Font Tips

Fonts Fonts Fonts

Typography is an art form that is often overlooked and under appreciated. A good type designer needs only letter forms to evoke an emotional response from the viewer. Now, most of us are not typographers. In this age of desktop publishing and free font archives we sometimes forget about the subtle nuances of organizing and modifying type. When designing buttons there are a few rules of typography to keep in mind.

Font Color and Background Color

You want the messaging of your buttons to stand out. Make sure that the color of your type contrasts with your background. Don't put pink type on a red background, it will get lost. If you really want to keep the colors of your background and type close, try outlining the type or adding a glow or drop shadow. Remember when choosing the colors for your fonts and backgrounds that you are viewing them in RGB, and when they get printed in CMYK they may not appear to contrast nearly as much.

Choosing the Right Font

When designing your button take into consideration the actual size of the finished product. It's easy to forget that a one inch button is only about the size of a quarter especially when you're viewing it on a 27” monitor which displays the design 200-400 times bigger than it will print. That tiny 3 point type you added will not be visible or printable. On smaller buttons bold San-serifed fonts with clean lines are much more readable than italicized, wispy serifed display fonts. The cleaner the font the better.

Although we use high quality digital printing press capable of printing up to 2400x2400 DPI, we can't make magic happen. Always make a test print of your button design at home to be sure the fonts make sense when printed. What you see on your screen may not always translate well into print. To be sure your type is readable when printed try not to use a type size smaller than 5 points.

Saving

There are thousands and thousands of fonts in existence for both MACs and PCs, and we don't have them all. When digital art is supplied to us with missing fonts, it makes processing your order problematic. You picked your fonts for a reason and don't need us making substitutions. You have two choices, embed your fonts into your graphic, or convert them to outlines. Most graphic design software can embed/create outlines relatively painlessly. If you need help figuring your software out, don't hesitate to contact us