What do serif and sans serif mean

For example, a trendy tech company, such as Uber wants their brand to convey a much different message than a more buttoned-up company like The New York Times. Before starting your search for a font, brainstorm some of the qualities and characteristics of your brand.

Also, think about the medium in which people are going to be interacting with your company. This will give you a roadmap to follow when researching fonts. You can then check any possible fonts against your brainstorm list to make sure it fits those qualities and use cases. In the early days of Apple, the tech giant primarily used a serif font in its branding before eventually switching to a more modern looking sans serif font.

Look at the two examples below. Which one looks more like the cutting edge industry leader we all know today? Overall, you want to ensure that your font and all of your design choices for that matter reflect your brand.

When used properly and chosen for the right reasons both serif and san serif fonts can be effective. It can be easy to want to choose a ton of fonts to use in your designs, but doing so can actually hurt your brand.

Choosing multiple fonts for your brand can be an effective way to create hierarchy in your designs. However, choosing two fonts that have the right amount of contrast while still working together can be tricky.

Online design tool Canva suggests finding fonts that have a shared quality. For example, maybe two fonts that have a similar letter height or width or fonts that are created by the same designer. Merriweather and Merriweather Sans are a good example of two fonts that contrast each other nicely, but still feel cohesive. These fonts were both created by the same designer so they share a lot of similar qualities in the spacing and shapes of the letters that help the fonts feel more related.

A font that has multiple weights and styles such as light, semibold, bold, etc makes the font more versatile and allows you to communicate different messages throughout your designs with a single font. While serif fonts are associated with being more traditional and sans serif fonts are typically more modern, there are always exceptions to the rule.

Free Website Course. Free Course: Transform your website into your best salesperson and set up for inbound marketing success! Start Course. Website Design. What are you wearing right now? Wait, that was a little creepy. Let me reword that. What does your outfit say about you? There are also different outfits for different occasions. Some fonts are more casual and expressive, while others are more buttoned up and reserved.

So where should you start with choosing a font? The answer is simply in the name. Notice the difference in the example below. Both of these styles have their own unique personality and communicate very different messages.

Serif Fonts Say Traditional, Established, and Trustworthy Serif fonts have a history that dates all the way back to the 18th century when stonemasons would carve letters into rock. Photo Credit: Different Perspective These traits make sans serif fonts are a popular choice among many start-up and tech companies who want to give people a sense of being cutting edge and more humanistic. Creating a website is no longer intimidating.

HubSpot HubSpot is another example of a company that uses a sans serif font in their branding. This youthful font helps humanize their brand and makes their company more relatable. Remember, a font can drastically change the way your brand is perceived by people.

Apple is an interesting example of this. You can see them in our our professionally designed templates and text graphics. So, your job has been made that much easier. So, now you can get started straight away, playing with different kinds of fonts for your designs!

When creating your own text, one of the first decisions to be made is whether to select a font that is Serif or Sans Serif. But what are they and how do they differ, exactly? Choosing between Serif and Sans Serif Fonts should be based on several considerations pertaining to the project in hand — and style of design. Serifs were believed to have originated in the Latin Alphabet with words carved into stone in Roman Antiquity. The Roman letter outlines were first painted onto stone, and the stone carvers followed the brush marks which which flared at stroke ends and corners, creating serifs.

Serif fonts are usually used in lengthy text, such as books, newspapers and most magazines and are the most commonly used printed typestyle due to perceived readability.

After all, when you strive to create something beautiful and remarkable to look at, the main goal is to have your message clear and readable! Sans-serif letters began to appear in printed media as early as They were popular due to their clarity and legibility in advertising and display use when printed very large or very small. Sans-serif fonts have become the most prevalent for display of text on computer screens, partly because screens tend to struggle to show fine serif details in small type.

Some commonly used Sans-serif typefaces are Arial, Helvetica and Tahoma, but again, there are thousands more. Hot Tip: For other shorter text settings — such as titles, credits, column headings, as well as text in infographics — a Sans-serif typeface is a good choice.

Its simplified letterforms are unencumbered by Serifs, which can impede the readability of characters at very small sizes. Although there are guidelines to how to use Serif and Sans-Serif fonts, there are always exceptions to the rule. As such there are a few myths we should debunk:.

Without trying to confuse the issue, there are many other fonts used and available in Easil. Browse All Privacy and Security Articles Browse All Linux Articles Browse All Buying Guides.

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