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Just the Right Type
So you need to design a brochure for your own biz, or a friend's. Let's say it's a daycare center. No need to hire a graphic artist; it doesn't need to be that slick. You open FONT on your toolbar and start scouting for fonts. So many to choose from. You try five or 18 of them, and the brochure looks messier than a cafeteria after a food fight. What's a nursery school teacher with graphic ambitions to do?
Use Sans Serif Fonts for Headlines and Titles
We've learned it's a good rule of thumb to use just two fonts, one serif for the text, the other sans serif for the headlines and categories. Of course it helps to know what these highfalutin words mean!A serif is the little line or curl at the end of letters as, for example, in the Times and Zapf Chancery fonts. Generally, serif fonts are easier to read in long lines of text because the serifs (those curly-cues) help the eye connect the letters and move along the horizontal line.
Sans serif fonts don't have these lines or curls -- sans is French for "without." Helvetica and Futura are sans serif fonts. Sans serif fonts are more legible, because the eye tends to recognize the letters in a quick glance, as in a headline. Sans serif fonts work best in headlines or for very short lines of text, and serif fonts for long lines and large bodies of text.
A Few Good Fonts
People have been inventing typefaces since the invention of moveable type in 1450, and that gives you a lot to choose from. But often all you need are a few basics. Indeed, many professional graphic designers say they rely on just 10 or 12 fonts for all their work -- they know what these fonts can do, and they don't need to keep searching for new and improved fonts.So, while you can find a font for every emotion, age group, smell, taste, trend, or mood, once you latch onto a font or two you like and that work for your biz, you can stop looking! Just use it, or them, over and over again, in catalogs, brochures, manuals, ads, price sheets, newsletters -- whatever. This approach can also give your business a recognizable identity.
And that's everything you wanted to know about serifs but were afraid to ask!
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