Top 7 Typography Tips for Poster Design

Typography is particularly important when it comes to poster design. A poster is simply made up of text with some imagery. This guide covers the top seven tips to make a poster look good and work effectively.

1. Do more with less

Fewer fonts (two is plenty), fewer design elements to avoid visual clutter, and minimal different colors will make your post better and more effective.

Design to grab attention

Think about a billboard, it’s just a giant poster stuck to a building for people in cars. And you only have about three seconds to capture their attention and deliver a clear, memorable message. Too many elements make that impossible, so do more with less. Let’s start with choosing the right font to grab attention.

2. Choose the right font

If you’re new to typography and fonts, your first choice should be whether a Serif font or Sans-serif font best suits your poster. Serif fonts have small decorative details on the end of letters. Sans-serif fonts have no decorative details, they’re more minimal and geometric and offer a more modern, minimalist look.

Best fonts for posters

Sans-serif fonts are the best option for headlines because they’re minimal and bold. As for which specific fonts are best for your poster, it really depends on the aesthetic and message of your poster. If you're working closely with typography or text (in any form) as your primary form of work, check out software and tools to manage fonts.

3. Space exploration – leading and kerning

An important aspect of typography is the white space between individual letters, called leading and kerning.

Leading – line spacing

The space between lines of text is called leading (pronounced led-ing). Too much leading and your headline and subhead may appear disconnected and harder to read. And if your leading is too tight, your subhead may disappear into the headline and once again make it harder to read. Consider readability when altering your leading.

Kerning – letter spacing

The space between letters, kerning, can hugely impact your poster’s readability. Too much or too little kerning will make your text too hard to read, so make subtle adjustments and remember to check readability.

4. Composition is crucial

Once you have your font, it’s time to start tinkering with the placement and arrangement of your text on your poster. Your goal with poster text is to make it as easy to read as possible. If your text is too small or there’s too much text, the background is too busy or distracting, or anything else is compromising readability, your poster won’t be as effective as it could be.

Background noise

Your background image is crucial for setting up great readability on your poster. Make sure there is ample clear space to place your text.

Leading lines

One way to create a composition where the image and text complement each other is to align your text so it fits with a shape or contour present in the image. Another way is to think about the composition in broader terms than just an image as a background with text on top. The two can be arranged in endless ways — so let your creativity loose.

5. Establish a Focal Point

Good composition has a clear focal point — a visual element that catches and guides the eye. In the context of a layout that involves just imagery and text, it’s going to be one or the other. So you’ll need to decide which one is more important and help it stand out.

Imagery to guide the eye

If you’re designing a poster for a travel destination, an image of the location would probably make sense as the focal point. You can lighten the text and make it smaller (but still easily readable) to keep the focus on the image.

Text to guide the eye

In contrast, a poster for a business may want to use an oversized, uppercase font as the headline and a transparent mask over the image to keep focus on the text. Try creatively cropping your text or image to incorporate them for a truly eye-catching poster.

6. Eyes Like Balance

Balance is about organizing your composition so one side isn’t too busy compared to the other. An unbalanced design can negatively affects how engaging and memorable your poster is. For minimalist poster designs, balance is even more obvious.

Balanced your background

Choosing the right background image is the best way to set yourself up for success. If you can see your design is unbalanced but don’t know how to fix it, try some different background images or crop your background differently. And you can rearrange your text too.

7. Boost Readability with Color and Contrast

Crafty color

To help text leaps off your poster, use color and contrast to boost readability. Two of the most useful ways to use color are:

1. Coordinate your colors

For a unified and harmonious look, try pulling colors directly from your image to apply to your text.

2. Complementary colors

For a more dramatic look, try colors from opposite sides of the color wheel (complimentary colors).

Clever Contrast

Contrasting colors create text that pops off the background. Just as the human eye likes balance, it also likes contrast. Make your poster more effective and impactful with clever use of contrast.