Types of Lettering Fonts: Know Your Font Families

Font Families for Hand Lettering

When you first begin hand lettering, you might find yourself only ever doing beautiful cursive brush lettering. That is the starting point of lots of lettering artists — and for good reason! Brush lettering is gorgeous and trendy. But there is more to hand lettering than just pretty script. There are whole families of fonts that, when used creatively, make for some absolutely stellar pieces of lettering art. Today I want to walk you through the four basic hand lettering stylers and fonts so you can identify them and use them in your work for maximum effect.

Types of Lettering Fonts

The world of design is gigantic, and I can’t possibly begin to parse it all out here. So in this post, I want to introduce you to the four font families that you’ll see the most.

Serif

Serif is a font that features small lines added to each letter. Those extra lines are called “serifs”. Serif lettering fonts also tend to have a variation in line width, with some parts of the letter being thick and some thin.

This family of fonts is a great option when you want to write something with an old-fashioned or stately lettering style. You can also use them for large clusters of words or paragraphs, as they are typically quite easy to read, even when printed small.

Sans Serif

Sans serif fonts are fonts that do not feature the serif lines and usually have no variation in line thickness. This results in a more sleek and modern looking letter. Just like serif fonts, though, sans serif is an excellent option for the writing the body of a message. In fact, many websites use sans serif letters for the body of text in posts (this website included!).

That’s not to say sans serif isn’t great for titles or larger text. I love using this lettering font when I’m working on a hand lettering piece. I especially enjoy utilizing sans serif with my brush lettering for a nice style juxtaposition.

Script

Script is a type of lettering font that you are probably the most familiar with. This is because script is modeled after handwriting. The trademark signs of a script font is that the lines vary in thickness and the letters tend to connect to one another. You’ll also notice script fonts often slant one direction or the other — just like handwriting. These lettering fonts are rarely used in the body of a message. Instead, you’ll likely find them in the larger elements of design, like titles.

Decorative

When you have a font that is wacky and wild, it is probably in the decorative font family. The decorative font family is where all the creative, crazy fonts get categorized. Oftentimes, decorative fonts have a basis in one of the other three families but they take an element to the next level. Like the script family, decorative fonts are almost always used in titles or other large text, but never as the body font. Decorative fonts can be hard to read in large amounts, so you want to use them thoughtfully.

Mix Them Up

Now that you can identify the four types of lettering styles and fonts, I want you to try to spot them in the wild. Pay attention to commercials, brand logos, billboards, and websites. Once you figure out the differences between these font families, you’ll see that design is all around you all the time. With a more trained design eye, you’ll start getting inspiration and ideas for ways to mix up fonts for funky new styles. Don’t be shy about making new creative lettering combinations and adding new lettering fonts to your repertoire. You never know what will become your new favorite lettering font!