Text Fonts: To Serif or To Not Sans Serif, That Is the Question

Many experts recommend that serif fonts are best to use for writing papers and for publishing books, magazines, and newsletters, because the feet of serifed characters help guide the reader across the page:

(set in Esta, a serif font)

Serifed fonts also lend text a more formal appearance, in lieu of the casual look-and-feel of sans serif fonts:

(set in Orcin Sans, a sans serif font)

However, sans serif fonts also give a cleaner, uncluttered look to the text, avoiding the use of flairs at the ends of characters, and the thick/thin transitions in the curved portions of characters from thick to thin lines. In other words, sans serif fonts tend to be more monocline and uncomplicated.

No matter what choice of font you decide to use, we do notice the use of more sans serif fonts for online publishing, including content on websites, in PDFs, and any other documents meant for online reading. In most cases, online resolution is usually less than 10% of the resolution of the printed page. This makes the use of a less complicated font, like a sans serif, more useful for reading on a computer monitor or mobile handset than a more highly designed serif font, where the “little feet” and flairs on the characters can get lost at smaller sizes.

MyFonts is creating a special publication newsletter on text fonts. We encourage you to try out serif and sans serif typeface designs to see what suits your project best.

Yours in font land,
Bob Thomas

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