Deciphering Type

Serif. Sans serif. Type family. The sheer number of terms associated with fonts is almost mind-numbing. While most of us just flip through every font until we find one that we love, it may be beneficial to learn a bit more about the fonts we use in our cards and layouts.

For example, did you know that it’s best to use serif fonts for body text such as paragraphs of journaling and sans serif fonts for headlines or captions? Do you know what serif and sans serif fonts are? If not, it’s time to learn!

Serifs came about as the finishing chisel strokes used by Romans as they chiseled inscriptions on historical monuments. Today serifs are seen as small lines at the ends of a character. Serifs help to guide the eye from one character of text to another, which is why they are perfect for large sections of text. Serif typefaces are fonts like Times New Roman or Palatino.

Sans serif means without serifs, or letters without the lines at the ends. Without these lines, sans serif fonts are cleaner, but harder to read in small print or large quantities. Because of this, sans serif fonts like Helvetica and Arial are used most often for headlines or captions.

What about those fun and funky fonts like Uncle Stinky or Girls are Weird? These are called display fonts. Display fonts are attention getting, decorative, ornamental or downright quirky fonts. Display fonts should be used sparingly as they can be hard on the eyes—they can be nearly illegible when in large quantities. These fonts are perfect for fun page titles.

Type families are a range of fonts that are all descendants of the same basic style, typically including an italic, bold and roman form of the font. Type families may also extend to include condensed or wide versions or weighted versions like light to extra bold.

How about some general rules on using type in your layouts?

Obviously different fonts will look better with different types of layouts. Consider the photos and the subject of your page. Try using handwriting-style fonts, sans serif or display fonts with playful, whimsical pages. A more formal page can be accented with a script font or a simple book-style serif. Be sure to choose a journaling font that can be read easily.

Avoid using too many different fonts (probably more than two or three) as this can be very distracting. Too many different fonts will make the page look very busy and detract from it’s impact.

Try using just one family of fonts on a page. Combine the lightweight versions with the heavier ones to create contrast in your design. You can’t go wrong if you stick with a single type family! You can also use the size of the fonts to create contrast, using small and large fonts together.

Another great way to add contrast to a page is by adding emphasis to one or a few key words within the text. Change a few words to a bolder version of the typeface or increase the point size of a particular word to add emphasis.

Remember, there is not one single rule about the fonts you should use on your layouts. By playing around with different type-styles and fonts, you’ll practice and begin to discover what font combinations work well together, making your computer journaling even more enjoyable.