If you’ve ever drawn bubble letters too big on a birthday card or signed your name too small on a check, then you know a thing or two about font sizes. It can be tricky to find the Goldilocks, a font that is “just right.”
Are you ordering promotional products for the first time? Let’s make the printing process easier for you. Here’s the ultimate printing font size guide!
What is a Font?
A font is the style of the typeface as characterized by its size and weight. To put it even more simply, it’s the shape of each character used in print. Fonts can be bubbly, narrow, jagged, bold, tiny, cursive, or all caps.
There are over 550,000 different fonts you can use, from the spooky, squiggly lines in “>Happy Halloween” to the basic Times New Roman used in term papers.
Fonts are classified as either serif or sans serif. The difference between the two can be found at the bottom of the letters. Serif fonts have little lines or curves, while sans serif fonts are straight and narrow.
Sans Serif
Each letter is clean and crisp with no extra flourishes.
Serif
Each letter has little “feet” that make the words more decorative and fancy.
Keep in mind, if you’re printing on promotional pens, USB drives, or any other small object, it’s best to use a sans serif font. Those little “feet” can take up a lot of space!
Did You Know? Typefaces and fonts often get confused. Typeface is an umbrella term; it’s a group of fonts or a “font family.” Fonts, on the other hand, are a specific typeface within the family.
Best Fonts for Printing
Today, there are many legible fonts you can use in printing. Arial, Times, and Helvetica are the most popular, but they’re definitely not your only options! Many businesses use fonts like Segoe and Myriad to create their logos.
The fonts listed below are some of the easiest to read. Use them in your next printing job!
Adelle
Adelle has big letters with serif feet. You can use different versions of this font from light to extra bold to italic. Because of its readability, Adelle is often used in logos and for custom signage.
Arial
Arial is a sans-serif font that was released for public use in 1982. By the 1990s, it was the default font for Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
Armitage
Here’s another font in the serif family. Armitage comes in 12 different styles and is known for its sturdy, classic look. It’s often pat of headlines, books, magazines, stationery, and product packaging.
Bodoni
Created in 1798, Bodoni is one of the oldest fonts in the world. You’ll often see this font used in the fashion industry by brands like Gucci, Calvin Klein, and Elizabeth Arden. The band Nirvana also used it in their logo!
Bookman Old Style
Embrace an antique look by using Bookman Old Style. This typeface was designed around 1858 in Scotland. It’s now one of the most readable fonts that you can use in printing.
Caslon
If you want a readable font with sharp letters, then Caslon is a great choice. This font comes in regular, italic, and bold styles, depending on your project. Big Caslon is often used for digital typography such as on websites or billboards.
Century Gothic
Do you still read a newspaper? You’ve probably come across Century Gothic, which is often used in headlines. This sans serif font was created by Sol Hess in 1991 and remains popular to this day.
Clarendon
Clarendon is a simple serif font that is often used in printing. The letters are big and spaced evenly apart, which makes them easy to read at a quick glance. You can get a regular, italic, or bold version of Clarendon.
Futura
Futura is a popular logo font that was designed by Paul Renner in 1927. With its thin lines and sans serif typeface, this font is great for advertising. You will find Futura used for both digital and printed materials.
Garamond
Garamond was presented for the first time at the Paris World’s Fair in 1900. Today, it’s considered the most legible serif font on the planet. Rolex, American Eagle, and Abercrombie and Fitch use this font in their logos. Apple’s “Think Different” slogan was also first printed in Garamond!
Georgia
Ray Charles sang about having “Georgia on My Mind.” You’ll be thinking about Georgia too if you need a legible font for printing. Georgia is a serif typeface that was first created in 1993 for Microsoft. Now it’s used all the time, especially in web design.
Gotu
Sometimes you want your printed message to have a little flair. Gotu has curvy letters that are spaced far apart, so it’s easy to read. You will see this sans serif typeface used for weddings, displays, and invitations.
Helvetica
Helvetica is the king of easy to read fonts! Created in 1957, this sans serif font is widely used by brands like Adobe, Xerox, Panasonic, Target, Caterpillar, Fendi, Jeep, LG, and even the NBA!
Impact
Make an impact by using Impact! This sans serif typeface, which was designed by Geoffrey Lee, has been free to use on Microsoft Windows since 1998. Today, it’s a popular font for internet memes!
