When we think of branding the first thing we often think of is a logo or a colour but the font you use can also have a big effect on how people perceive your business. The art of creating fonts is known as typography. This is a useful thing to know because some tools (like WordPress) will keep the fonts in a section called Typography.
A quick history lesson in fonts!
1400 – a guy called Guttenberg invented movable blocks with letters on to enable the first printing. Before this written documents were literally rewritten when another version was needed. The first font was called Blackface (good pub quiz question!) and was very dark and quite hard to read.
There were quite a few improvements on Blackface including Roman Type which copied the style of writing on ancient roman monuments.
Over time the fonts were amended to make them easier to read while taking up less space on the page (so printing was cheaper).
All the early fonts were serif. This means that the letters have sticky out bits!
Then in 1816 William Caslon IV invented the first sans serif font, no sticky out bits!
You can see how the difference between serif and sans serif can change the feel of the words.
To find some fonts you feel fit with your business let’s hop over to Google Fonts. All the fonts here are free to use on your website and marketing materials. They also make it easy to use them on your website without having to install new fonts. (this is a good thing!) If you have a very clear brand indentity then you can purchase a font that is less well used or even have your own designed. For most businesses Google Fonts with over 1000 fonts to choose from will be adequate.
Watch the video below to see how Google Fonts works.