Monday, June 11, 2012

Mixing and Matching Fonts

Mixing and matching up fonts! Fun! It looks awesome when done right... and if not? Font vomit. So you gotta be careful but it's not rocket science.  Here are some really simple tips:

  1. Opposites Attract:  Try using two fonts that are complete opposites together like serif and sans serif, a big fat font and a skinny font, a fancy script and a simple serif or an uppercase font with a lower case one.
  2. Choose fonts with different kerning or play with it yourself.  The kerning is the space between letters.  It's really trendy to have an E   N   O   R   M   O   U   S space between letters on some words!  
  3. Don't go overboard.  Limit the fonts to 3-5 different font in one document.  Sure, you will some examples that can pull off more but leave that to the professionals!
  4. Body text or the "bulk" of the text that a person has to read (like what you are doing now) needs to be in something easy to read.  For print, serif fonts are the easiest on the eyes to read. Sans serif is easier to read on the computer though.
  5. Mix fonts from the same historical period but have different features.  
Have fun mixing it up! Want to know what fonts were used in the image above?  


29 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tips, love the combo of fonts used!

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  2. Love this! :) But the teacher in me wants to let you know that #4 says 'east' instead of 'easy'...

    I'm going now to look up the great fonts!

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  3. Glad you guys enjoyed it! Also thanks for noticing our error. It's fixed now :)

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  4. I love your idea and your tips. I will love using this in My Digital Studio software to make my own framable. And will share your post about this on my blog - thanks
    Marti, http://stampwithmarti.com

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  5. Thanks for sharing and so glad you like it! Can't wait to see your own framable. Thanks!

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  6. What is the font name for the cursive? etc...etc...etc...

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  7. by the way, this is such a great post! thanks for taking the time to teach!!!

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  8. Holly, looks like we forgot to mention a font. It's TXT Longhand. Get here: http://www.scrapnfonts.com/searchdetail.php?psku=10822

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  9. Hi!

    What is the font used for F A T?

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  10. Ginnie, it took some detective work to figure it out! The word "FAT" is actually just Times New Roman Bold with an outline that is the same color as the letter that is making it extra fat. I hope that helps! I realize some programs don't let you outline letters and I hope that isn't the case for you!

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  11. Thanks for this post...I have been driving myself crazy trying to figure out how to design something similar to this to paint and hang on my wall. Feeling a little overwhelmed still, though. Anyone know of a way to "plug in" a phrase to a template or something already made, like this??

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  12. @Whitney... I wish there was a way to plug it in, but trust me, there isn't! Certain letters and words will throw it all off. One thing that is often hard to work around is words or letters w/ descenders like g,j,y, etc... they can easily make a design look goofy if you aren't careful. Sometimes it works to put a word like that in all caps so you don't have to design around the awkward spacing it makes. Good luck!

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  13. What do you use to put them all together? word? paint? photoshop?

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    1. Alicia we used Illustrator to put it all together :)

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  14. Nice post! I tipped historica periods choice, especially considering medieval fonts and typefaces!

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  15. Guess I'm a little behind the times as this was first posted quite a while ago (too busy reading long research articles)- Anyway thanks for the tips- I've been exploring my creative side (didn't know I had one until I quit caring what my family thought was "tacky"... I heard that word so many times growing up it wasn't until I turned 50 that all of a sudden I realized (from doing Power Points) that I had a creative bone in my body! I LOVED the framed fonts and very much appreciated the tips- I had just begun to experiment on my own - very useful advice- Thanks again!

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  16. Its great inspirational post about mixing and matching fonts. I wanted to leave a little comment to support you and wish you a good continuation. Wish you best of luck for all your best efforts.
    website design

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  17. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  18. I might have to try mixing and matching fonts in my Digital Design class. It looks great.

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  19. love this! is it possible to purchase a higher resolution of this poster for print??

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  20. Is your poster above available as a download? I would love to have something like this to hang in my yearbook classroom (without having to make it myself).

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  21. Dafont.com is a site where you can download a ton of free fonts. You can search for a specific typeface, or search by the type of lettering you want, whether it’s serif or sans serif, hand lettered or grunge style. You can also put in your own phrase to see how it looks in a particular font. A lot of these fonts are very decorative and many are handdrawn, so it’s not always the best place to search for body text fonts. Each selection also tells you whether your download is free for personal or commercial use. The download is easy – you get a zip file with the font file inside. Unzip, install, and you’re ready to go.

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  22. Dafont.com is a site where you can download a ton of free fonts. You can search for a specific typeface, or search by the type of lettering you want, whether it’s serif or sans serif, hand lettered or grunge style. You can also put in your own phrase to see how it looks in a particular font. A lot of these fonts are very decorative and many are handdrawn, so it’s not always the best place to search for body text fonts. Each selection also tells you whether your download is free for personal or commercial use. The download is easy – you get a zip file with the font file inside. Unzip, install, and you’re ready to go.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Dafont.com is a site where you can download a ton of free fonts. You can search for a specific typeface, or search by the type of lettering you want, whether it’s serif or sans serif, hand lettered or grunge style. You can also put in your own phrase to see how it looks in a particular font. A lot of these fonts are very decorative and many are handdrawn, so it’s not always the best place to search for body text fonts. Each selection also tells you whether your download is free for personal or commercial use. The download is easy – you get a zip file with the font file inside. Unzip, install, and you’re ready to go

    ReplyDelete
  24. Dafont.com is a site where you can download a ton of free fonts. You can search for a specific typeface, or search by the type of lettering you want, whether it’s serif or sans serif, hand lettered or grunge style. You can also put in your own phrase to see how it looks in a particular font. A lot of these fonts are very decorative and many are handdrawn, so it’s not always the best place to search for body text fonts. Each selection also tells you whether your download is free for personal or commercial use. The download is easy – you get a zip file with the font file inside. Unzip, install, and you’re ready to go.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Dafont.com is a site where you can download a ton of free fonts. You can search for a specific typeface, or search by the type of lettering you want, whether it’s serif or sans serif, hand lettered or grunge style. You can also put in your own phrase to see how it looks in a particular font. A lot of these fonts are very decorative and many are handdrawn, so it’s not always the best place to search for body text fonts. Each selection also tells you whether your download is free for personal or commercial use. The download is easy – you get a zip file with the font file inside. Unzip, install, and you’re ready to go.

    ReplyDelete