Fonts on products: picking type that prints and reads well

Text is the part of a design people actually read, and it is the part most likely to fail in print. A few rules make the difference.

Size for the real object

A line that looks fine on your monitor might be the width of a fingernail on the final product. Think about the physical size: on a shirt front, text under about a quarter of an inch tall is hard to read from any distance; on a sleeve or a pen it needs to be bolder still.

Thin is risky

Hairline strokes and very light font weights can break up when printed - especially on textured fabric, and especially in embroidery, where thin lines often cannot be stitched at all. Choose a regular or bold weight for anything important.

Fewer fonts

One font for headlines and one for everything else is plenty. Mixing four styles looks busy at any size and messy on a product.

Contrast with the background

Text needs to stand clearly apart from the colour behind it. Light grey on a white shirt or navy on black will look fine on a bright screen and disappear in real life. If in doubt, add an outline or choose a stronger colour.

Curves and effects

Curved text, shadows and outlines can look great, but each adds complexity. Curved text needs extra letter spacing so letters do not crowd on the inside of the curve. Shadows should be clearly offset, not a faint blur that prints as a smudge.

Check spelling twice

A typo on a printed product cannot be fixed. Read every word out loud before you order - including names and dates.

Licensing

Fonts are software with licences. Before you sell, check that the font you used allows commercial use on merchandise - many free fonts do, but not all, and the licence is the only answer.