Lucida
There’s a lot to love about the Lucida font. It has a lot of variants and looks legible when printed at a small scale, which is why it’s a good font for disclaimers and mobile apps. You can also use a calligraphy version of Lucida if you want the text to look fancy!
Merriweather
Merriweather is a serif typeface that is available through Google Fonts. Like other fonts, it is available in a variety of weights from light to ultra-bold. You’ll often see Merriweather used on websites
Montserrat
Julieta Ulanovski created Montserrat in the early 20th century. Like the best fonts, you can get this typeface in over 30 different variants from thin to italic to extra bold.
Myriad
Myriad is a legible font that also happens to look stylish.. When it’s used in print, letters like “y,” “e,” and “a” have a cool slant that sets this font apart from others. Brands like Rolls-Royce, Adobe, Walmart, and Visa use Myriad in their logos.
Palatino
Do you want an easy-to-read serif font? Palatino is an excellent choice! It is known as one of the ten most used serif typefaces because of its thin letters and even spacing.
Open Sans
When it comes to fonts, Open Sans is just a baby. It was created in 2010 by Steve Mattson. Open Sans is easy to read and has a lot of variants including italic, regular, and bold. Google, IKEA, and WordPress are just a few brands that use Open Sans.
Roboto
Google loves robots! Just look at Roboto, a font they created for Android. Now Roboto is a popular font for social media apps like Instagram and Twitter. It’s also a great font for printing on promotional items, from cheap pens to elegant wine glasses.
Segoe
Microsoft created the Segoe font in 2007. Since then, this font has been very popular for online and printed marketing materials. It’s also used to create company logos.
Times
Go back to high school, and you’ll remember using Times New Roman to write your essays. Why was that the case? It’s probably because Times is such an easy font to read. This typeface was first used in a newspaper in 1932.
Quicksand
Quicksand is a sans serif font created by Andrew Paglinawan in 2008. His design uses geometric letters that are optimized to be easy on the eyes. You can get a free download of four variants of Quicksand: light, regular, medium, or bold.
Verdana
Created in 1996, the Verdana font is a sans serif typeface with a ton of spacing between each letter. The font was created to be readable at small sizes on the low-resolution computer monitors that were available at the time. Apple is just one brand that uses Verdana in their marketing.
Watch this video about the best fonts for printing!
Minimum Font Size for Printing
The minimum font size you should use is 6pt. However, the best size will vary depending on the the medium on which you’re printing. For instance, the font size on ballpoint pens will be smaller than it will be on giant billboards over the highway!
The font size is important because it could affect the readability of your text. For instance, the letter “o” could end up being filled in with ink if you go too small.
Overall, you should use a font size that keeps your message clear and legible. This is most important when selecting a font for printing.
Small Fonts on Promotional Products
The smallest font you should use on promotional or printed items is 6pt. Any smaller and you’ll need a magnifying glass to read the words!
A medium font size is between an 8pt and 12pt font. You will use this font size on products that are a bit bigger, but still need to be read at a close distance.
A large font for printing is between 12pt and 20pt. For signs and banners, you can go as large as 72pt. You want the text to take up about 40% of the sign, leaving 60% for white space.
You can adjust the font size on promotional items, but it still has to fit within the imprint area. This is the space where your design is printed, and it’s preset by the factory that makes your chosen product. You cannot change the imprint area on promotional items.
It’s possible to use a tiny font on large promotional items, and even a medium font on smaller items. It just depends on the amount of detail in the design you’re printing.
Examples of Good Fonts
Seeing is believing! Here are font success stories to inspire your next graphic design project.
https://mymodernmet.com/
I Love NY
Milton Glaser drew the iconic “I Heart NY” logo on a napkin in 1976. The serif font has cute little waves that give the entire logo it’s fun-loving personality.
https://inkbotdesign.com/
Milk Bar
Milk Bar is a bakery/grocery store with locations in metropolitan areas like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Las Vegas. Their white swirly font is purposefully designed to make you think of flowing milk.
https://www.movieposters.com/
Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now is a famous war movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The movie’s poster uses a jagged, dystopian font that looks like it was warped by napalm.
https://www.grunge.com/
Kleenex
There’s nothing fancy about blowing your nose, but that hasn’t stopped Kleenex from using a pretty cursive font since 1960. The font is supposed to look handwritten and carefree yet still professional.
