
Aa Hh Xx Yy serif (Times New Roman)
Aa Hh Xx Yy Sans serif (Arial)
Traditional (like Goudy Old Style) • Conservative variation among letters • Project an image of solidity and “class” • Highly readable • Fairly economical • Great for body text
Modern (like Bodoni) • sharply defined serifs • significant stress • good for a design statement • require large type and lots of white space • better for headings than body text
Slab Serif (like Rockwell) • heavy, thick horizontal serifs • uniform stroke widths • architectural or engineering image • project feeling of accuracy and preciseness • no-nonsense, not frivolous • good with low-res output
Rounded (like Souvenir) • not pretentious or rigid • subtle amount of stress • friendly, hometown, personalized image • non-threatening
Geometric sans serif (like Avant Garde) • no stress • “constructed” precision • strong design statements • harder to read than sans serif • contemporary image • headlines only
Open Typefaces (like Colonna) • outline look (inside not filled in) • reduce visual weight • avoid dominating page • use sparingly! • terrible for body text
Novelty (like Matisse) • break all the rules of typography • fun • great for “comic relief” or design accents • Terrible for body text • not so good for all headings in a doc, either
Headline (like Eras Bold) • very, well, black • large, dramatic • make a strong impression on the reader • suited for headlines only