Which Fonts to Use in Advertising and How to Pair Them

Design principles8 min read · Updated: 03.11.2026

Type in advertising has one job: to get the message across before the reader looks away. A flyer is read in the hand, a poster from 2–3 metres and a fence banner from a passing car. Each of these situations makes different demands on a typeface. In this guide you will find out which fonts work best for advertising, how to pair two typefaces without creating a mess, what sizes to use in print, how to check accented characters and what to watch out for with font licences.

Serif, sans serif or script: which typeface suits which advert?

Sans serif typefaces (e.g. Montserrat, Roboto, Open Sans, Lato, Source Sans 3) have plain letter endings and an even stroke weight. This makes them the most legible at small sizes, from a distance and on the move, so they are a safe choice for body copy, price lists, phone numbers and addresses.

Serif typefaces (e.g. Merriweather, Lora, PT Serif, Playfair Display) have small finishing strokes and suggest tradition, elegance and quality. They look good in restaurant menu headings, on invitations and certificates, and in adverts for premium services. Handwritten and script typefaces (e.g. Caveat, Dancing Script) add emotion but are the least legible, so they are only suitable for short accents.

How to pair fonts: the two-typeface rule

In any one advertising design, use no more than two typefaces: one distinctive face for the headline and one neutral face for the rest of the text. A third typeface almost always introduces visual clutter and weakens the message. Build hierarchy through size, weight (Regular, Bold, Black) and colour rather than by adding more fonts.

The two typefaces should be clearly different. Two similar sans serifs side by side look like a mistake rather than a deliberate choice. The simplest solution is a single family with several weights, e.g. Montserrat Black for the headline and Montserrat Regular for the body copy.

• Serif + sans serif: Playfair Display for the headline, Lato or Source Sans 3 for the body copy. A classic pairing for menus and premium services.
• Heavy sans serif + light sans serif from the same family: Montserrat ExtraBold and Montserrat Regular. Works well on banners, roll-ups and promotions.
• Script accent + sans serif: Caveat for a single word of the slogan ("Enjoy!") and Open Sans for everything else. Good for cafés, bakeries and invitations.
• Serif for body copy + sans serif for headings: Merriweather for descriptions and Roboto Bold for titles, e.g. on a certificate or in a brochure.
• Don't mix two script faces or two decorative faces, as they will drown each other out.

Minimum font sizes in print

Type size is given in typographic points (1 pt ≈ 0.353 mm), but the actual size of the letters depends on the typeface. Fonts with a large x-height (e.g. Open Sans, Roboto) look bigger than faces with a small x-height at the same point size. Treat the values below as the minimum for a typical sans serif, and add 1–2 pt for serif and script faces.

For reversed-out text (light letters on a dark background), choose a heavier weight and don't go below 8 pt. Lines and rules thinner than 0.25 pt may disappear in print, and the same applies to the hairline strokes of very high-contrast serifs.

Legibility at a distance: what letter height for banners, roll-ups and signs?

In large-format advertising, what matters is letter height in centimetres, not points. The signage industry's rough rule of thumb is that the minimum for legibility is about 2.5 cm of capital height for every 10 m of distance. Comfortable reading needs about 2.5 cm for every 3 m. The result depends on the typeface, weight, contrast and lighting, and on whether the viewer is standing, walking or driving.

On a banner or sign, limit the text to 5–7 words and a single phone number. Choose a Bold or Semibold sans serif, avoid setting longer slogans in capitals and leave slightly more letter spacing than you would on a flyer. The best contrast comes from dark text on a light background or white on a very dark one.

Accented characters: how to check a font before you start

Many free and decorative fonts lack accented letters such as á, é, í, ó, ú (essential for Irish names and place names), ç, ñ, ü or ł, or have them drawn carelessly. The software then substitutes a character from another typeface, which is immediately obvious in print. Before choosing a font, type a test sentence such as "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" together with the accented words and names you actually need, in both lower case and CAPITALS, and inspect them at high magnification.

In Google Fonts, look for typefaces that support the Latin Extended character set, or type your own text into the preview. Never build accents by hand from commas or apostrophes, as such letters will fall apart every time the text is edited.

• Check the capitals with accents: Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú and any others your text uses.
• Make sure accents and cedillas don't collide with neighbouring letters or the line above.
• With script faces, check that the joins between letters remain continuous around accented characters.
• Also check numerals, currency symbols (£, €), the percent sign and dashes if they appear in the text.

Font licences: Google Fonts, free and commercial

Google Fonts are mostly released under the SIL Open Font License (OFL), with some under Apache 2.0. Both allow free commercial use: on flyers, banners, signs and in logos. The only thing you cannot do is sell the font file itself as your own product.

Be wary of "free font" websites. Many typefaces there carry the note "free for personal use", meaning private use only, and advertising a business counts as commercial use. Commercial fonts come with desktop, web or app licences. Before using one in a logo or on a product for sale, read the licence agreement (EULA), as the terms vary from foundry to foundry.

• Google Fonts (OFL, Apache 2.0): commercial use permitted, including in logos.
• "Free for personal use": not suitable for business advertising unless you buy a licence.
• Commercial fonts: scope depends on the licence, so check print, logo use and embedding in PDF.
• System fonts: use is governed by the operating system or software licence, so check it before using one in a logo.

How to prepare text for print so nothing changes

In the file you send to the printer, fonts must be embedded in the PDF or converted to outlines. Otherwise the printer may open the design with a substitute typeface, and accented characters can turn into empty boxes. Keep text at least 3–5 mm inside the trim line on small formats (correspondingly more on banners and roll-ups), and extend the background into a 3 mm bleed.

Print small black text in the K channel only (100% black) rather than in a four-colour rich black, because even the slightest misregistration will make the letters look blurred. If you order your design from plakaty.shop (wielkareklama.eu studio), the text is automatically checked for errors, but you should still proofread phone numbers, addresses and names yourself before printing.