The use of fonts that affect aesthetics and functionality has a big role in design. The use of fonts affects your design in terms of aesthetics and functionality, that is, readability.
Let’s start our article with examples;
Serif style fonts: creates an elegant and traditional impression. It also looks professional. In terms of functionality, it facilitates the readability of long texts and does not tire the eye. It is comfortable to follow and read for a long time. For this reason, novels, encyclopedias and newspapers are prepared with serif fonts.
For these reasons, brands and institutions that need reliability use serif fonts in their logos, corporate identities, business cards and sometimes on their websites.
Historical Perspective
From the early printing period to the digital age, different fonts have been tried, used and developed. Periodically and regionally, humanity has constantly found itself in new searches and development processes.
Typeface Aesthetics: Aesthetics, one of the basic elements of design, is also a very important factor for font use. You can increase the effect of the written visual with the aesthetic perception in your design and ensure memorability. In addition, every material that is unobtrusive and appreciated by the user will make your work more professional.
Font Types and Characteristics
Functionality in Typefaces: Functionality, which is especially important for the advertising and marketing sector today, ensures that the product, subject or message is transferred to the end user more easily, professionalism and quality perception.
A clear and understandable message speeds up reaching the target in advertising banners. In digital, clean fonts that are easy to read on websites increase the time spent on the site.
The fonts chosen for projects are design elements that are sometimes young and dynamic and sometimes traditional and heavy.
A shoe brand that appeals to a young audience or a star-up finance company will prefer more dynamic, sans serif fonts, while serif fonts will be suitable for use in companies with historical ties, institutions such as public institutions and design areas such as banners.
Uses of Fonts
In the historical and modern process, font preferences can strengthen your design, increase its impact or cause the opposite effects. In order not to be exposed to such negative effects, I would like to give information with a few examples about where and what type of font you should prefer.
Sans Serif (Unquoted) Font Usage
It is especially preferred in modern and minimalist designs. Unquoted fonts are used on web pages and digital screens because they provide clarity and readability. Recently, especially in mobile applications and responsive designs, fonts without quotes are used to a great extent.
It can also be preferred in corporate identity materials where a contemporary look is desired.
For the same reasons, you can often come across its use in marketing and advertising materials. Fonts without quotes are chosen to attract maximum attention of people in a short time, to ensure and maintain memorability.
Frequently Used Sans Serif (Unquoted) Font Examples
- Helvetica: Developed and designed by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann in 1957, it is one of the most iconic and frequently used fonts of its kind. Its creators are Swiss citizens.
- Arial: Designed in 1982 by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders, it is a font without quotes. It is one of the most common and well-known fonts because it comes by default in the Windows operating system.
- Futura: Created in 1927, it is a non-quotation font with a strong use of geometric shapes. It was developed by Paul Renner and has a modern look.
- Verdana: This font was developed in 1996. It was created by famous typographer Matthew Carter. It is one of the fonts used for web and mobile applications.
- Calibri: Published in 2007, it is a relatively young font compared to other fonts. For this reason, it has a modern style. It is one of the default fonts for Microsoft Office applications. It was designed by Lucas de Groot.
- Roboto: It is one of the examples of unquoted fonts developed by Google in 2011 for the Android operating system.
It is a very popular and preferred font for web designers and user interface developers. The main reasons for this are its lightness on the web, thickness alternatives and special character support, making it an almost perfect sans serif font. - Open Sans: This font, like Roboto, is one of the most preferred fonts for web and mobile interface developers. It was designed by Steve Matteson in 2011. We can say that this font is also used a lot because it supports many languages and special characters.
- Lato: Łukasz Dziedzic developed this modern font in 2010. It is a balanced font.
Serif (Quoted) Font Usage
Quotation fonts are the preferred font type in printed materials that provide ease of reading. Although it is generally used in materials with long text, it is also used in corporate identities in specific areas. Examples of these are;
- Logos and corporate identities with a luxury feel,
- Serious government correspondence,
- Correspondence and theses in the academic field,
- Novels and newspapers
Common Serif Font Examples
- Times New Roman: Developed in 1932 and widely used in journalism and academic texts. It was designed by Stanley Morison.
- Garamond: An elegant and highly legible font developed in the 16th century. It was created by Claude Garamond. It is frequently used in magazine and book publishing.
- Baskerville: It is a font with sharp and clear lines developed by the designer John Baskerville in the 1750s. It is used in formal and academic writing.
- Georgia: Designed by Matthew Carter in 1993, it is one of the fonts known to increase legibility on digital screens.
- Palatino: A frequently preferred quotation font designed by Hermann Zapf in the late 1940s for use in book printing.