Weddingbee boards

OOoooh! Typography is my passion. I can hopefully be of assistance!

For reference, serif fonts have the little feet (think Times New Roman) and sans-serif font don't (think Arial, Helvetica, etc).

Some rules to think about when working with fonts:

1. Script fonts are very pretty but very difficult to read when used for body copy (paragraphs, lines of text, etc). I would use script fonts for your names or the headline, whatever that may be. Keep script fonts to a minimum and you will actually accentuate their beauty. By using too much script you will actually make it look less attractive as the type will be illegible and make the design look cluttered. As such, its best to pair a script font with a complimentary serif or sans-serif font. Which of those to use depends on the script font you choose- if you use a hefty script like Buffet Script, I would pair it with a hefty font like Copperplate. Too much contrast in the weight will be overpowering and distracting. The best thing to do would be to play around with different combinations.

2. Never mix to different fonts of the same classification- don't pair a script with another script, or a sans-serif with another sans-serif, for instance. The short explanation for this is that it clashes and looks wonky.

3. Palace is gorgeous but very thin, so keep that in mind for when you're printing. It probably wouldn't work well to print light text on a dark background, especially on an inkjet as it has a tendency to bleed. It depends on your brand of printer (Epsons bleed pretty bad on non-epson paper, something Epson did on purpose actually, grr) and also the type of paper. If you can manage to print using a laser printer you'll be in great shape because toner has a tendency to bleed less than inkjet printers. Test it first on regular paper, and then test on one of your invitations before printing a whole batch.

4. Back to Palace- it's thin, so I would pair it with a thin/light weight serif or sans serif font. In the example I made, I paired it with some fonts I thought would look nice, but also two that I think are too heavy- Copperplate and Rockwell. I had to pay for some of those fonts but there are plenty of free alternatives that are similar. For instance, Century Gothic is a geometric sans serif, and there are tons of free geometric sans serif fonts on dafont.com.

5. I would stick to just two fonts, and that includes font families- if you use a medium/book/regular font, and then use a bold variety, or an italic, think of that as your second font.

6. Sizing! I wouldn't go below 9pt, but I wouldn't go too big either. Making it too big can actually make it look crowded and thus LESS legible! I personally like to work in 9pt in my design work as I think anything bigger looks clunky, but it depends on the font and the amount of text.

7. Whitespace! Whitespace is your friend! Make sure you leave plenty of "unused" room in your design. It will not only look a lot better but it will be much easier to read.

These are just some guidelines to keep in mind when working. I'm a graphic designer so to me these rules are sacred, haha, but its good to experiment. Sometimes breaking the rules works if the result looks amazing! As far as which fonts to use, I suggest picking a few different serif and sans-serif fonts and playing around with it. Dafont.com is great because you preview the text before downloading, so I recommend taking advantage of it!

Please post your design here when you're done. I can't wait to see it!

Sorry for the long geeky post, but I love fonts.

I forgot to point out that the numbers in my example are not a part of the font name, I threw them in there so you could see how the numbers would look in that font!

I've seen Albemarle Swash but I haven't seen it in a finished design, I will have to look up Mrs. Cupcake's design!

@ Lovespearls

Edwardian is another classic script font.  It has a bit more weight than Palace, a little less scroll work, so it will probably be more forgiving when you print it, and it will be more legible too.  I would pair it with something of medium/regular weight, or certain serif fonts in bold, BUT if you go with bold, I would make that bold font slightly smaller so it doesn't visually compete with Edwardian.  I like Edwardian with Georgia, Fontin Sans, Century Gothic, Didot, Futura, and Caslon.

@ naangel55

It sounds like a program issue, not a font issue.  What did you use to design the shower invitations?  If you ever work in a bitmap based program like Photoshop, make sure you are working at high resolution, otherwise your images will definitely print and possibly even display in a pixelated manner.  If in Photoshop for instance, if you look under Image Size, there should be a number followed by the letters DPI.  Make sure you work at 300dpi, and the paper size should be at least at the size you will be printing, if not bigger.

If it is perhaps an issue with a corrupted font file (do any other fonts do that on your computer, or does Copperplate behave that way in a different program?) , you can download and install a new copy that you find online, but I would uninstall the old copy first.

Let me know what you are using to design your invites and I might be able to give you better help.

I am so glad to be of service!  I love typography! 

You can definitely play around with Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher!  Its a good solution for beginners, but a good graphics program is invaluable for typesetting.  Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop are good, but very expensive.  You can try less expensive options like Adobe Photoshop Elements, or you can download a trial version of the software I mentioned.  There are also free graphics programs out there like Gimp.  However, these programs are a LOT more advanced than Microsoft Word or Publisher, which is meant to cater to non-professionals and is a lot more user friendly.  Microsoft Word has the benefits of doing a lot of the thinking for you- you don't have to worry about the resolution of the document, etc.  Unfortunately you have few options as to customization but invitations can be pretty straightforward.  I've never used it for design purposes so I can't speak too much about it, but definitely play around with it, it should be fine.

Now, on to your fonts!

Fontin can be downloaded for free from Exljbris, a fantastic type foundry: http://www.josbuivenga.demon.nl/fontinsans.html

Some of these fonts have to be purchased, but dafont.com has some really nice free fonts that you can try that are very similar.

