Product Reviews

Finding the Perfect Pair

Posted on April 17, 2018March 16, 2023 by Jas0n

17
Apr

One of the classic problems that content marketers can run into is the issue of font pairing. The right fonts can impress and direct your message efficiently toward your customers. However, the wrong fonts can have a detrimental effect on the viewer’s perception of your material and, as an extension, your brand. If paired fonts are too similar, there will be too much visual conflict. If they’re completely different, it creates a disjointed and random feeling. It’s rare that you’ll be going for that effect. So how can you find fonts that share a common theme but differ in a specific and pleasing way? In the past, designers and writers have relied on their own intuition to know which fonts work well together. Until now, there hasn’t been a systematic approach to font pairing. That’s where Fontjoy comes in. As a top content tool, Fontjoy makes it easy to put together different fonts and visualize how they might look as part of your marketing plan. The tool uses a graph like this one to recognize numerical patterns between different designs. As you can see, how weight and obliqueness (slant) can differ between fonts. Using this graph, you should pair fonts that are further away for good contrast, but horizontal or vertical for a common dimension. As more dimensions are added to the graph, it becomes 3D, 4D, 5D, etc. and while it can’t be visualized beyond 3D, the concept is the same. Fontjoy uses a deep neural network to label and classify raw input by interpreting sensory data through a machine perception. The matching features are discovered automatically for our use! While it’s interesting to learn about how Fontjoy comes up with its pairings, it’s not necessary to know all the details. All you need to do is visit the homepage at fontjoy.com and begin clicking ‘Generate’ to view random pairings. The slider on the right allows you to adjust the contrast of the pairings to your liking. If there’s a font that grabs your attention, you can lock it into place via the lock icons on the left. As you continue to generate fonts, they will be matched to the locked font, based on your selected level of contrast. You can also select the second icon on the left to manually view and select similar fonts. Not all of the generated fonts work visually, so it’s important to rely on your own intuition. However, Fontjoy can help you discover new and unexpected relationships between fonts. Fonjoy is free to use, and it’s not necessary to create an account, though there is an option to subscribe to their newsletter. The only costs that might be associated with using the tool would be buying fonts that you don’t already own. Some font collections can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, but subscriptions can cost as low as $10 – $15 per month. If there’s a font that you like, you can use the ‘similar fonts’ tool to find a font that is comparable but maybe doesn’t cost as much. As you plan your content strategies, be sure to include Fontjoy as a resource. Use it to find good font combinations for your website, blog, creative, and more. You won’t regret taking a few moments to find the perfect pair.