Fonts & Their Personalities

Believe it or not, fonts have personalities! This post explores the personalities and moods invoked by different typography styles.

Just like with colors, people have certain feelings, emotions and associations when they see certain font styles. I made an infographic that shows examples of what each font is associated with. I tried to include the more common fonts that are widely used, like Times New Roman, Helvetic, Brush Script & Comic Sans. I broke it down to some of the basic typography categories. Because of these personalities, it can be inappropriate to use certain fonts in certain cases. For example, it would not be professional to use Comic Sans or Chalkduster on your resume. To better understand, I paired a general feeling/mood/personality associated with the font examples.

SERIF

Fonts like Times New Roman and Baskerville are considered traditional and reliable. These typefaces are often used in businesses and formal documents. Serif fonts are used a lot in logo design.

SLAB SERIF

Fonts like Didot are used in high fashion and luxury magazines. These typefaces are perceived as sophisticated, modern, confident, and expensive. They can be seen as too harsh, cold, and/or lacking personality because of their bold appearance.

SAN SERIF

San serif fonts are the easiest to read and are often used in body text. This typeface style is widely used on street signs and business logos. San serif fonts generally give off a clean, sleek, and minimalistic mood.They're often considered as neutral in style, focusing more so on the legibility.

SCRIPT

Script font can actually range from casual to formal.

HANDWRITTEN

Fonts like Felt Tip Roman can be more personable, authentic and playful. They should not be used in professional settings. Handwritten fonts are meant to be used in a more casual setting.

DISPLAY

Display fonts typically are used to call attention. They should be used as headers not body text. These are normally really fun and bold typefaces. Since this is probably the broadest typeface category, it doesn't have a specific personality associated with it. Each typeface in this category has a different personality and overall mood.

Variex OT is seen as funky, fun and weird. I used this font style when designing a bug inspired food truck.

Active Regular is actually my favorite font. I think this font is cool, authentic, and creatively expressive.

Pulpo Rust is more of a bold, masculine, and grunge-like font.

It's odd to think about typography as being friendly, masculine, confident or even cheap, but as humans, we have the urge to label things, classify them, and/or put things into categories. The real question is, do you have a favorite font?

p.s. I'll have to share what your favorite font says about you another day...