A font isn’t just a bit of technology used to display characters and letters. It’s a fierce design tool that can enrich or ruin your presentation, flyer, website, company logo, or any other visual symbol you use. In other words, the font represents your business, so you need to use it wisely.
Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to choose between more and more fonts. There are even websites that offer downloads of free fonts. When creating your designs, you can pick different font sizes and colors, but also other types of fonts. You can use them to emphasize something, make it more playful or colorful, or grab the user’s attention from the start.
Fonts are really powerful, but only when you use them wisely. These make the first and most lasting impression. A poorly visible font or one that doesn’t fit the background can affect the user experience. Just imagine – if you have a logo where the content is barely legible because of your font choice, how do you expect people to memorize it and link it to your company?
With all this in mind, you should learn more about the power of font and how to use it to influence the user’s choice.
The Psychology Of Fonts And How To Use Them
Fonts can affect the emotions of the user. It’s not just about the curves and the lines that make an impression – it’s also the choice of colors and size of the content you offer. Choosing the right fonts is a challenging task, but with the right tools at your disposal, such as Adobe Creative, as well as a bit of your own creativity, you can enrich your design significantly thanks to this little element.
Speaking of the effects of fonts, the most significant element is typography. This refers to the body language of the font, i.e. what it looks like. It’s what makes the primary impression on the user, right alongside the color you choose for it. Different typeface styles can affect the users psychologically and provide a strong message for your brand.
This is why many designers today hide business messages in typefaces. There’s an entire study of how fonts can affect the feelings and behaviors of users called the psychology of fonts.
Take, for example, Supreme Font. This choice has been used by many brands and is already quite familiar to users. It gives them a feeling of familiarity and makes them comfortable with your design.
However, if you pick something more unique, you can select a font that leaves a mark on the user. Your unique font choice can make your logo, flyers, or website memorable, and people will remember your brand when they see it, even if you do not use it.
Just think about Coca-Cola’s font. It is so popular and deeply linked to the brand that you can see it with different content, and yet, it will remind you of the Coca-Cola brand.
The Effects Of Fonts On Comprehension And Readability
The typography can determine your design’s readability and affect people’s opinions and feelings. As a matter of fact, clarity and readability should be your biggest priority when choosing a font for your design.
In this sense, there are three things to consider: the font size you’ll be using, the line spacing, and your target audience. The target audience is important because you will choose your font based on factors such as age. You shouldn’t use childish or small fonts if the target audience is older.
Let’s consider some facts to help you make the decision.
Low-contrast and small font sizes bother many users when they read online, regardless of age.
Due to aging, only half the light will get through the person’s retina, starting from 40 years old compared to a 20-year-old eye. If your target audience is over 60, this percentage decreases to only 20%. This is why choosing clear, bigger fonts with stronger colors is important.
According to the Global Journal of Health Science, low-vision readers and readers in general experience better reading speeds with bigger line spacing of around 2.5.
Choices Of Fonts To Consider
There are at least half a million different fonts in existence today. This gives you endless choices in terms of design, but you should be very careful when making your choice. Many fonts aren’t created for logos and other website elements in mind. Some are more classic, while others have a messier style, so they might not be the perfect fit for your professional brand.
Generally speaking, fonts are classified into three groups based on the responses they provide to users. You can customize your font design based on your business or your goals with the target audience. Let’s take a look at them to help you make your choice.
1. Serif
This is the most classic category of fonts. You can recognize the fonts in this category by their little tail at the characters’ bottom. These tails give the content a more professional, traditional, and established look, which is why Serif fonts are used by brands like marketing, financial, consultant, law firms, etc.
Some good examples of Serif fonts are Times New Roman, Book Antiqua, and Courier.
2. Sans Serif
Sans Serif is a slightly more modern version of the traditional Serif font. It’s smooth, neutral, and offers a clean view, which makes it very popular with professional brands today. This is a tech-focused, cutting-edge category with a sophisticated and modern look.
Because of these qualities, fonts in this category are primarily used by fashion brands and tech companies like Google, eBay, FedEx, and Amazon. Besides the big tech, many authority information sites, such as this highly-loved security blog, use Sans Serif.
Some good examples of Sans Serif fonts are Arial, Helvetica, and Century Gothic.
3. Scripts
Script fonts are the most creative, fancy category of them all. These are used by design companies and other brands that want to form a more unique, creative image in the eyes of the customers. It’s the number one choice for food and beverage items, brands whose target audience is children and fashion brands.
If you were wondering what popular brands use this font, Coca-Cola and Instagram are great examples. Their fonts are fancy, creative, and elegant at the same time.
Vivaldi, French Script, and Edwardian Script are good examples of Script fonts.
Final Thoughts
Font psychology is very powerful in design, and it can affect the opinions as well as actions of your customers to a great degree. They capture the feelings and perceptions of customers. These visual features can change your design tremendously, so pay special attention to the fonts you’ll be using.
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