FONTS 101

Fonts can be fun, but their purpose is to be functional. Here are some general guidelines that will help you make the most of your font choices:

1. A display font is meant to be used in headlines and at large, display sizes. Never use a display font for text. You might think it looks neat, but youâll give your reader a headache.

2. Bold and italics are great ways to add emphasis, but show some restraint. Large blocks of text set in bold or italics (or both!) are not reader-friendly. Besides, if you make all of the text bold, youâre not emphasizing anything÷all of your text is the same.

3. There is a rarely a reason to use more than 2 or 3 fonts in a single document. Too many different fonts in one document creates a chaotic, disjointed look. Instead, use a font family which is a series of related fonts designed to work together.

4. Microsoft and QuarkXpress default shadow and outline type are just plain ugly.

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