How to Choose Fonts for Print Design

If you’ve followed along with some of our latest blog posts (namely, Print Design 101 and Pro Tips for Advanced Print Design), you may have noticed a theme. We love print design! In today’s digital age, well-executed print materials are hard to come by—and for many marketers, even harder to create. That’s why we created this post to help you with one of the most important aspects of your print design: font selection.

Selecting the right fonts for your print project can seem daunting. To simplify things, we’ve put together our top 3 tips for expert font selection.

What’s the Vibe?

First and foremost, understand the tone of your project. Is it fun and casual? Or serious and formal? Most of the time, this will depend upon your branding. Remember to always stay consistent with the brand you’ve created. If you have brand guidelines, use them! Once you’ve locked in the vibe, use this to steer your font selection. Many font websites allow you to view fonts based on a theme, so knowing the vibe of your project ahead of time definitely helps.

Choose Your Biggest Font First

The next step is to choose the biggest font. Usually, this is the main heading. In some cases, it is the call-to-action (“CTA”). If you’re having trouble deciding, print out samples of your top 3-5 font choices. For these samples, use your main headline or CTA at the exact size you plan to use for your print project. Comparing the options side by side, you’re sure to see one that one immediately jumps out at you.

Mix and Match

Now that you have your biggest font nailed down, you can start to mix and match accompanying fonts to find what works for you. At Diace Designs, we are big fans of sans-serif fonts. So, to add more variety, we like to choose fonts with different weights or thickness. We also love to pair big, bold headline fonts with thin, elegant subhead or body fonts for a modern look.

If your project has required fonts that make you cringe, you can always use a few designer tricks to make an ugly font look good. Changing the font size, leading (space between lines of text), and kerning (space between letters), can all help transform a less than ideal font into something a little easier on the eyes.

If all else fails, contact us! We are passionate about print projects and would love to help you get yours just right.

About Kara Franco
Kara writes copy that speaks. She has a knack for creating clear, compelling messages without wasting words. She is passionate about digital marketing and believes that copy is the cornerstone of user experience.

Copywriter + Content Strategist
Kara@diacedesigns.com