Type combinations to design books
Type combinations to design books.
Type combinations to design books is a subject with broad appeal to both pro book designers as well as self-publishing authors. Learn how to better select type for a professional look. Most of the coffee table books that are sent to us for printing, are done in Adobe InDesign. Novels are often done in Microsoft Word.
There are so many type combinations and possibilities. I’m narrowing the information just to provide user information.
A brief introduction to using type.
Please notice that fonts have different extensions, like OTF or TTF. Use either of the these, but be careful about using any other extensions, unless you know what you are doing. When you select a family, you should use or buy the four basic styles: Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic.
Open Type Font (OTF) is the current standard.
True Type (TTF) is an font extension widely used, but will not be supported by Adobe Fonts.
Type combinations that you may already have, or can get free.
Type combinations in Adobe Fonts.
If you subscribe to Adobe to be able to use InDesign, you have access to all the fonts in Adobe Fonts, for as long as you subscribe.
Some of our favorite pairings from Adobe Fonts:
Google Fonts and Font Squirrel are also two good sources.
What if you don’t have Adobe Fonts? Design books with free fonts from Google Fonts or Font Squirrel.
Since many fonts are on the market today, I am wary of using many of the less known typefaces for text. The spacing can be off, and create an awkward text layout. My advice is if you are not familiar with the classics, either use Adobe Fonts, or invest in a classic typeface family for good looking page layout.
Headline fonts can be a different type family than the text fonts. I would still use Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic, but use the different fonts more sparingly. For instance, establish a headline size and style, for instance, bold. A subhead might be a smaller size, and in bold italic, or regular. But, pick one. Too many typeface style or font usage creates a clutter and amateur design.
Also read about Type Superfamilies.
