Fonts play an important part in building brand image for your blog. While colours, logos and photos are the most obvious visual components of your blog, fonts can also affect the way your brand is perceived and how your content is received.

When chosen carefully, the right font can reflect the values of your brand and engage readers with your content. Thus, choosing the right font for your brand can contribute to your blog’s growth and influence reader engagement.

In this quick guide, I show you how to choose the right font for your brand and highlight some important things to consider when selecting fonts for your blog.

Main types of fonts and what they represent

Whether you’re aiming for a professional look or a more laidback vibe, you must choose a font that reflects the image you are trying to put across.

There are hundreds of fonts to choose from, each font having its own personality. Browsing through a vast selection of fonts can be a bit exhausting, so here’s what you need to know about the three main types of fonts available.

Serif fonts

Serif fonts are the ones you would normally find in newspapers and old publications. In fact, serif fonts transmit a sense of authority and tradition.

Serif fonts typically have a tiny stroke at the end of the lines (known as serif) that form each letter. They communicate a very classic look and include various popular fonts, including Times New Roman, Verona, Palatine and Baskerville.

Values associated with serif fonts include reliability, integrity and professionalism.

Sans serif fonts

Sans serif fonts present a clean and crisp typography without the tiny strokes at edges. They communicate a clean and modern look.

Popular sans serif fonts include Helvetica, Verdana, Roboto and Futura.

Sans serif fonts work well with brands that want to achieve a contemporary and minimalist image.

Script fonts

A script font can really help make your brand stand out. Mimicking handwriting and calligraphy, script fonts add charm, elegance and whole lot of personality to your brand.

While script fonts may look pretty, they must be used sparingly and are not really suitable for large chunks of texts as it may be tiring on the eyes.

You may want to use a script font for your brand name and headings withing a post, while using a serif or sans serif fonts for the main text.

How to choose and pair fonts

Ready to choose your fonts?

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the wide selection of fonts when starting a blog. First, think about your niche and the main characteristics associated with it.

Example: If your blog is about luxury travel, you may want to choose an elegant serif font to go with your classic and lavish theme. If your main niche is budget travel, go for a sans serif font for a more informal and no-nonsense look. If you blog about female travel, you might want to use a classy, feminine script font for your brand name.

When pairing fonts, simplicity is key. Script fonts pair better with simple sans serif fonts. For instance, this website uses a script font for the page title and main headings in the homepage, and a medium weight sans serif font for blog posts.

Try not to overdo it with fancy combinations, such as heavy serif fonts with sophisticated script fonts.

Main things to consider when choosing fonts

Legibility

You don’t need a fancy font to make your brand stand out. Script fonts are nice, but large chunks of text in script can give readers a headache.

Choosing a font that is too hard to read will drive people away from your website. Avoid very light fonts that require a lot of squinting. I often come across blogs that use a very light typography. There’s nothing more off-putting than glaring at thin letters against a white background.

My top tip: Choose fonts that are crisp and bold (though don’t overdo it with the boldness of your text). Try to go for medium weight fonts (300-500). If you want to include a font script in your brand image, try to use a simple one and only use it sparingly (logo, main sections on a page, header text).

Browser support

Make sure that your chosen fonts are supported by all browsers. Fonts that work on a certain browser may be incompatible with others, which might make your text look weird and a bit illegible.

Moreover, if you plan to use design and photo editing software to create graphics, check to see that your chosen fonts are offered on these platforms (especially if you’re using the free versions).

Site performance

Your chosen fonts may impact your site’s performance. While images normally have a more direct impact on site speed, custom typography can also slow down your website.

Using several Google Fonts may bloat your website, increasing loading time. Bear in mind that a font normally comes with variants, from thin to heavy typeface, to bold and italic. When downloading fonts, try to only select the variants that you need (stick to one weight).

For a healthy web performance, choose one or two fonts and limit the variants of each font.

Social media

If you’re planning to promote your brand on social media using stunning graphics, make sure your font stands out from the flood of images.

For instance, if you want to create pins for your blog posts, spend a few minutes scrolling through Pinterest and making a note of graphics that catch your eye. Then ask yourself: What type of fonts are used? What font and colour combinations are most likely to draw users’ attention to your graphics?

Colour compatibility

Do your fonts pair well with your chosen brand colours?

Some fonts, especially light script fonts, may be hard to read in light or pastel colours.

For main site content, stick to black or dark grey. If you want to display your headings or blog name in a colour other than black, try to choose a bold tone (e.g. maroon over pastel pink, violet over lilac), or a soft yet strong colour (e.g. camel brown or old rose).