How to Use Fonts Effectively

Fonts, or typefaces, are a great way to customize your documents. A font family is a group of related typefaces - a font family typically includes the same font in different weights, such as bold and light, and in italics. The fonts you choose can help you set the mood for your piece. Misused, however, they can make your work look amateurish or difficult to read.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer Fonts Software

1. Choose the font families that best fit your document's purpose. If you're creating a letter, you may want something simple and readable, such as Times or Palatino.

2. Avoid using more than two font families, unless you're using the extra font as an accent character. For example, you may choose one family for headlines, another for the body type, and a third for special characters, such as numbers in a list. Using too many font families in a document makes your work seem busy and unprofessional.

3. If you combine two font families, avoid using fonts that are too similar: your design can look muddy and confusing. You may want to use a serif font (one with feet) combined with a sans serif font (one without the feet).

Tips & Warnings

• Design for readability. If you change your font too many times in a sentence, you impair the reader's ability to absorb the information.
• Choose fonts that match your medium. Are you working on a print document or an on-screen document (such as a Web page)? For example, you'll probably choose different fonts for a long document than you would for a short one, as your readers will need to focus on a long document for an extended period of time.