Oscraps

Disclaimer:  I take no responsibility for how many fonts you choose to download after reading this post!  LOL

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about another way to spruce up the journaling on your pages.  FONTS!  Everyone say it with me now, “Hello.  I’m _________ and I’m a fontaholic.”  Why do we get so addicted to fonts?  As scrapbookers, our job is to convey messages about significant events.  Most of us don’t just scrap one kind of event, so it follows that we wouldn’t limit ourselves to one type of font.  Plus, we all love to be artistic and fonts provide a great way to do that.  Let’s take a look at some of the ways we can use fonts in different ways on pages.  Today’s post is focusing on fonts and not alphabets or word art, we’ll discuss those in a later post!

Poynter.com says that “Type can be an important part of storytelling.”  And goes on to cite examples regarding the number 11 reflecting the Twin Towers and how type can reflect different time periods as well.  When you select a font for your title or journaling, try to decide what kind of mood you are trying to convey.  Fonts have personalities, just like people and different fonts can suit different events and pages.

Poynter suggests typing a word and trying different fonts to see how the mood changes with each font.  Notice how in this layout, Inkspots uses a font in her title to convey the trauma of the embarrassment.  The distressed effect of the font, disjointed alignment, and the contrast to the simple handwriting all add to the feeling behind the word.

Choosing the style of font can be a place to start.  Do you want a serif (plain tips of the letters) or san serif (curved strokes at the ends of letters) font?  Script or plain?  Maya’s layout here uses a script font that reflects the softness in the lyrics, “You’ll be in my heart.”  Scripts can add to the emotional softness of a page or create an elegant sweeping feel.

You don’t always have to change fonts to change the mood either.  Simply changing size, weight, and color can make a large impact as well.  Fiona’s page creates a change in voice just by varying the font properties.

Text paths are another way to create emotion on your page, while only using one font.  The curving nature of the journaling on Kerry’s page adds to the naturalistic feeling of this page, like the wind is blowing the words across the page.

And of course, mixing fonts is a fun way to spruce up your page.  My scrapbooking crush (Selena) does a great job of selecting which parts of her sentences and titles to change to different fonts and mixing them up on the page.  The title starts outs with a nice and calm font, then changes to something bold and funny, almost like she’s yelling, then changing again to a calmer, almost resigned font before ending with a fun twist.  The fonts alone create a progression of mood in this one sentence.

One more tip is to watch the fonts that other scrapbookers use and keep them in mind for your own use.  Of course, this only works if we credit the fonts that we use.  Many times, we forget to give credit to the fonts on the page, but they are creations just like our elements and papers.  Sally created this wonderful layout incorporating many fonts.  And I scraplifted it.  Both of us realized that we didn’t take the time to credit our fonts!  (Shame on us!)  Sadly, neither of us can find our original PSD files to figure out which fonts we did use!!!  So a tip for the future is to always take the time to credit your fonts when uploading your layouts to the gallery.

 

 

Now…here’s the dangerous part.  Some resources to help in your quest to perfect your fonts.

Advanced tips for combining multiple fonts:

http://bonfx.com/29-principles-for-making-great-font-combinations/

Identifying Fonts that aren’t credited:

http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

https://secure.flickr.com/groups/fonts-in-use/

Free Fonts (be careful….don’t lose yourself here!):

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/

http://www.dafont.com/

http://www.1001freefonts.com/

http://www.kimberlygeswein.com/

Make your own handwriting font:

http://kevinandamanda.com/fonts/fontsforpeas/how-to-get-your-handwriting-as-a-font/

http://www.yourfonts.com/

Programs for managing fonts:

My Font Book – PC

http://www.myfontbook.com/launch.php#

Font Book Mac – Preinstalled on Macs

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT2509

 

Good luck with your font endeavors and be sure to show off your pages to us!!!