The Art of Using Fonts in Your Writing

Search the Internet for free fonts and you will find literally thousands of typefaces of all types. So how many different typefaces are available when you design a publication, a brochure, an ebook, an annual report or promotional piece? Well, it's not so much how many fonts you can get your hands on as it is how many you should use to make your print or web copy look its best. With the advent of computers and desktop publishing, there are literally tens of thousands of font typefaces you could install on your computer and use to design your publication. Here are some basic things you should know about designing material meant to be read:

1. More than about 2 to 3 fonts in a publication makes it look disorganized. Too many fonts make things look cluttered and disorganized. Plan your font strategy ahead of time.
   
2. Keep fonts in the same font family (Times New Roman, Courier, Lucida, Garamond or other font family). Keeping the fonts in the same font family helps pull your text and headings together visually and helps your document look professional.  
3. Except for title fonts, stay away from very unusual or gaudy fonts. 3D fonts or elaborate fonts like Old English should have a specific purpose for using it. An unusual font supported by appropriate graphics and sparkling text draws readers in and helps you get that first paragraph read. Fonts for titles can be different with regard to serifs, font families, colors and special effects. For instance if your piece is about Western subjects, frontier or nature, you might use one of those log cabin looking fonts or Alamo or something similarly old fashioned. If the text is about city subjects, you might use a neon effects font or something like that.
   
4. Font typefaces provide the body of your copy with a textual color palette. The textual color palette is about the rhythm and clarity of the text; not actually the color of the font typeface. Don't confuse readers by switching fonts in the midst of the flow of your story. Using a coherent font strategy is a way to create a smooth road into your textual argument. 
5. Be careful with coloring your text. You need a really good reason to use blue, red or periwinkle colored text. Use colored text sparingly and only to draw your reader's eyes to important points that lure your reader further into the story you are telling. Just because you can paint your text in every color of the rainbow, doesn't mean you should.
6. Too many fancy flourishes distracts the eyes of your readers. Text and graphics that pull their eyes from the text can break up the flow as they cruise through your publication. Sparse use of headers, fonts, colors, graphics, italics and bold print is better. Save the fancy stuff for key points.
7. Choose serif or san serif fonts and stick to that style throughout. You could mix them up but it's much safer to match serif/non serif headlines, headers, text and inserts. If you don't know what serifs are they are the flourishes that font typefaces either have or do not have. For instance, TIMES is a serif font.  ARIAL and HELVITICA are sans serif (no serifs) fonts.
   

If you've got something to say, it's important to frame it with professional fonts and graphics. It's like framing a picture. The frame sets off the picture and draws your eyes in. In the same way the fonts you use and graphics and pictures frame your story, sales pitch or argument. 

© 2022 by Tom King

References: 

1. How to Choose a Font: 10 Expert Tips for Choosing the Perfect Fonts https://www.envato.com/blog/how-to-choose-a-font/ 

1. Design Shack - How to Pick a Font: 
   https://designshack.net/articles/typography/how-to-pick-a-font/
   

 

The Writing Life: Advice from CS Lewis

 

A young American girl - an aspiring - writer wrote CS Lewis asking him for advice on how to write. In his letter to her, Lewis made five of the best suggestions I've heard. Lewis had an incredible gift for getting huge ideas into not very much prose. I use these suggestions when I read through my stuff and brutally edit out the drivel...

Here's Lewis' advice:

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.

2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”

4. In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers “Please will you do my job for me.”

5. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

So, if somehow, you can manage to avoid foggy, complicated, vague, abstract, touchy-feely, sesquipedalian loquacious writing, you may look up one day and discover you're not such a bad writer after all.

Just sayin'

Tom King (c) 2015