Greetings card typography: fonts, sizes and pairings

Most of our range is type-led, so typography does the heavy lifting. Get the size and spacing right and a plain sentence becomes a card people buy; get it wrong and the best joke in the world dies on the shelf.

This is the third guide in the how to design a card series. It covers choosing typefaces, pairing them, and setting them so they're legible in a rack.

Choosing a typeface

• Pick a face with a personality that matches the message — a condensed grotesk for deadpan humour, a warm serif for sympathy. Shop this card
• Avoid the defaults everyone recognises. A card set in the system font reads as unfinished. Shop this card
• Check the typeface has a proper italic and a bold weight before you commit; faked slants look cheap in print. Shop this card
• Make sure the licence covers commercial print if you're selling the card. Shop this card

Pairing two typefaces

• Two typefaces is the ceiling for a card. Three is a poster. Shop this card
• Pair by contrast, not similarity: a display face for the punchline, a plain face for the small print. Shop this card
• If in doubt, use one family and get your contrast from weight and size instead. Shop this card

Sizes and spacing

• The main line on the front should be at least 24pt on an A6 card — it has to read from a metre away. Shop this card
• Set body text no smaller than 9pt; the inside of a card is often read in poor light. Shop this card
• Tighten the tracking slightly on large display type and loosen it slightly on small caps. Shop this card
• Set line height around 1.3× the type size for anything longer than two lines. Shop this card

Hand-lettering and script

• Hand-lettering gives warmth that a font can't fake — worth the effort on sympathy and new baby designs. Shop this card
• Never set script type in all caps; the letters are drawn to join in lowercase. Shop this card
• Scan hand-lettering at 600dpi and clean it up as vector art so it stays crisp at any size. Shop this card

Cards where the words are the design

Set large, kerned by hand, printed in the UK.

How to write it so it lands

• Print the type at final size and read it at arm's length before deciding it's big enough.
• Kern large display lines by hand — automatic spacing always leaves a gap somewhere obvious.
• Never letterspace lowercase script. It breaks the joins and the word stops reading.

Where to shop next

• How to design a greetings card (series hub)
• Card layout guide
• Card typography guide
• Photo cards guide
• Shop all cards
• Browse card collections

Frequently asked questions

What font size should a greetings card use?

At least 24pt for the main line on an A6 front, and no smaller than 9pt for anything printed inside.

How many fonts should be on one card?

One or two. Beyond that the card starts to look like a leaflet rather than a designed object.

Can I use any font on a card I'm selling?

Only if the licence allows commercial print use. Free-for-personal-use fonts are the most common licensing mistake in card design.