https://www.cnbc.com/
Panera
You can almost smell the warm aroma of baking bread when you look at the Panera Bread logo. This restaurant’s font hasn’t changed much since 1987 and pairs perfectly with the woman holding a loaf of bread in the logo.
https://unsplash.com/
Crayola
Feel like a kid again with Crayola! This brand’s playful font is printed on all of their crayons, colored pencils, and markers. The name “Crayola” is also printed on the box in green with a yellow accent around each letter.
https://www.amazon.com/
Star Wars
At this point, the Star Wars font is almost as iconic as lightsabers and Yoda! The all-caps flared out letters have been used on the movie posters and opening credits of every movie, show, and game in the canon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/
AC/DC
Not all bands have a logo, but the ones that do end up selling the most merch. Just look at AC/DC who’ve been selling shirts, hoodies, hats, and other gear from their online store for years. Credit goes to the cool font, which was inspired by the first printed Bible!
https://www.worthingtonlibraries.org/
The New York Times
All the news that’s fit to print can be found under English Towne, the font used to write “The New York Times.” This publication uses this old-school font in their newspapers and on their website.
https://www.creativebloq.com/
Gillette
Gillette uses a font called Futura Extra Black Italic. It almost looks like each letter has been sliced with a razor, which is a good nod to the products that this company sells.
Examples of Font Fails
Sometimes a font can be so bad that it’s laughable. Here are examples of font fails that will make you cringe!
https://decider.com/
Avatar
You know you made a bad font choice when it’s parodied on “Saturday Night Live.” James Cameron’s Avatar may have set box office records, but the movie was ruthlessly mocked for using Papyrus in the poster. The jokes got so intense, Disney+ changed the font when they started offering the movie for streaming.
https://www.ranker.com/
Esurance
Oh no! Esurance learned the hard way (no pun intended) that spacing matters when you choose a typeface. It’s supposed to be “click” – get your mind out of the gutter!
https://creativemarket.com/
Beanie Babies
The collector craze was at an all-time high with Beanie Babies. Few people realize that the fifth generation of these 90s toys dared to use Comic Sans in their tags. Maybe that’s why the Beanie Baby boom went bust?
https://www.ebaumsworld.com/
Oreo Milkshake
While an Oreo milkshake sounds delicious, this sidewalk sign likely has you shaking your head. An “F” next to an “I” can easily look like an “A” if you use the wrong font. Watch out for this serious typography mistake!
https://www.buzzfeed.com/
Anthony’s Restaurant
Direct mailers with coupons are a great way to reach out to the local community. Just be sure you don’t make the same mistake as Anthony’s Restaurant! This pizzeria used the wrong font, so it looks like they’re advertising “Pub Food With Hair.” Gross.
https://www.boredpanda.com/
Credit Card Reader
Font fails don’t only happen in print. Just look at this handwritten sign, which was situated above a broken credit card reader. The word “pen” needs plenty of space between “is,” so this mistake isn’t replicated again in the future.
https://www.ebaumsworld.com/
Apartment Sign
As Derek Zoolander said, “What is this? A center for ants?” It sure seems that way when you read this poorly spaced sign. Of course, if the landlord reached an agreement with ten ants, the people who live there may not have to worry about bug infestations!
https://www.dailyedge.ie/
Swimsuit Ad
You could choose a perfectly good font, but the photography ruins everything! That’s what happened here in this swimsuit ad.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/
Inspirational Sign
This inspirational sign proves that the layout matters just as much as the font you use. “If you hard. Then you hard.” doesn’t make a lot of sense, but that’s what you see at first glance.
Can I Get Fonts for Free?
You can download thousands of free fonts from sites like Dafont, Google Fonts, Behance, and Fontspace, and Font Squirrel. These websites have any typeface you want for your project.
Once you find a font, you can see how it looks on your promotional items. Use the Free Font Preview Tool to view thousands of fonts to see how they look before they’re printed.
Once you find a font, you can see how it looks on your promotional items. Use the Free Font Preview Tool to view thousands of fonts to see how they look before they’re printed.
Let our team of awesome, incredibly good looking, and fun promo nerds help you select awesome promotional swag today!
https://decider.com/
