Typefaces are artwork, and any aesthetic subject attracts differences of opinion. Unlike choosing the right character, in which concrete rules govern your decision, choosing the right font has a strong subjective component.
In this guide we’ll give you just enough information to get started. We won’t keep you long.
You’re using a word processor rather than a page layout application, so we assume that you are going to bundle up sentences into paragraphs and print them on one or more pages (as opposed to, say, producing a two-inch-square ad to send to the newspaper). You therefore have two concerns:
Generally speaking (and this is a very broad generalization), readable fonts have serifs and legible fonts do not. But that’s not a particularly helpful classification because saying that readable fonts have serifs does not mean that all serif fonts are readable, nor that every sans serif font is suitable for headlines. We need a more refined classification system.
You can classify a font by its purpose or by its visual characteristics. Here are some categories based on purpose:
Here are some categories based on visual characteristics:
Pagesmith uses those categories when it tries to organize your fonts. Of course there are many other categories that might be useful in certain situations, and you might want to add categories of your own.
Serifs are more than mere ornaments. They keep our eyes aligned to the flow of text. The principles of readability were worked out a long time ago, so the most readable fonts are the ones that have been around a long time.
Traditional, highly readable fonts have delicate pointed serifs and smooth transitions between heavy and thin strokes. As typefaces evolved, designers developed faces with thick horizontal (slab) serifs or sharp transitions between heavy and thin strokes. These fonts are less readable, but have a distinctly modern look.
In addition to traditional and modern, we can come up with a transitional category for fonts that have both traditional and modern characteristics.
In order to be useful for text, a font family must include italic and bold faces.
Here’s a rule of thumb: use italic for emphasis and bold for orientation.
Italic text tells the reader to add emphasis to the words in context, as you would do with your voice when speaking the words: not shouting, but adding stress or urgency.
Bold text, on the other hand, shouts “I’m over here!” When scanning a page our eyes jump to the words in bold. Bold text helps the reader find headlines or special terms that should stand out from the other words on the page.
What about bold italic? It adds strong emphasis, so it’s a variant of italic rather than a variant of bold. Some people overuse it.