Display fonts are intended for use in large headlines. Therefore, they often have a more noticeable and eye-catching design than simple, relatively "restrained" fonts, which are usually used for the main text. In German, the term akzidenzschrift exists, which means a commercial or commercial font that is used for headings and is not intended for the main text. This word is precisely what is used for display fonts. The famous font name "Accident Grotesque", which literally means "commercial sans-serif," comes from this very term.
Appearance story
Occupational fonts are a way to draw attention to some part of the text, therefore, to create them, you can use not only the font of ordinary letters, but also hand-drawn signs, calligraphy and various abstract or drawn styles. For them, the size of a size from 14 points is usually used. The best text fonts are easy to read in long paragraphs. They do not attract much attention and were designed so that they work best between the size of 6 and 14 points.
Display fonts are a relatively recent invention. They are used to attract the reader to the text, create a mood or announce important information. They were not needed until the end of the XVIII century, at that time there were advertising posters. Until this time, headsets not intended for the main text looked like ordinary letters.
The advent of posters and the wider use of signage stimulated the emergence of new types of fonts. At the same time, at the beginning of the 19th century, new letter designs began to appear, with serifs, but much bolder in design. Sans serif fonts have already been used in custom labels. But they were hardly used for printing until the 1830s.
The first display fonts are extremely bold and concise typefaces that were used to get attention. In addition, some of them, such as Cochin and Koch-Antiqua, had a special design with a small height x. Occupational fonts, the design of which was close to these headsets, was very popular at the beginning of the 20th century.
Modern technologies and their impact
Thanks to the advent of photo-typing and digital printing methods that allow you to type fonts of any size, it has become possible to use display fonts in situations where handwritten inscriptions are usually used, for example, on business logos. Many modern digital font families, such as Neutraface, Neue Haas Grotesk and Arno, include both regular text styles and additional styles with a more concise design.
Font Display Styles
Accidental fonts, the purpose of which is to attract attention, may look like inscriptions with a pattern, for example, using strokes similar to handwriting. They can be darkened or engraved, with spaces in the center, designed for embossed three-dimensional letters. Another option is shaded images that look gray when viewed from a distance.
There are also unusual or abstract redesigns of the alphabet, labels that appear damaged or distorted, such as Shatter or Electric Circus. Accidental fonts include some ultralight and bold adaptations of ordinary letter forms, including Cooper Black or Gill Kayo. And with a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters, you can create an unusual effect.
Design Features
Many fonts have a different mood or personality. They can be serious, artsy, playful, elegant. The mood of the font should match the designer's goal. For example, a rounded headset with bubbles and balls is suitable for inviting a child’s birthday, but not for business newsletters. As is often the case with people, opposites are usually attracted: “introverted” and “extrovert” fonts are perfectly combined with each other. Therefore, if a designer has a distinctive font with a “strong personality”, it can be combined with something more neutral and conservative for a balanced design.
Headset Application
Accidental fonts are back-contrast. This means that in them the contrast of ordinary writing is inverted, and horizontal strokes are made thicker than vertical ones. Lettering may include the use of screen or embossed ribbon fonts for industrial aesthetics. Restaurants often prefer a “simulation” of a headset designed for a different writing system. A more prosaic style of display fonts are those designed for signage such as Johnston, Highway Gothic, Transport, and Clearview. They often have features that increase readability. For example, Johnston and Transport have a curved letter L in lower case to distinguish it from i in upper case.
User focus
The readability of the headset is very dependent on the size of the letters. For example, in serif fonts, the thin parts are proportionally heavier with decreasing size. If they were left with the same fat content as for large sizes, the contrast between thick and thin strokes would be too great, which would make reading the text difficult. Display fonts are a larger headset with a special personality.
It can have a graceful handwritten look that complements the design background. Accidental fonts in Cyrillic differ little in application from Latin. Qualities such as size, boldness, and spacing affect how the eye should move around the page and which text should attract attention first.