There are literally thousands upon thousands of fonts out there to use for your marketing material. But is there any basic rule of thumb when choosing a font? Yes there is.
Did you know that out of all the fonts there are to chose from, most can be broken down into two categories; Serif and Sans-Serif.
The basic difference between the two is this: One has decorative “feet” and the other doesn’t.
As you can see, the Sans (without) Serif font doesn’t have fancy feet, the serif font does. Apparently Serif fonts are easier on the eye for readers of the printed page, like a magazine, book, flyer etc. The “feet” draw the readers eye across the page.
The sans-serif fonts are mostly used on web pages, as they are easier to read on a screen.
Serif Font Examples:
Times New Roman, Century
Sans-serif Font Examples:
Test it out yourself.
Have you ever seen a website article written in Times New Roman and immediately hit the back button? I have.
Or have you tried to read a newspaper article written in Verdana. I bet not because they don’t use this font, ever.
Sometimes flyers and business cards use sans-serif fonts. This is ok for short headlines, addresses etc but don’t use it for longer pieces of text. Stick with the tried and tested format and you won’t go wrong!