A senior print guy told me my font pairings were too trendy, not functional

He pointed out my body copy was a readable 9pt in one font but looked like 7pt in another due to x-height differences. Has anyone else had to completely rethink their type choices after feedback from an old-school production person?

2 comments

2 Comments

kellyj235d ago

Oh man, that x-height thing got me too! I had this whole branding project where I was using a trendy thin sans for body copy and felt super proud of it. Then the production manager laid out my file next to the client's old brochure and you could barely read mine. I ended up switching to a workhorse serif that actually had proper legibility at small sizes, and paired it with the trendy font only for headlines. The whole piece looked way more polished and the client actually liked it better. Sometimes those old school guys really do know their stuff.

rose_murray4d ago

That thin sans trap is so easy to fall into... it looks so clean on screen at 100% zoom. My wake up call was trying to read a restaurant menu set in a light weight geometric sans under dim lighting... practically had to squint and hold it up to the candle. The chef was all about the modern vibe but customers kept asking for a bigger font version. We ended up redoing the whole thing in a sturdy slab serif for the listings with the fancy script just for the header... looked better and people could actually order their food without pulling out reading glasses.