Choosing typefaces for small business print materials
Typography is the part of a design brief that clients most often leave entirely to the designer, and that is usually fine. But understanding a few basics about how typeface choices work in print helps you ask better questions and make better decisions when the options are put in front of you.
Licensing is the first thing to sort out
Most typefaces are licensed, not owned. When a designer uses a typeface in your brand, the question of who holds the licence and what it covers matters more than most clients realise. A desktop licence covers use in print files. A web licence covers use on a website. An app licence covers use in software. These are different licences and they cost different amounts.
For a small business, the practical implication is this: if your designer uses a typeface in your brand book, you need to know whether you have the licence to use it yourself, or whether you are dependent on the designer to produce any new materials. At Hexalo, the licence situation is clarified in writing before any typeface is specified.
Readability in print is not the same as on screen
A typeface that looks clean on a screen can become difficult to read when printed small on uncoated stock. The ink spreads slightly into the paper fibres, which closes up the counters (the enclosed spaces inside letters like 'e' and 'o') and reduces contrast. Typefaces designed specifically for print tend to have slightly wider letter spacing and more open counters to compensate.
This is particularly relevant for small-format print: business cards, packaging labels, event programmes. If the body text is going to be set at 8pt or smaller, the typeface choice needs to account for that from the beginning.
One family, used well, beats two families used badly
The instinct to use multiple typefaces to create variety usually produces the opposite of variety. It produces noise. A single typeface family with a range of weights, from light to black, gives you enough variation to create hierarchy and rhythm without introducing the visual friction that comes from mixing faces that do not quite work together.
Most of the editorial work at Hexalo uses one typeface family. The variation comes from size, weight, spacing, and colour, not from introducing a second face. The result is quieter and more consistent, which is what most print materials need.
What to ask your designer about type
These questions are not a test. They are the kind of thing a designer who thinks carefully about type will have already considered. The answers will tell you a lot about how the project is likely to go.
- What typeface are you proposing and why?
- What licence do I need to use it independently?
- How does it reproduce at small sizes in print?
- Is there a variable or web version if I need it for digital use?
- What is the fallback if this typeface becomes unavailable?
Type decisions made at the identity stage follow a brand into every piece of print it ever produces. It is worth getting them right at the beginning rather than correcting them later.