Choosing a suitable typeface is vital because it can enhance usability, readability, accessibility, and hierarchy within an interface.
There are a lot of factors to consider before choosing a good font for your system. It would be best if you thought of: Personality, Pairings, Multiple systems, App performance, etc.
The most important thing is to have a goal in mind. Ask yourself, “How do I want the audience to react to the text?” and let it guide the process. The right font for a task has a combination of legibility and readability and is appropriate for the audience and the message. If you want the complete guide on typography check out “Typography in UI Design- Complete Illustrated Guide 2024”.
Tip 1: Go with UI oriented fonts.
Look for typefaces designed to work well on screens as a UI font. These will generally have large x-heights, consistent and legible characters, and multiple weights. A neutral sans-serif typeface will never let you down. This is an excellent choice until you get more experience.
It can be tempting to seek out different fonts, script fonts, or other unique fonts for every project. Perhaps you’ve seen web designers use a combination of serif and sans-serif fonts; if you’re comfortable tackling this — fabulous! However, remember that this can take a lot of work to get right.
If you are just starting keep it simple.
Tip 2: Explore large design-focused companies.
You can pick a typeface that a large design-focused company is already using — you can bet that they’ve done the research and chosen a high-quality typeface.
Pro tip 1: Use the “Inspect” tool in the browser to see what typefaces other websites are using. Simply right-click on particular element and select the Inspect, it will directly open editor, console, sources and other tools.
Pro tip 2: You can also use chrome plugin “What font”.
Pro tip 3: Some companies may use paid premium fonts. Try out some free modern fonts before making a decision. Often they are so similar that its not worth the investment. Especially if you are a start-up, there is much more to invest first.
As you explore more and more you will see, what typefaces are often used, and you will better understand which typography is good and which isn’t.
Tip 3: Choose a font that has at least 5 weights.
It’s a great indicator of quality and means that the font was crafted with a little more care and attention to details.
Usually, it’s light, regular, medium, semibold, and bold, along with their italic versions. Though, I don’t recommend using lightweight and anything lower.
Tip 4: Go with one typeface.
You might feel tempted to look for font pairings, but for UI design, I recommend going with 1 font, especially if you are not skilled in typography yet. Multiple different fonts in a design can quickly look messy and cluttered unnecessarily.
If you really need to, use a maximum of two. Often, you’ll find that modern fonts come with enough variable weights to act effectively as several fonts at once. Whichever fonts you decide on, limit yourself to using just one or two at a time. Using one font at various weights can be as effective as using multiple fonts.
Tip 5: Still not sure- start with defaults.
If you don’t know which typeface to choose, go with Inter. It’s free, carefully crafted & designed for computer screens. It has a tall x-height which ensures the readability of mixed-case and lower-case text.
It’s a part of Google fonts and Figma interface font so you can use it straight in Figma without needing to download it. Inter has its websites, where you can find guidelines on using Inter the best way possible: You provide the font size, while the tracking and line height are calculated through the formula.
Tip 6: Consider platform-specific fonts.
Consider a font stack that adapts to the operating system: macOS, iOS, Windows, Android, or Linux.
Tip 7: Best free typefaces
I’m not a fan of a massive list of resources & options. Because we know from UX design: More options – More cognitive load.
Free options: Here are my favorite high-quality free typefaces for design projects: Inter, Dm sans, Open sans, Work sans, Poppins, and Space Grotesk.
Tip 8: Best Paid Typefaces
The above free typefaces are more than suitable for most projects. But if you want and can, invest in a “premium’ typeface.
There are thousands of options to choose from, but you should ignore 99% of them. Here are the most popular premium typefaces that are great for most projects and UI design in particular:
Conclusion
Choosing a suitable typeface should not be so much complicated but there are certain points that you should keep in mind before opting for any font for a project. Keeping in mind all the above tips you can easily select a perfect font for your next project either its a paid or a free font. You can trust my recommendations as I have tested out every other font and after so much trials and errors included them here for you!
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