Understanding the psychology of font and using text in design
In design, every element of your work holds the power to elicit a particular emotional reaction or response. As a result, if you align these elements around one specific intention, you can increase the power that your design holds.
Elements such as the use of color, shape, or choice of font, can each have a huge effect on how your design is perceived overall — whether it’s noticed in a way that is conscious or unconscious.
What is font psychology?
Font psychology is the study of how different fonts and typographic styles affect the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of those viewing the design in the subconscious mind. When designing, different fonts will stir up different emotions and associations so it's important to pick a font that matches the tone of your purpose. For example, a brand that wants to be seen as serious and professional should choose to use fonts that align with this tone. On the flip side, if you’re crafting a poster for a children’s event, a font that appears approachable and friendly would be a more appropriate choice.
Why is font psychology important?
Font psychology is something you should always be considering when designing anything containing text. When your choice of font conveys the right message and elicits the correct emotional response, your design and branding will be significantly more effective in persuading your audience to take the action you desire. When done right, font psychology can be used to cultivate a more powerful brand identity when your choice of font aligns with who you are as a business. When done wrong, your chosen font may feel inappropriate and uncomfortable for its purpose and for your brand.
What is the difference between font and typeface?
Often conflated, it’s important to understand the difference between font and typeface and the impact each of these can have on your design. Typeface refers to the overall set of font styles in your design or branding while font refers to individual styles of glyphs or characters within the typeface.
In essence, while each font in the typeface will all be reasonably similar – they will each have their own unique differences that set them apart from one another. For example, an example of a typeface is Gotham, and an example of a font within this typeface could be Gotham Italic Bold.
The typeface that you make use of in your designs carries the largest impact on how your design is perceived by your audience – but the use of individual fonts within this typeface is also important on a more detail-oriented level.
Further reading: 50 modern fonts to jumpstart your contemporary look
Considering visual hierarchy
While font is an important consideration, it doesn’t end there when it comes to using text in your designs. How you layout the text on the page, and the visual hierarchy of your text can also impact how your design is received. Take care when it comes to optimizing line spacing, spacing between letters, margin sizes, and alignment. Text that is too close together and difficult to read will trigger a negative reaction while text that has an appropriate amount of white space and a comfortable amount of spacing between paragraphs and titles will feel more visually pleasant and comfortable to look at. Letter sizing is also a great way to bring focus to the most important elements of your design with larger elements more likely to steal focus.
Further reading: How to choose the best fonts for your resume
Considering font weight
The weighting of your font is also important when it comes to crafting your design. Some types of font weights are more appropriate for different types of text such as headings or body text and can impede the readability and effectiveness of your design when used incorrectly.
Light font weight: Fonts of this weight are best for paragraph text but should be paired with fonts in a bold weight for headings. Due to its thinner look, this type of font is often associated with feelings of gentleness and softness.
Medium font weight: Medium-weighted fonts are perfect for paragraph and long-form body text, particularly due to their readability. This type of font will appear crisp and clean in your designs.
Bold font weight: Bold-weighted fonts are perfect for headings and titles as they naturally grab attention. Bold-weighted fonts are usually used to highlight the most important text elements of your design and can be great for logo design. Bold fonts are often associated with power and strength.
How to use different fonts to elicit the correct emotional response
Serif fonts
Serif fonts have historically been used in academic contexts and formal institutions, commonly utilized in books and any manner of physical media. As a result, serif fonts are often associated with tradition, respect, trust, authority, reliability, and sophistication.
Serif’s classic appearance makes it a good fit for branding in industries such as law, finance, or insurance.
Examples of serif fonts: Times New Roman, Garamond, Georgia, and Palantino
Slab-serif fonts
Belonging to the same serif family, the slab-serif font is more squared off, giving it a chunkier look. Slab-serif comes with many of the emotions associated with the original serif font, but can appear bolder, more youthful, and confident.
Examples of slab-serif fonts: Courier, Rockwell, and Museo
Sans-serif fonts
Sans-serif fonts lack the “serifs” that these other font styles have, thus giving them a modern, crisp feel. As a result, sans-serif fonts are often associated with straightforwardness, cleanliness, and clarity. Because the letters require less space, they are also great for using in modern device display.
Examples of sans-serif fonts: Arial, Century Gothic, and Helvetica
Script fonts
Script fonts can look like handwriting, and are often seen as feminine, elegant, whimsical, fun, and romantic. Use sparingly, though, as they’re not the most readable fonts for larger blocks of text.
Examples of script fonts: Lucida Script, Lobster, and Zapfino
Decorative fonts
Decorative fonts often take elements from major typefaces to craft a unique font for a specific solution. As a result, the emotions evoked by a decorative font can vary, but many typically come with a very casual, creative, and flexible feel.
Examples of decorative fonts: Phosphate, Chalkduster, Graffiti, Grunge, and Stencil
Further reading: 10 font pairings for maximum impact
Many don’t appreciate the power of a good font and how it can make or break the appearance of your work. Use the advice above as a guide the next time you’re working with text to ensure that your font is aligned with the overall tone and purpose to maximize the power and effectiveness of your designs.