Designing a poster is all about grabbing the audience’s attention as quickly as possible. As such, designers rely heavily on a type of fonts that are designed for this specific application called display fonts. The look of display fonts for posters may vary, making them a bit hard to choose due to the sheer number of options we are presented with.
What are Display Fonts?
Also known as decorative fonts, display font is a category of fonts and typefaces primarily used as one of the aesthetic aspects in a design project. Their distinct decorative looks are mainly used as a ‘wow factor’ as well as to get the audience’s attention. Because of this, a majority of display fonts are not as readable and legible compared to other font types.
Due to being distinctly decorative, display fonts are mainly used in large format as well as short-form applications, including but not limited to billboards, posters, logotypes, headlines or headings in newspapers, magazines, or websites, and in book covers.
Display Fonts for Posters
There are thousands of fonts readily available on the internet. Here are some display fonts we recommend for your next design project:
Embracing the glory of pixel arts, this font is perfect if your theme is centered around anything retro, especially for the 90s and early 2000s.
An elegant serif with beautiful swashes resembling butterfly wings, this font is suitable if you aim for the upper-class audience group.
If the quirky and energetic spirit of Y2K street art aesthetic with a touch of modernity is in your mood board, this unique bubble font is for you.
Quirky with a sense of modern elegance and simplicity, using this font in your poster, websites, or any other design project will make it look stunning.
Even at a glance, this font will make your poster look nostalgic with the vintage aesthetic look of this font and the whopping 150+ alternative characters you can choose.
How to Maximize Display Fonts for Posters
Essentially, a poster is simply made up of a bunch of text with some imagery. Therefore, typography plays an important role in maximizing the impact display fonts can give to your design. Below are some tips on how you can achieve that:
- Less is more. Only use two or three different fonts with the display font acting as sort of the “anchor point” between them.
- Experiment with leading and kerning. Treat the negative spaces between letters or texts as a part of the aesthetic aspects of your poster.
- Play with contrasts. Not only can it help with grabbing your audience’s attention, a proper contrast would also help with readability.
- Establish a focal point. Grabbing attention is one thing, but make sure that attention falls into a key focal point of your poster, otherwise the audience will instantly look away.
Balance is key. Spend extra time balancing your poster’s composition so your audience won’t feel overwhelmed by your poster. You don’t want them to look away before getting the message in the poster.