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Professional designers know that in addition to geometrical shapes, signs, and symbols, the font is an integral part of their work, and it makes the whole composition.
Typography is at the core of all branding material, and graphic designers spend a lot of time choosing the best fonts for their designs to look professional.
Every designer needs a solid set of professional fonts in their collection.
The fonts you end up using will go hand in hand with the company colors and logo.
With thousands of typefaces out there, choosing the right font to embody what a brand stands for can be a tough decision.
Fortunately, I’ve simplified the search by compiling a list of the top 10 professional fonts for designers.
Below, I go into some detail about what these fonts are all about, and show you some previews of how they look.
Helvetica is the go-to choice of professionals for its clean, confident look that is both legible and presentable.
Helvetica has a subtle look that effortlessly emphasizes content and catches the eye.
Many world-renowned companies use logos that are based on Helvetica — this is probably the most professional font of all times.
Mike Parker, typographer, type designer, consultant, and historian was the creator of Helvetica font as we know it today.
Originally designed in Switzerland, the Helvetica typeface has a long history of adoption and evolution, with over 50 years of use and a quick rise to become the most popular sans serif in the world.
It has always been a ubiquitous and versatile font because of its numerous weights, widths, and sizes.
The clarity and neutrality of this font made public and governmental institutions rely on it in their documents and signage, e.g. the New York subway system.
The collection includes 34 variations to suit all your needs, from more condensed versions to more rounded.
Being one of the most prolific font styles in modern-day typography, it can be seen as the foundation of many brand logos, including: Jeep, Panasonic, Microsoft, Lufthansa, American Apparel, Nestlé, and many more.
Helvetica is widely used by graphic designers for print work and signage, because of its high legibility and easily recognizable look.
This historic font continues to be a popular typographic choice to express strength, elegance, and conceptual clarity.
Futura has always been able to portray form and order, with an extra hint of creativity.
Presented in 1928, Futura is considered to have been born out of the iconic Bauhaus movement in Germany, and it’s been used all over the world ever since.
Designed in 1927 by Paul Renner, the original drawings were based on classic geometric forms like circles, triangles, and squares.
Its look, and its name, earned it the right to be a striking futuristic typeface back then, and it has since been adopted globally as a timeless blend of modern design and tasteful forms.
You can use Futura to achieve the maximum in a limited space: logos, slogans, corporate typefaces, and books with a need for a small text.
Based on geometric shapes, such as circles, triangles, and squares, Futura helps the text to look perfect.
Futura was named “the typeface of today and tomorrow” due to its spirit of modernity.
Some designers dislike the font, but for many, it became an integral part of their graphic design experience.
World-famous brands, such as Nike, Supreme, Gillette, PayPal, Red Bull, and many others use Futura font versions in their logotypes.
The font is extremely widespread in film and video making industries.
Due to its ability to be captured and recognized quickly, transport is the other area of its use, for example, Mercedes-Benz panel graphics and Boeing airliners’ co*ckpit controls exploit the font.
With the font family including 22 different versions, it remains a versatile typeface suitable for many different situations.
Graphic designers turn to Futura for an aesthetic that looks strong, innovative, and orderly.
Trajan is extensively used in the film-making industry, especially it is known due to numerous Hollywood movie posters.
A symbolic existence in society, religion, law, and class characterizes the Trajan typeface.
The old-style serif typeface, Trajan was developed for the purpose of Adobe by Carol Twombly in 1989.
The font creator got her inspiration from Trajan’s Column where Roman square capitals were inscribed.
Trajan design was improved by numerals and punctuation, and bolder versions.
It’s fascinating that Twombly`s ancient style interpretation gave the world a font family whose clarity and beauty ornament not only printed materials but is extensively used in digital design projects.
Take into account that Trajan was created for display in large sizes that’s why pay special attention when you use it in print.
Known best for its characteristic narrow “f” in italics, this font type is widely used in books and printouts for its soft, easy on the eyes look.
The iconic Sabon font manages to be legible without having a monotonous look.
Sabon is an old-style serif typeface designed by the German-born typographer and designer Jan Tschichold who wanted to create a font with curves that keep readers engaged, but without straining the eyes.
A new take on the classical Roman font, it was designed in the early 1960s to be better fit for Linotype casting machines.
Since then, it has become a favorite of typographers, authors, and graphic designers alike for its smooth texture and pleasant serifs.
The gentle curves of the serifs help naturally guide the eyes from one letter to the next, and from word to word, and this is evident even more in the iconic italic styles.
This classic typeface is best for body text — a relatively faithful, organic book typeface strongly rooted in tradition
Sabon was used in the 2000s as the official logo typeface of Stanford University until 2012.
This typeface is also used by Örebro University, together with another typeface Trade Gothic.
Also Vogue and Esquire use a slightly modified version of Sabon for headlines.
The Sabon font family comes in 4 different styles and has support for up to 19 different character sets.
Sabon’s popularity has transcended its origin as a commission to fit a tight set of business requirements.
Introduced at the Paris World’s Fair in 1900, Garamond is one of the most famous fonts in the world.
Garamond is an elegant serif font with fine, precise edges and natural looking curves.
Garamond is ideal for magazines, websites, and textbooks, and is used by designers for all kinds of creative graphics.
Named after Claude Garamond and based on his alphabet, along with the work of Jean Jannon, the font was derived from Italian font forms and stylized to be more elegant and clear.
This typeface has characteristics of the Transitional style, and was one of the main fonts to embrace a combination of classic and modern elements during its time.
Despite having lots of versions, the Adobe ITC Garamond, designed in 1989, is the most popular font version.
Garamond`s brilliant popularity is grounded on its bold and subtle style that is perfect for academic requirements.
Recently, a German publication agency named Garamond the second-best font after Helvetica.
Apple and Microsoft Windows used new variants of the font for their interface designs.
Now it’s a very popular look for graphic designers going for a relaxed version of the classic, official look.
The Garamond Classico font family comes with 5 different styles that give you just what you need for your graphic design material.
