Daily Dose of DTP: 31. Use Fewer Fonts

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Daily Dose of DTP 31. Use Fewer Fonts From Jacci Howard Bear, your Guide to Desktop Publishing Fonts are such fun. One of the most popular sections on the About Desktop Publishing site are the free font downloads. But too many times novice designers (and even more experienced ones) go overboard when it comes to using fonts. Today's discussion about how many fonts to use is somewhat subjective. It's one of those situations where you cannot say absolutely that you should always limit font choices to just one or two. But hopefully you'll have a better understanding about how using too many fonts is detrimental to what you are trying to communicate in desktop publishing. Don't forget to check out the supporting graphics for this lesson. Class Notes: This is not simply a word-a-day course. The lessons follow a specific order in roughly the following groupings: General concepts > Things you need > Font specifics > Image specifics > Prepress & Printi ng > Rules & Tutorials (bold indicates the stage in which this lesson falls) Rule #3 of Desktop Publishing Use Fewer Fonts How many fonts are too many for one project and how do you know where to draw the line? A generally accepted practice is to limit the number of different typefaces to three or four. That doesn't mean you can't use more but be sure you have a good reason to do so. Today's Trivia The Many Faces of One Font This bit of trivia is actually a design lesson in disguise. Some folks may think that using just one font for a brochure or ad would be boring. But when we talk about designing with a single typeface we're also including typestyles such as the bold and italic versions of the font as well as various sizes, color changes, and using whole families of fonts that are the same, but not quite. See what I mean in The Single Typeface Document. This email is written by: Jacci Howard Bear Desktop Publishing Guide Email Me | My Blog | My Forum   Missing a lesson? Click here. About U. is our collection of free online courses designed to help you learn a new skill, solve a problem, get something done, or just learn more about your world. Sign up now, and we will email you lessons on a daily or weekly basis. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the About.com 'Daily Dose of DTP' email. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here. About respects your privacy: Our Privacy Policy Contact Information: 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2010 About.com   Advertisement