If you’re designing a poster, the font choice is critical to gauging your intended audience’s interest. You want to choose a font that is readable but also fits the personality of the poster’s subject, whether it’s informational or an advertisement. There are a variety of free and paid fonts available designed with posters in mind, but you don’t always need a specialized font to make an impactful design. With so many fonts out there, it can be challenging to decide which one to choose for your poster. Here are the 5 best fonts for posters that you can’t go wrong with.
1. League Gothic
League Gothic is a typeface in the sans serif family created for The League of Movable Type. It’s a revamp of the Alternate Gothic #1 font from 1903.
The tall, skinny letters of league gothic are commanding but professional. This typeface is an excellent choice for posters with serious topics since it’s attention-grabbing without distracting from other information.
While the font is readable, it’s not preferable for body text. It works fantastic for headings and subtitles.
2. Aleo
Aleo is a slab serif font that has three different weights. It has a gentle roundness that sets it apart from the other fonts in the slab serif family.
Alessio Laiso made the lettering a companion to the Lato font. Aleo is a popular poster choice both for readability and friendliness.
This font can be used for headings or as a text font.
3. Arial
Arial is the standard font for most word processors, like Microsoft Word and Google Documents. The reason is it’s both clean and contemporary.
The font works great for body text, but you can adapt it for almost any media form.
Arial works great for informational posters and is an excellent complement for busier fonts.
4. Bodoni
Giambattista Bodoni first created his font in 1798. Different versions now exist in the font family, with both traditional and modern versions available.
The typeface is characterized by its contrasting thick and thin lines, providing its stylish look.
Due to its stylized look, Bodoni works best as a header or title font for many different posters. It can slow work in small sentences.
5. Garamond
Garamond is a typeface named for engraver Claude Garamond. It’s fairly readable, thanks to its size.
The design resembles a calligrapher’s handwriting and is part of the serif font family.
It has a unique style while still being very readable, making it an excellent choice for body text.
The typeface is often used in books and works well on posters.
Choosing Your Poster Font
When you design a poster, there are many things you need to consider for the best design. The size, color and images make a difference in catching an audience’s attention. The font you choose is one of the most critical decisions for your poster.
The right font should be both readable and match the style of the information you’re displaying. These five fonts are excellent choices that can complement other typefaces to accomplish your team’s marketing goals.
About The Author
Eleanor Hecks is the Editor-in-Chief of Designerly Magazine, an online publication dedicated to providing in-depth content from the design and marketing industries. When she's not designing or writing code, you can find her re-reading the Harry Potter series, burning calories at a local Zumba class, or hanging out with her dogs, Bear and Lucy.
