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Fonts have been a part of human writing since the discovery of publishing and printed text. With the advent of a number of metallic typesetting machines, designing letters and numbers that are printed on premium paper became an extremely important aspect of the process. In our digital age, however, the idea of fonts and their effectiveness on screen or paper has developed to become a psychological and aesthetic experience. This is largely due to the massive requirement of visual content for communication by brands and companies, events, productions, etc. The graphic letters that are visible and their elemental design are crucial for impressions.

The Main 4Types of Cool Fonts

Every designer should be aware of the principle 4 types of fonts and how to use them:

  1. Serif Fonts: classic and original looking fonts, identified thus for having little feet at the end of each letter. Most commonly used, especially in books, logos, and print. Examples: Georgia, Times New Roman, Baskerville, and Garamond.
  2. Slab serif: a pompous version of the above, seen mostly in billboards and posters of the 19th century. Brings a vintage and artsy feel to designs now. Examples: Clarendon, Rockwell, Neutraface Slab, and Archer.
  3. Sans serif: they do not have the little serif feet. Used previously in advertising but now it is considered to be most economical, clean, modern, and readable. Examples: Futura, Helvetic, Geneva, and Arial.
  4. Script: Similar to cursive handwriting, have both formal and casual uses. While formal applied for invitations and romance book covers, casual ones are for logos and posters. Examples: Edwardian, Buttermilk, Snell Roundhand, and Zapfino.

The Importance of Cool Fonts in Designing

The design community is one of the most dynamic departments of any editorial board. Whether the font will create the identity of your brand or enhance any design with a suitable lettering font, each typeface has its own purpose. These decisions are taken by the design team. It can make or end your brand before you stepped foot in it. Before we can further delve into the different variants of lettering fonts and their purpose, let’s first understand the role these cool fonts play in our lives.

Information Hierarchy:

Fonts play an important role in guiding the reader’s eye through your content in a step by step manner. For instance, if you have written a blog about how to bake a cake, you would want the reader’s attention to methodically follow the recipe. Each step of the cake baking process leads to the consecutive one. The appropriate font style and size will help guide the reader’s eye from one step to another without confusing them. Now that you have established your information hierarchy with cool fonts, you have essentially made the reader’s experience on your website quite smooth.

In this fast-evolving day and age, readers do not spend enough time reading content and visiting websites. They are focus oriented and are always looking for specific information. Bold formatting of all the cool fonts you have used on your content can help the reader quickly scan through your content to the information they are hoping to find. Excessive use of cool fonts on a single web page can be detrimental to your success rate, but its correct use can yield magnificent results.

Sense of Continuity:

How do you establish a sense of continuity through pages of content on your website? How will the reader know which piece of information is more important? The importance of using fonts is manifold but the most important one of them is the sense of continuity it can establish in your information hierarchy.

For instance, a H₂ subheading identifies to the reader that it is a branch of the topic being discussed. The content following this subheading is either in a different font or in the regular font style used in the article. This indicates that the latter content is an explanation or a description of the topic mentioned in the H₂ subheading.

The face of your Brand

How do you attract a daily commuter’s attention to your billboard advertising? There are a lot of brands that have built their identity around cool fonts that their designing team has selected to use. Some famous examples include Addidas – Avant Garde Gothic Demi font, BBC -Gill Sans Std. Calvin Klein – Avant Garde Gothic, Facebook – Klavika Bold, etc. Even if you do not know the font style used by the brand, your mind will always associate the font with the brand. This is free marketing all the time.

Establishes Mood

Cool fonts can establish the mood of communication of a particular website, logo, design, and even content. Walt Disney’s font style emits a lighthearted, happy mood while news media houses like The New York Times have a serious, old school undertone. The mood of communication is crucial, because goofy and cool fonts when used for serious information, can be counterproductive. In comparison, a serious font style to indicate the launch of a video game will not attract customers.

