3 Key Points to Remember When Choosing Professional Fonts for Your Business
As a small business owner, you know how important first impressions are. Professional-looking business documents and presentations let your clients know that you care about the little things and take the time to focus on quality results. Frequently, small business owners will concentrate on imagery selection and layout design to give their documents a professional feel, while treating the font selection as an afterthought.
However, fonts play an equally important role in the visual presentation of your brand materials and should be selected with the same level of care and attention devoted to the selection of your images.
To create the brand style you’re looking for, you may find yourself spending a significant amount of time researching which professional fonts would be the best fit for your small business. If you’re reading this article on selecting professional fonts, you may already suspect that the fonts you’re currently using aren’t the right fit for your brand.
Selecting the best fonts for your business is one of the most important design decisions you will make for your brand identity design. If you haven’t already established your brand identity, I highly encourage you to do so before making your font selection. Your brand identity will help to guide most of your brand decisions (including font selection).
Once you select your fonts, you will be using the same fonts for all your marketing activities.
Why you shouldn’t change your fonts frequently
When you use your visual brand elements consistently, your brand image will solidify in people’s minds. It is the consistent use of your brand elements that makes it easier for your audience to recall your brand and feel comfortable with your business — it builds trust between you and your audience. It is also a time saver. You and your team members won’t waste time deciding which fonts to use for each marketing asset. Instead, team members can simply refer to your brand style guide to determine which fonts to use.
What is the difference between a typeface and a font?
These two terms are frequently used interchangeably, but they have different meanings. A typeface is a collection of characters with a consistent design, sometimes called a type family. It encompasses all variations of a character, including different weights (regular, bold, and italic), styles (serif or sans-serif), and sizes within a specific design family.
A font, on the other hand, is a specific instance of a typeface. It refers to a particular weight, style, and size within a typeface family.
For example, Roboto Regular is one font, while the bold version, Arial Bold, is another font. Both are in the same typeface (Roboto), but they are different fonts.
What are professional fonts?
Choosing the right professional fonts can affect your brand image, but what qualifies as a professional font? As a design expert, I recognize that several qualities differentiate professional fonts from others.
A professional font should do the following:
Align with your brand style and personality
Be easy to read
Be simple and clear
When I work on a brand identity design for my clients, I always select the professional fonts that will be the best fit for their unique business. Every business has its own feel and style. To discover your unique brand identity and feel, you need to have clarity on who you are and who your ideal clients are. The clarity you gain through this process of brand discovery will shape all of your brand decisions going forward.
To help you choose the right professional fonts for your business, I’ve put together a list of the top three key points to consider when choosing fonts:
1. Each typeface has a font family
A typeface is a family of fonts. For example, Acumin Pro is a typeface. The Acumin Pro typeface contains various fonts: Acumin Pro Bold, Acumin Pro Italic, Acumin Pro Light, etc.
When you’re selecting a typeface for your brand identity, select one that contains many fonts.
The fonts within a typeface all complement each other, which makes life easier for you.
For example, if you use Acumin Pro for the body text of a business presentation, you could use Acumin Pro Bold for the header. If you’d like to add a quote, you could use Acumin Pro Oblique. Using various font weights makes your presentation more professional and easy to read.
2. Select different typefaces
When pairing fonts, the goal is to choose complementary fonts that also provide plenty of contrast. This may sound contradictory, but it works well! The best way to achieve this is to first become familiar with the four different categories of fonts: Serif, Sans-Serif, Script, and Display.
Serif fonts have small lines at the end of the characters (sometimes referred to as “feet”). Serif fonts have a classic, elegant look and convey a slightly more serious feel. It is typically used for long pieces of text in print because it’s easier to read.
Sans-serif fonts are easier to read on the screen (they’re not as “noisy”) and tend to give a more modern, clean feel to the text.
Script fonts, when used sparingly, can help to draw attention to a few key words; however, they should never be used for long paragraphs of text. Script is harder to read and the last thing you want to do is make your reader work hard to understand your content.
Display fonts are basically any fonts that are not appropriate to use as body text. Display fonts are typically used as an accent (for example, as headlines, callouts, or other artistic elements). When used in small doses, these fonts can help to convey a particular mood.
How to Choose the Perfect Brand Fonts for Your Business
How to achieve contrast working with the four font categories
The most common pairing is a serif font with a sans-serif font. For example, a header can be put in a serif font (such as Freight Disp Pro) and the body text can use a sans-serif type font (such as Acumin Pro). The inverse works as well, where a sans-serif header can be matched with a serif body text.
When selecting a font to pair with a script or display font, match it with an easy-to-read, simple font.
For example, a script font would work well with a sans-serif-type font.
Avoid pairing a script font with a display font. The two fonts will compete with each other and confuse the reader. Pair script and display fonts with less decorative fonts.
3. Keep your fonts minimal
As a general rule of thumb, using more than three different types of fonts will make your presentation look cluttered and unprofessional. Instead of working together, the different fonts will fight for attention. It is better to use one or two fonts to create a simple and minimalist design for your presentation.
Remember, you can still achieve plenty of contrast using typefaces with a family of fonts. Use different weights and sizes to highlight various elements and draw the reader’s attention.
Where can I find professional fonts?
With thousands of typefaces to choose from, how do you find the right professional fonts for your organization? Following are some of my favorite fonts and font combinations mentioned in earlier blog articles.
10 Professional Fonts for a Simple Logo
There are also several websites you can explore to find the perfect fonts for your business:
This is a subscription font service with thousands of high-quality fonts available for download. They have several subscription plans available.
Myfonts has a variety of both classic and trendy fonts. The fonts on this site aren’t free, but the site allows you to preview your text, which will help to ensure a good selection.
This site features thousands of high-quality, free fonts, and allows you to preview your text.
Typewolf will help you find the right font and learn more about typography.
Conclusion:
Typography may seem minor, but it can have a significant impact on your brand. When used correctly, it will enhance your brand and increase trust among your audience.
Consistency is key. Once you have made your font selection, make sure to use those fonts for all of your presentations and documents. Resist the temptation to try new fonts for different projects.
When you have finally selected the fonts for your brand identity, make sure to include them in your brand style guide. This ensures that everyone in your organization will use the correct fonts to maintain brand consistency. It is the combination of thoughtful font selection and consistent use of those fonts that will make your business look more professional and trustworthy.
If you’re having trouble finding the right professional fonts for your business, or you need help with your brand identity design, please book a free discovery call with me or send a message.
