Recently, a client asked me the difference between serif and sans serif type fonts. She was putting together a PowerPoint presentation and had been told to use a sans serif font but wasn’t sure what that meant.
For starters, serifs are those little lines or “hooks” at the top and bottom of letters. Sans serif literally means “without serifs.” And, until the 20th-century, almost everything printed used a serif typeface.
With the proliferation of computers and desktop publishing, however, we’re now able to choose from an almost unlimited selection of fonts and sizes. And while, it’s good to have choice, what it has really done is create considerable confusion, which I hear with regularity from my customers, including: “What type font should I use on our Web site?” or “I keep hearing we should use a serif font for all our print material. How come?”
Serif Type + Long Printed Material =
Easier
readability.
Try this experiment. Take a piece of long copy you’ve written for a brochure or article and change the font to Arial or another sans serif font. Then print it out. Pay attention to how your eyes feel as you read — do you have a hard time following the words? Did you eyes get tired? Did you want to stop reading?
Your customer or prospect will feel the same way if he has to struggle through two or three eight-inch columns of datasheet copy set in sans serif type. If your customers aren’t reading your sales copy, you’re not selling products.
In the U.S., we’re accustomed to reading serif typefaces. Indeed, newspapers, magazines, books, and other printed material are set with serif typefaces — and have been for hundreds of years. Those little lines at the top and bottom of letters serve a purpose: to help move our eyes from one letter to another.
Use the Right Type to Increase Sales.
You can ensure readability with serif typefaces designed specifically for printed materials, such as Times or Garamond.
Or, if you like the look of sans serif fonts, ask your designer about the relatively new “humanist” sans serif typefaces. Based on the same Renaissance handwriting as some of the more classic serif typefaces, humanist sans serif fonts eliminate the angular or geometric look of traditional sans serif typefaces, making them ideal candidates for applications requiring long pieces of text.
When Should You Use Sans Serif Typefaces?
Headlines, short lines of type, and collateral not requiring a full page of text all lend themselves to the clean, uncluttered lines of sans serif type. Helvetica is a classic sans serif typeface that can be used for text in printed materials. Sans serif fonts are also ideal for online copy, such as Web sites or PowerPoint presentations, with Verdana and Arial being two of the most common. (However, Georgia is a new serif type developed specifically for the Web — an example of which you’re reading right now — if it’s installed on your computer.)
Using the right font, in the application for which it was intended, will make your message easy to read and will increase the likelihood that your clients and prospects will read it — and purchase your products and services.
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Welcome back to school.
Happy September,
Linda E.
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