Graphic designers use shading and effects to give cover lettering the right artistic feel. The fonts on professionally designed covers are never just typed onto the cover. They are never straight “out of the can.” Your cover needs to be visible in a thumbnail, on a mobile device. This is because such a high percentage of sales now occur online. Shorter titles need a wider font to sit comfortably in the frame.īut every bestselling book uses a font that was chosen carefully to be visible and arresting, standing out against other titles. Long titles call for a tall, condensed font. They are legible in a thumbnail cover image. Sans-serif typefaces do not, which makes them appear simpler and more modern. Serif typefaces have small decorations or embellishments on the letters, like Times New Roman or Baskerville. Textbooks tend to use more complex fonts, projecting a collegiate feel.īefore you ever thought about it consciously, your brain recognized the book’s intended audience. Professional books written for a lay audience project a clean, simple feel. Your book’s cover font can even communicate the “density” of the writing style.

If it doesn’t, you want them to know that too.Ĭhoosing the best font for the title and the author’s name projects your brand to the reader. If your book uses humor, you want readers to know that up front. Sometimes it’s about sending the right message. HumorĬhoosing the right font isn’t always about good fonts versus bad ones. You can see immediately how a bad font makes the book look bad. The font on the right is not a title font, and it has not been integrated into the design. The font on the left is modern and professional.

The difference between a professional cover font and an amateur choice is obvious. Most people use the terms interchangeably.

A font is a typeface in a certain size and style. The typeface refers to the general look and feel of the lettering. You can see this clearly with a few quick examples. Is your brain really getting all that from the typeface?īecause your subconscious mind sees everything visual as a conscious design choice that sends a specific signal. In fact, your subconscious mind makes a few snap judgments about every book based on its typography: That’s what typography is: the artistic design of the letters themselves.Īnd your mind takes that in before you’ve even read the title.

Your brain is taking in the lettering as an art form. When you see a title on a book cover, you might think you’re just reading the words. OK, now that’s settled, let’s dive into the font. When you go to an interview or on a date, do you design your own clothes? You should not design your own cover unless you are professionally trained in graphic design, and have a lot of experience designing book covers. Before I explain why book cover fonts matter, let’s be very clear:

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