Choosing type is not a matter of taste so much as a matter of fit. The question is never which typeface is best. It is which typeface is carrying the right amount of personality for the job in front of it.
Start with the job, not the list
Long-form reading wants a face that disappears. A short, loud headline can afford a face with opinions. Interface labels want something that stays legible at fourteen pixels on a bad screen. Naming the job first eliminates most of the library before you have opened it.
A typeface with personality is a spice, not a meal. Use it where it will be noticed once.
The two-face rule
- One face for reading. Wide apertures, generous x-height, a real italic, at least four weights.
- One face for character. Used for headings only, and only at sizes large enough to show why you picked it.
- Everything else is size and weight. Most pages that feel busy do not need a third typeface, they need a clearer hierarchy in the two they already have.
Test where it will live
Type looks different in a specimen than it does in a paragraph, and different again on a phone in daylight. Set a real page of real content, read it on a real device, and only then decide. The specimen is marketing. The paragraph is the truth.
