5 Time-Tested Tips for Finding a Fantastic Flyer Font
Flyers form part of any well-rounded print marketing campaign. But despite their ubiquity and simplicity, it can be a challenge getting them to stand out. Choosing the right flyer font can go a long way toward creating materials that don’t just stand out, but are immediately understandable as well.
There are a few questions you should ask yourself before you decide on a flyer font. Many of these questions are also applicable to posters and other single-sheet prints as well.
1.) What are the images on the design?
It helps to already have a layout or at least a general idea of what other visual elements will be included in your flyer design. This will help you avoid jarring incongruities that often plague amateur flyer designs. It helps to understand the “feel” and character of each font and flyer design before matching them.
2.) Is the font immediately legible?
You might think this is a no brainer, but some decidedly illegible typefaces such as Fraktur or Zapfino continually find their way into flyer designs. Illegible fonts are sometimes to be expected in some niches, but as a general rule, you want flyers for a marketing campaign to be immediately readable.
Another factor many designers fail to consider is that fonts that are easy to read on screen may not necessarily as easy to read in the real world, on a small print. Be sure to take the planned size of the flyer into account before sending your design in for printing.
3.) What mood are you setting?
While your images and copy will do much of the work, your flyer font will play a critical part in how your messages are received. Unless you’re specifically going for contrast, choose a font that appropriately complements everything else in the design in terms of “feel.” Be sure the typefaces you choose help deliver the feel that your images and copy are going for.
4.) Is the font brand-appropriate?
This goes beyond feel or what message you want the flyer to communicate at the time. As with the copy and images you use, your brand’s overarching goals are normally far more important than the specific message a flyer communicates in one campaign. Imagine if a brand like Apple or Samsung used a font like Comic Sans or MT Curlz publicly without any specific intent — their brands could be somewhat damaged. If you know what your brand is about, your choice of flyer font will be more appropriate.
5.) Are you willing to pay for the font?
There are no “ifs” or “buts” about it — some fonts you have to pay for. Truly great fonts represent a huge amount of investment in terms of time, and specific knowledge. Even if it takes a designer a week to make one (unbelievably fast for a solid, versatile typeface), it would still have taken them years of study and experience to get it right.
Of course, many great designers also choose to have their fonts available for free. There really is no reason to steal a font when many other free ones can work just as well for what you need.
Here are a few flyer fonts to try:
Nevis
Helvetica
Pilsen Plakat
Futura
Chunk Five
Telegrafico
Mono Alphabet
Cooper Black
While we mentioned a few guidelines and shared relatively safe flyer fonts, don’t think that you can’t take a few risks here and there. In design, you can start bending the rules when you already know what they are. Don’t be afraid to let your imagination run free if you feel that the brand can use it.
What other flyer font selection tips can you share? Comment below.
Arthur Piccio is a feature writer and subject matter expert for the PrintPlace Blog. In his spare time he studies guitar and writes about goats.