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# Choosing the Right Font
- URL: https://nolongerset.com/choosing-the-right-font/
- Published: 2022-06-02T03:55:53.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-08T12:57:14.000Z
- Description: Fonts fall into six main categories. There is no one "best" type of font. Rather, each type serves different purposes.
- Author: Mike Wolfe
- Tags: Form Design, #Import 2026-05-20 02:59

There are six different categories of fonts:

1. **Serif**: those that have "serifs," the little curved bits at the ends of letters
2. **Sans Serif**: literally, "without serif," these fonts are straight without the little curved bits
3. **Monospace**: those fonts where every letter takes up the same amount of space
4. **Dingbat**: fonts that have symbols in place of letters and numbers
5. **Handwritten**: fonts that are meant to appear hand-written by deliberately introducing inconsistency among the characters
6. **Script**: "cursive" fonts where the letters are connected to each other

There is no one "best" type of font. 

Rather, each type is best suited for different purposes.

## When to Use Each Type of Font

Here are a few simple rules you can follow to boost the visual appeal of your forms and reports.

### Serif

Serif fonts work best for:

- **Long passages of text**: the serifs visually join the letters making it easier for our brains to group them together into words; this is why every printed newspaper uses serif fonts for their article text
- **Laser-printed text**: laser printers take best advantage of the fact that fonts are vector-based, so the fine curves of the serifs appear smooth and crisp on the printed page
- **Read-only memo fields**: for example, narrative-style notes fields that regularly exceed 255 characters displayed in a locked text box

### Sans Serif

Sans serif fonts work best for:

- **Headlines**: the lack of serifs make them appear visually distinct from the rest of the text
- **Computer monitors**: modern operating systems perform anti-aliased font smoothing by default, but sans serif fonts still appear relatively crisper than serif fonts when shown on screen
- **Field labels**: sans serif fonts are ideal for field labels because they take up relatively little room while still being easy to read on-screen
- **Report data**: I use sans serif fonts almost exclusively for my data-centric Access reports (the only reports where I use serif fonts are those with long passages of text, such as form letters)

### Monospace

Monospace fonts work best for:

- **Writing code**: my personal favorite for this task is Consolas, as it has a strong visual distinction between one and lower-case el and between zero and upper-case o
- **User-editable text**: while monospace fonts take up a lot more horizontal screen real estate, they are also a lot easier for users to edit; trying to correctly position a mouse cursor to select an "l" in between two "i"'s is difficult to do with a variable width font; I call this **the Milli Vanilli test**

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/eb/d7/ebd732c1-5f03-4f07-b386-5d08557e15c9/content/images/2022/06/image-3.png)

The **Milli Vanilli test**: attempt to select a single lower-case el ("l") from the text value "Milli Vanilli." This is significantly easier to do with a monospace font than with a variable-width font.

### Dingbat

Dingbat fonts, like Webdings or Wingdings, work best for:

- **Map annotations**: to mark points of interest
- **Special effects**: you can do some pretty creative things with just a text box and a dingbat font

Remember, since most fonts are vector-based, you can set the font sizes to very large sizes without losing any detail in the font symbol.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/eb/d7/ebd732c1-5f03-4f07-b386-5d08557e15c9/content/images/2022/06/image-4.png)

### Handwritten

Handwritten fonts work best for:

- **Mockups**: these fonts make your forms look intentionally unfinished so that when you are showing *designs* to your clients, they don't think the project is nearly done

> "If you show a nonprogrammer a screen which has a user interface which is 100% beautiful, they will think the program is almost done. ... If you can, build your UI in such a way that unfinished parts *look* unfinished."   
> \-Joel Spolsky, [The Iceberg Secret, Revealed](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/02/13/the-iceberg-secret-revealed/)

### Script

Script fonts work best for:

- **Displaying a user’s name on a signature line so that it looks like they actually signed it**: assuming the purpose of your application is to fool eight-year-olds

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