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Typography carries more brand recognition than most businesses realise. If you removed the logo from your website, the type would still be doing most of the identifying. It is also where the licensing landmines are.
How many typefaces you need
Two. One for headings, one for body. A third is occasionally justified for a specific role — code, data tables, a display accent — but three general-purpose typefaces is almost always a sign that nobody decided.
Many strong identities use a single typeface family across everything, relying on weight and size for hierarchy. This is the easiest system to keep consistent and the hardest to get wrong.
What makes a pair work
- Contrast in structure, harmony in proportion. A serif and a sans with similar x-heights pair naturally; two similar sans-serifs look like a mistake.
- A range of weights. If the body typeface has only regular and bold, you will run out of hierarchy quickly.
- Genuine legibility at small sizes. Test at 14px on a phone before deciding, not at 60px in a specimen.
- Language coverage. If you will ever publish in another language, check the character set covers it. This catches people out constantly with accented characters, Arabic and Cyrillic.
- Numerals. Check for tabular figures if you display prices or data. Proportional numerals in a table look broken.
Licensing, in plain terms
| Open licence (SIL OFL) | Free for commercial use including web, print, apps and merchandise. Google Fonts is almost entirely this. The safest option, and the quality is now genuinely competitive. |
|---|---|
| Desktop licence | Lets you install the font and make artwork. Does NOT usually permit web embedding or bundling into an app. This is the most commonly violated licence. |
| Web licence | Permits serving the font on your site, usually capped by monthly page views. Exceeding the cap is a breach. |
| App licence | Required separately for bundling a font into a mobile or desktop application. |
| Bundled fonts | Fonts that came with Adobe, Microsoft or Apple software are licensed for use within that software, generally not for redistribution or web serving. |
The logo exception
Once letters in a logo are converted to outlines, they are artwork rather than font software, and most commercial licences permit this. But check the specific licence: a minority explicitly restrict use in trademarks and logos. If your entire identity rests on a wordmark, this is worth reading before you file a trademark rather than after.
Practical recommendations
- 1For most businesses, choose from open-licensed families. The licensing risk is zero and the quality is high.
- 2Buy a commercial family when you need something genuinely distinctive and you understand which licences you need.
- 3Whatever you choose, record it in the brand guidelines with the licence type and where it is permitted.
- 4Audit what you are currently using. A surprising number of businesses are serving a desktop-licensed font on their website without realising.
Want this done for you?
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