A good replacement for Century Gothic could be Geo Sans Light.

A good replacement for Adobe Calson Pro could be Day Roman.

A good (enough) replacement for Didot could be Justus.

Also, the Top 100 on Dafont is a good place to find nice fonts.  You can also google the font names and see if you can find anywhere else to download them online, but keep in mind that pirating/stealing fonts is not only wrong but can also lead to viruses on your computer from less than reputable sites.  I don't recommend it.  I can understand not wanting to pay for fonts if you're only going to use them once, which is why I recommend dafont.com.

I love fonts!  We are using Edwardian script for our invites, see photo below.  I agree that it is a script that is legible.  We had a hard time coming up with one that would match.  I have been using Modern No. 20.  

 

As for programs - don't try to use photoshop for any of the text!!  I spent hours typing in the addresses, aligning them, etc for the envelopes, until my sister printed them out for me and told me they looked pixellated, and my graphic designer mom told me that Illustrator is much better for text.  And my free trial with Illustrator has been AWESOME.  Now I might have to pony up the $$$ to get it... 

Great post. I LOVE fonts. I'm such a type nerd.

Oh wow, I didn't know this was made into a sticky post!  Also, I'm glad I could help some of you!

@ shelliduke

You can definitely use Photoshop for text, its just not the best solution.  It's 100% true that a vector based program like Illustrator (or even better, InDesign) is better for doing type-heavy designs, but the problem with your fonts being pixelated is (sorry) a user-end issue and not an issue with Photoshop.  Probably what happened is that you didn't set your document to a print-ready 300dpi.  Pixelation is mostly caused by printing images that have a lower dpi (also resizing an image can cause pixelation).  Often a jpg you save from the internet is 72dpi, which is perfectly fine for screen display but not good for printing.  The same thing applies if you make something in photoshop that is 72dpi.

Here is a short tutorial I made on making sure your photoshop documents are the proper size for printing.  I still use CS2 but its basically the same for almost any current version of photoshop.

1. Select the menu "Image" from the menu bar

2. Select "Image Size"

3. Under Document Size, make sure Resolution says "300" pixel/inch.

!!!!!!!!! Do this BEFORE you start your design!!!!!!!!!!!

While unflattened, unrasterized text will scale just fine if you need to resize your images, anything bitmap based, such as most digital embellishments, brushes, photos, etc, will become pixelated if you make them larger in photoshop.  Vector based shapes are also okay to resize, but most of the time you will have to redo the design if you design it at 72dpi rather than risk pixelated prints.  When I first started using photoshop in late 2000, I made this mistake and was very upset to learn that all my hard work was useless when I wanted to print what I made.

@ anycbride Papyrus is one of those fonts I wouldn't recommend for anything.  Most professional designers have that reaction to papyrus so its not just me, lol.  Of course its your wedding and you should love your invites, so use whatever you want!  However, while I personally hate papyrus because of how over-used it is (see how many times you can find it when you go to the mall or grocery store, you'll see what I mean), I also think it has some serious issues with legibility when used as body copy, which is the legitimate reason I would suggest avoiding it.  The spacing is really off, the letterforms are sometimes stretched or skewed in unconventional ways that make them hard to read, and the very small detail work of the "ripped paper" effect in the type sometimes doesn't print well with any kind of ink-based printing process that has a tendency to bleed.  At smaller point sizes the font is completely illegible in my opinion, making it a bad choice for body copy.

Also because of how it elongates many of its ascenders and descenders, its hard to find a complementary script font that doesn't clash.  Because Papyrus is a very heavily manipulated "decorative" font it's hard to match it to another decorative font, like a script font.  It's like combining striped pants and plaid shirts with a polka dot jacket- it's a lot of visual detail to try to make work together.  It can be done, it will just take a lot of playing around with the design to keep it from being too busy.

If you're open to suggestions, I would treat papyrus as your decorative accent font in place of a script font and use a clean, simple serif font as the body copy.  Give it a try, you might like it!  Otherwise, if you really have your heart set on papyrus and a script font, I would find a clean, legible script font to pair with papyrus- nothing too fancy, artistic, or overly decorative because it will compete too much with papyrus.

@ MeaghanH The font in the Vellum image is Feel Script by Sudtipos.  The font in the Ultra Low Pricing image is Burgues, also by the fantastic Sudtipos.  There is no really good free match for Burgues Script, but Edwardian and Palace Script are formal scripts with the same kind of feel.  Feel Script has a great alternative, Mahogany Script.  To most people there is very little difference, they would probably think its the same font.  Sudtipos makes absolutely GORGEOUS fonts, right now I am in love with Adios Script and I'm using it for my wedding stationery.

Also, cardandpockets.com is an amazing website, they are so fantastic there.

@ studio.ariadne HAHAHAHA, I love it!  I've seen it, and I've actually had people suggest they would do something similar to me.  I've literally skipped using products that use that font, believe it or not.  This comic strip also really describes my feelings accurately, I want to get a print of this and put it over my desk.

@ studio.ariadne I have Adios Script now and its soooooo gorgeous!  I'm using it for all my stationery.  Nelly is another gorgeous one but I have to say that I LOVE Adios Script right now!

@arobb81 - you are a goddess!  :)

Well thank you, hehe!  Glad to be of help!