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A Roundup of 25 Awesome Natural Themed Fonts

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This Week’s Favourites – March 5th 2010

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Calendar Print Tips

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How To Create a Detailed Apple iPad Icon in Photoshop

Use Simple and Straightforward Fonts You want the reader to be able to quickly and easily read the text – it is no good having a really decorative, cursive font only for it to be virtually unreadable by someone with a busy life, being jostled on the train or having to switch to reading glasses to decipher what teh text is – they simply will end up not reading it at all! This is why you should keep your fonts simple and easy to read, but this doesn’t mean boring! Font Mix & Match By mixing different fonts into your text you can create interest and break the text up into more manageable chunks which allows the reader to skim rather than actually read completely (here’s a hint: most people skim to the good bits when they read, they do not take the time to read it completely).

By using headings and sub-headers in conjunction with differing fonts, you can create a more inviting and easily understood piece. Typefacing Issues More than mixing fonts, by using different typeface effects, such as italics and bolding, you can highlight the important parts of your communication for the reader’s attention.  Whenever there is a crucial part of your text, set that in italics or bold it as a block of text – this way you signal the importance to the reader. Do not use bolding in isolation and frequently – it makes the text difficult to read. Utilize Spacing Techniques Spacing is one of the least appreciated print design issues because many novices or people intent on making their own designs, think they have to pack the space available with images and text.  Spacing creates a flow and acts as an attractor for those design elements which are important and simply cramming text and images in leads to the message getting lost and a confused piece being created.

You can also utilize different text height and widths which involve using space differently in order to emphasise aspects of your text, eminently suitable for headers and sub-headers. Contrast Creating contrast with your text and background is also a great way of making parts of your message stand out to the reader.  Back fill with a different color to the rest of the paper, changing the font color being used or inverting the text/background colors will create different highlights and effects.

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The Font of Advice

Unfortunately, many have felt that they can add some X-Factor with clients and prospects and this is a one-way road to disaster. Clip-art has its uses but client facing documents and any document which is being used outside of a business is not one of them.  Clip-art is cheap and can be fun when it is being used for the club newsletter or to announce a family event such as a house move or a party.  Clip-art has no place in a document you seriously expect a potential customer to pick-up, read and then contact you with the intention of doing some business. Clip-art is free for a reason – it doesn’t sell your document, your business or your services and products. Using photographs is a double-edged sword.

Good photographs and images are usually not free; many images have a copyright restriction attaching to them and if you do not own the rights to the image or have permission to use it, you are in for a legal shock.  Using photographs without the copyright holder’s permission can lead to legal action for damages and compensation.  It can even lead to you having to go through the expensive exercise of throwing your document away in the trash because you cannot get permission at all. Very embarrassing and not recommended – always make sure you have permission or own the image. If you are taking the photographs yourself, makes sure they are of appropriate quality.  Nothing speaks “amateur hour” more than a slightly out of focus shot or one where the subject is not properly positioned.  Using a photograph of a product is important because this is establishing the visualization in the mind of the reader – it pays to take the time to get the product positioned in the proper setting and to ensure you are capturing the detail necessary.

It is usually cost effective to hire a professional photographer to perform the shots for you.  Getting the photographs wrong may render your entire document ineffectual and force you to incur extra expense and delay in getting the shots done again.  Frequently, design projects are up against deadlines and tight schedules, and making this mistake leads to additional costs elsewhere in the production process which will more than outweigh the cost of a professional. You must also ensure that the images produced are available in a format which will allow your print and design partners to manage and manipulate effectively.  Poor or incorrect resolution, ill-lit images or incorrect format can all lead to a significant deterioration of the finished product and may render them unusable when it comes to the final production run.

This just underlines how important it is to make sure that everyone involved in the creation of your document knows what they are doing and what is expected from them as well as the consequences of missing deadlines.

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Insist on Quality Images and Design When You Are Using Them