Choosing Fonts – Quick Tips

Home , Arial, Calibri, Cambria (typeface), Font, Garamond, Georgia (typeface)

1. Choose complementary fonts – choose a font that matches the mood of your design. For business cards, it is probably best to choose a classic font. *Note: These fonts are not available in Canva, but are in the Microsoft Office Suite. For some good Canva options, go to this link – https://www.canva.com/learn/canva-for-work-brand-fonts/ Examples: Serif Fonts: Sans Serif Fonts: Times New Roman Helvetica Cambria Arial Georgia Verdana

Courier New Calibri

Century Schoolbook

2. Establish a visual hierarchy – Use fonts to separate different types of information and guide the reader - Use different fonts, sizes, weights (boldness), and even color - Example:

Heading (Helvetica, SZ 22, Bold)

Sub-heading (Helvetica, SZ 16, Italics)

Body Text (Garamond, SZ 12, Regular)

Captions (Garamond, SZ 10, Regular

3. Mix Serifs and Sans Serifs – This is one of the best ways to add visual interest to type. See in the above example how I combined Helvetica, a sans serif font, with Garamond, a serif font.

4. Create Contrast, Not Conflict: Fonts that are too dissimilar may not pair well together. Contrast is good, but fonts need a connecting element.

Conflict Contrast

5. Use Fonts from the Same Family: These fonts were created to work together. For example, the fonts in the Arial or Courier families.

6. Limit Your Number of Fonts: No more than 2 or 3 is a good rule – for business cards, choose 2.

7. Trust Your Eye: These are not concrete rules – you will know if a design element works or not!