Think about your favorite book for a moment. How did it make you feel when you read it? Is that part of what made it such a compelling story?
My favorite book series is Harry Potter, and apart from the awesomeness that is a magical boarding school, the font in which it was published may have influenced my affection for the series.
You see, visual elements are just as important as the words on a web page or blog post. And fonts serve as a visual marketing tool for publishers to leverage when compiling their story. The font you choose ultimately plays a hand in conveying the message you want to send your readers.
In this post, we’ll explore how fonts can influence reader emotion and how marketers can use this information in their content.
Fonts vs. Typefaces: What’s the Difference?
“Font” and “typeface” are two terms that are often incorrectly used interchangeably.
A font is one particular weight and style of a larger typeface. Typefaces are categories comprised of many different fonts. For example, Serif is a typeface, and Times New Roman is a font that is part of the Serif family.
There are a variety of different typefaces and fonts. Here’s a quick rundown:
Serif
Serif fonts are identifiable by the small lines on the edges of letters (called serifs) that make the font easier to read in print.
Fonts in the Serif typeface include Times New Roman, Georgia, and Book Antiqua.
Sans Serif
Sans serif font letters don’t have a serif attached to them, so they display more clearly on websites.
Fonts in the Sans serif typeface include Arial, Verdana, and Helvetica.
Here’s a diagram of the difference between Serif and Sans Serif:
Script
Fonts in the Script typeface are meant to imitate the fluidity of human handwriting.
Fonts in the Script typeface include Comic Sans, Kristen, and Lucida.
Here’s an example of Kristen below:
Modern or Display
The modern typeface is characterized by variance between thin and thick bold lines in the lettering.
Fonts in the Modern typeface include Impact, Rockwell, and Agency.
Here’s an example of the Impact font:
Monospaced
Monospaced fonts have larger spaces between each letter and were designed to look like text was written using a typewriter.
Fonts in the Monospaced typeface include Courier, Consolas, and Monaco.
Here’s what Courier looks like:
These different typefaces and fonts are widely used across the internet, and research has been conducted about the impact of fonts on communication and overall perception. Let’s dive into the data and see if you agree with their findings.
Which Fonts Connote Which Emotions?
Wichita State University’s Software Usability Research Laboratory conducted a survey in 2006 to determine if different fonts had different emotions and personalities associated with them.
In the survey, they asked more than 500 participants about their perceptions of a variety of different fonts across the typefaces outlined above. The fonts that respondents answered questions about were:
Different uses of each font were evaluated in the survey, such as emails, letters, spreadsheets, web pages, headlines, and news articles.
Respondents were then asked to assign personalities and emotions to each…
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