Now when you're combining different typefaces usually you will have a different typeface for the heading 1
versus the body. 2
So if you're thinking about a webpage, you know your your title will usually be different from the body 3
in terms of the font or the typeface. 4
And this is to create slight contrast an interest in your designs. So let's look at some of the common 5
rules that designers use when they combine different fonts. 6
The first rule is that serifs and San serifs work together really well. 7
So if you have a heading that uses a serif typeface and a body that uses a san serif typeface then 8
that tends to create a good design because san serifs have slightly increased readability compared to 9
serifs. 10
So they are great typeface for the body of text. 11
And similarly the other way also works quite nicely if you have a san serif heading but with a serif 12
body. And that little bit of contrast creates a beautiful design. 13
Now just don't mix a san serif with san serif or serif with a serif because it can look a little bit 14
bland and undifferentiated 15
and hence it can look undesigned. 16
And the other thing is that while we tend to say that two different typefaces or two different fonts 17
will make your design look more elevated, to many fonts will ruin a good party. 18
So, if you find yourself using three or more fonts, then really think hard about it and evaluate whether if 19
you really need so many fonts. The rule to stick to is that two different fonts will look really good, 20
three is really at a stretch but four is already way too many 21
and you should be cutting down. So as we discussed with the different colors having different moods, 22
so do fonts. And this designer actually came up with a different type face for each of the States of America. 23
So for example Alaska is represented by this snowy kind of typeface 24
and Texas is represented by the Western typeface. 25
So each typeface has a personality and has a mood. 26
If you use the wrong type face with the wrong mood for your designs it can look incredibly jarring. 27
So always try to appreciate the mood of the typeface. Just as in the beginning of the talk when we 28
compare these two love letters, appreciating the mood of the typeface is incredibly important. 29
And if you mix together different moods your design can look incredibly strange. 30
For example this one here where you've got a you know roaring 20s kind of fonts combined with the mechanical 31
typeface, looks just odd and very out of place. 32
And similarly here where you've got something that looks like it's from days of Chaucer versus the typeface 33
for the Compaq computers branding 34
then again it looks very strange. 35
So try to make sure that the era of your typefaces are similar. 36
So to remember previously when we spoke about the different families within the serif and san serif families 37
where certain typefaces were from slightly older days versus some which were slightly more modern. 38
If you mix different typefaces that are markedly from different eras it can look very strange as well. But 39
if you get the mood of your typefaces right then you start creating some incredibly beautiful designs. 40
So to summarize the things that you should try to keep similar are the moods of the typeface as well 41
as the time era, 42
so combining something that's old with old and new with new. And the things that you should contrast 43
is the serifness, so a san serif heading with a serif body and vice versa. 44
And the other thing that you should contrast is the weight of your typeface. 45
So for example when you're working in a word processor, you only get the choice between regular and bold. 46
But actually when you download fonts in its entirety, you get a whole range of weights from light to 47
thin to medium to bold extra thick et cetera and you can play around with these different weights 48
contrasting them between the title and the body to create interest in your designs. 49
And finally these six fonts just never ever ever use them and stay as far away from them as you can because 50
no matter what you do they will pretty much never ever look good in design. And even if we're just designing 51
for the neighborhood bake sale, remember that practice is everywhere so don't relapse and go back to 52
comic sans. 53
It's not worth it. 54
OK. 55
And similar to- so similar to the tools I mentioned in the color theory part of the lesson, 56
I have some really nice tools that I like to use for typography as well. 57
There's one called WhatFont 58
which is a free tool for Chrome and Firefox I believe which allows you to essentially spy on the web 59
pages that you come across day to day. 60
So if you are reading the New Yorker and you're suddenly thinking "Oh you know what? That that font will 61
work really nicely for the project that I've got in mind." 62
Then you can use WhatFont to just highlight it and see what is the typeface they using, what's the size, what 63
the color, what's the 64
line height, what's the thickness of it, 65
what's the weight of it etc. 66
And it's really really useful. 67
Now what if you find a font that you like 68
how do you go about downloading it? 69
Well there's quite a lot of websites that cater to download. 70
So font.com is one such example. 71
But in most of them you do have to pay for commercial use. 72
But this website Font Squirrel has a whole bunch of fonts that are free for commercial use. 73
Then I like to use a tool called Sky Fonts which is a Mac app which allows you to incorporate a new 74
font into any of your application pretty much in two taps. 75
So it's a really really easy way of starting to use some of these new fonts that you come across. 76
All right so that was a whirlwind tour of typographic relating to digital design. 77
In the next section we're going to talk about user interface design and some of its intricacies relating 78
to mobile development. 79
So I'll see on the next lesson.