Popular Cool Fonts

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  1. Helvetica: Arguably, one of the most used cool fonts in the world owing to its simple, modern, and versatile appearance. Founded by Swiss designer Max Miedinger in 1957, this classic typeface continues to be one of the most popular to date. Famous examples: Toyota, Panasonic, Lufthansa Airlines, Harley Davidson, etc.
  2. Bodoni: Designed by Giambattista Bodoni in Italy in 1758, this typeface’s claim to fame is unparalleled on the planet. Posthumously, the Bodoni typeface was created by combining the designer’s typesetting work. Famous examples: Vogue Magazine, Nirvana logo, Columbia Records, Gucci, Elizabeth Arden, etc.
  3. Times New Roman: hands down one of the most widely used typefaces. It is often considered as a regular font owing to its wide use. This font was created in England in 1931, by the newspaper The Times. Ever since it has mostly been seen in formal documents, class assignments, and the likes. Famous example: Vogue recreated its logo using this cool font.
  4. Garamond: Although an old style, the popularity of cool fonts like these have not diminished. This serif typeface was founded in 1520 and 1560 by Claude Garamont and has heavily been used in book printing for the following couple of centuries. The font is minimalistic and elegant. They are used for historic brand names, and titles of movies, TV shows, and albums with large point size. Famous examples: Rolex and Abercrombie & Fitch.
  5. Futura: Designed by Paul Renner in 1927 in Frankfurt, this has become a yardstick for geometric sans cool fonts for over 80 years now. The font is often used for advertising and a lot of film posters and shows. Famous examples: Volkswagen, films like Gone Girl, American Beauty, Interstellar, etc.
  6. Avenir: Designer Adrian Frutiger’s greatest work is the Avenir typeface. The font style was created in 1988 by the designer who had earlier made another cool font, Frutiger. It is a simplistic and rounded sans typeface which is also quite flexible to use for logos. Famous examples: Amersterdam’s corporate logo and the famous ‘I Amsterdam’ sign, Apple uses it for its Maps application, Spotify, The Shopping Channel, etc.
  7. Clarendon: The claim to fame of this font style is a funny story. Posters that glaringly declare the line “Wanted: Dead or Alive” uses the Clarendon typeface. This belongs to the print media era, designed by Robert Besley in 1845. A classic slab serif has uses in logos that will appear on print, textiles, word mark, etc. Famous examples: Sony, Wells Fargo, People Magazine, etc.
  8. Optima: Invented by Hermann Zapf in1955, the art of stone carving during the evolution of the printing press inspired this invention. The style is sans serif and is both elegant and versatile. Easy to read and is quite unique among typefaces with variable width. Famous examples: Estee Lauder and Yves Saint Laurent.
  9. FF Dax: Rather modern a typeface than compared to the others, it was founded in 1995 by Hans Reichel. It has a fluidity, where it gives the impression of movement and action. Appropriately, the font is often used in marketing and communication. The most widely used agencies include political parties, embassies, banks, airlines, and delivery services. Famous examples: The British Embassy.
  10. Didot: Belonging to the Didot family of typefaces of the French printing industry, there is a unique elegance to this cool font. Often used by luxury brands and characterized by joining lines of all sizes, it imparts a sense of a classic imperial extravaganza. There is a unique sense of aesthetic to this typeface. Famous example: Giorgio Armani.

How to select the right cool fonts?

Choosing the right font can be a mystifying process. To make the process a little smoother, the list below illustrates a simple technique for choosing the correct cool fonts to use.

  1. Try to decipher what a typeface imparts: elegance, seriousness, goofy, stylish.
  2. Try to align the impression of the typeface with that of your brand. For example, geometrical typefaces look good for technology brands.
  3. Choose from Superfamilies, they make your work easier. They are cool font families that come with a variety of sans and serif typefaces with varying weight, widths, and styles. The best ones include Spirited, Storyteller, Goral, and Thesis.
  4. Use a combination of sans and serif typefaces.
  5. If your cool fonts are conflicting with one another, it will create a confusing visual. Make sure that you use contrasting cool fonts to make your work look nicer.

Never use cool fonts that are too similar to each other.