If you’re designing your own book cover, there are all sorts of challenges that you’re bound to run into. One of the biggest obstacles you may have come across is how to go about presenting the most important feature – your title. This is where you’ll have to make several very important decisions about something you may have only just begun to regard – book cover font.

Which Book Cover Font Is Right for Me?

For most people, their experience with font begins and ends with the 12-point Times New Roman font. With book cover fonts, however, there’s so much more. First, you’ll need to know that there’s a difference between the standard text fonts that you’re familiar with (such as Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri) and the display fonts that are used for book covers, advertisements, and more. Display fonts are designed in such a way to be more eye-catching and attention-grabbing than text fonts normally would be. Some common display fonts are Chuck Five, League Gothic, Franchise, and Baskerville. This is where you’ll want to begin your search.

Selecting an appropriate book cover font is just like designing the rest of your cover. You want something that visually suggests the themes or emotions at play in your book. Know the conventions of your genre. Some fonts are  indicative of particular genres, so you want to be sure you are sending the right message. Play around with the weight of your book cover font – light or bold, big or small, stern or playful – and see which one feels not only most appropriate to your book, but also best communicates the nature of your writing. Feel free to use different typefaces to set either a balance or a contrast. However, as a general rule, limit your title to no more than two different typefaces otherwise your cover will start to look indecisive. The use of a proper book cover font can be the deciding factor between a professional or an amateurish cover, so you’ll want to pay close attention to design conventions and your own limitations.

Have you found “the one”, or are you still searching for the ultimate book cover font? I think a person’s preferences can say a lot about their style, and it’s always fun to compare and contrast! Feel free to share anything about your favorite fonts in the comments.

NEXT: Create A Book Cover That Sells