offers friendly vibes. It brings funk and function. It is old-style and is inspired by geometric designs. While Lusitana is inspired by a Portuguese poem, “The Lusiads”. This typeface is great for long text but small in size. This font is warm and welcoming. When you combine these two new fonts, they stray into the realm of contemporary aesthetics. However, subconsciously they remind one of the old fonts. They offer a sleek and modern but also showers drops of authenticity.
Experiment with these fonts in a variety of projects. Use the different combination of fonts that compliments each other and brings out the best. Select the size and color of fonts consciously. Contrasting fonts balance out each other, however, one must be careful while using them.
Brilliant and Bold use of fonts differentiates a brand from the rest.
