Save Money On Print Advertising #4 - Fonts & Typefaces

No one really knows how many typefaces are available but they are in the tens of thousands. Just look at a few of these capital G’s. The purpose of showing them is not to intimidate you but to excite you by the variety of typefaces that you can choose from when planning the graphic design of your printed piece.

Everyone has heard of fonts and typefaces, but what is the difference between the two?

A font is a complete set of characters in a particular size and style of type. This includes the capital and lowercase letters, the numbers, the punctuations and all of the special character and diacritical marks you get by pressing the shift, option, or command/control keys.

A typeface contains a series of fonts. For instance, Times Bold, Times Italic, and Times Roman are actually 3 fonts (even though people often refer to one entire font family as a "font.")

There are 3 basic categories of typefaces:
Serif, with little "feet," is a more traditional-looking style. Common serif typefaces include Times Roman, Garamond, and Palatino.

Sans serif, with no "feet," a more contemporary looking style. Common sans serif typefaces include Helvetica, Arial, and Avant Garde.

A decorative typeface is everything that doesn't fit neatly into the other two categories. This would include script typefaces and many others.

There can be many variations of the same type design within a single typeface. Most typefaces have at least 3 variations: normal, italic (slanted), and bold. Some have other variations including condensed, expanded, light, demi, demi bold, black, heavy, or ultra, among many other possibilities.

Typefaces have personalities to an extent. They can be called masculine, feminine, casual, rugged, delicate and so forth. A delicate type may work well in a brochure on fine glass and rugged type would be fitting for a parts list of machine gaskets, so matching the character of a typeface to the subject matter should be a consideration when choosing your fonts.

The height of a typeface is described in points. The size of a typeface is often chosen from a series of set sizes, such as 10 point, 12 point, 14 point, 24 point, 48 point, and so on. Thanks to modern computer technology and a handy utility called Adobe Type Manager (ATM), you can enter any point size for your typeface and have it appear smoothly on your screen and in print. One thing to take caution about is that type sizes are not standard. Meaning, one size in a particular typeface is not necessarily the same size as the same point size in another face.

Here are eighteen k's, all in 24 point size. The band of color defines the lowercase height which is the predominant feature in establishing the actual size.

Point size is not always an accurate indicator of actual size. Don't ever say, "Nine point is too small for text reading." It depends on which font you use. Below is a convincing example of how different fonts affect the point size and line length. Both lines are shown in bold and 8.5 point size. The first line is set in Times. The second line is in Verdana.

All Good Men Must Come To The Aid Of Their Country.

All Good Men Must Come To The Aid Of Their Country. 

About the only way to save money when choosing fonts and typefaces is when it will save space on the printed page. In other words, using a certain font might leave space for a picture, more information or condense the text to use fewer pages.

Next in my series of "Save Money On Print Advertising" is #5 - Legibility. 

Please leave a comment if you have a question or concern about your printing or advertising.

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CHT has worked in the printing business since she was 16 years old. She has hands-on experience in every aspect of the industry from running presses, typesetting/graphic design, sales, customer service, management and ownership.

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