Tips for Combining Fonts to Create Impactful Digital Designs
Aprajita Kushwaha | 21st August 2019
Great font combinations are essential for a great design. Choosing the typefaces to pair up can be a challenging and frustrating task. Each font pairing must be delivering the message of the design. Its an essential element in creating the overall look and feel of the project. These are the proven points by so many professional user research consultants.
Here are some tips for combining fonts –
Complimentary Fonts:
Always look for font pairing that compliments one another. The ideal combination should harmonize without being too similar if they are too similar, the more likely they will clash.
These are some complementary fonts-
01- Montserrat with Courier New
02- Alegreya Sans SC with Source Sans Pro
03- Pacifico with Quicksand
04- Julius Sans One with Archive narrow
05- Playfair Display with Raleway
06- Oswald with Lato
07- Helvetica Neue with Garamond
08- Caslon with Myriad
09- Font in with Font in Sans
10- Nova Mono with Lato
Use Serifs with Sans Serifs:
When you’re combining different typefaces usually you’ll have a different typeface for the heading and a different one for the body. The Serifs and Sans Serifs work well together. It tends to create a good design.
Fonts from the same family:
Fonts from the same family are always safe because they were created to work together. Pairing fonts that come from the same family, you have to plan carefully to create contrast, font size, weight (light, regular and bold) and case (upper, lower, small caps)
Keep it Simple:
Using two or three fonts for your design is a good rule of thumb. Using so many typefaces is confusing and looks messy and cluttered. Besides avoiding using so many fonts, part of making good typography choices is picking fonts that harmonize well. Because when fonts clash, it’s distracting and takes away the message for your design.
Consider the mood of your design:
When pairing fonts that work well together is making sure the style of those fonts matches the content of your project. Fonts can have different “moods” — playful, serious, elegant, casual, modern, etc. But if those moods don’t support the purpose of your design, you create a visual disconnect, and it’s confusing for your viewers. So you should always consider the mood of your design and pair fonts accordingly.
Break the Rules:
This is more of a recommendation rather than a rule the more you practice and experiment with font pairing, the easier it will be for you to create the right combinations.
Conclusion:
When combining fonts like any other design process, it takes constant learning and practice for you to master in it.
