Best Fonts for Custom T-shirts

The Best Fonts for Custom T-shirts

So, you decided to create your own shirts. Yay! When done right, custom T-shirts are unarguably one of the easiest ways to inspire team spirit, and they make for great gifts, too! But designing them is all fun and games until you have to choose a font that fits your message best.

Don't worry. We compiled the best fonts and some guidelines to help you ensure that your shirt matches your brand's identity. Picking the right font for your custom T-shirts is already half the battle, so let us help you save some time.

Five Main Font Categories

1. Serif Fonts - You can easily spot serif fonts because of the strokes at their feet. Serif fonts give texts a classic, dignified look, and they're great for a variety of designs. You can use them when designing headings, and their tiny feet make them perfect for reading chunks of text such as longform articles, books, and manuscripts.
   Popular Serif Fonts: Cambria, Georgia, Times New Roman, Bodoni
2. Sans Serif Fonts - A modern twist to the textbook alternative (Ha! Get it?), sans serif fonts do not have the identifying marks at the tips of the letters. Sans serif fonts are great for pulling off minimalist designs whether you use them on headings or blocks of text.
   Popular Sans Serif Fonts: Arial, Helvetica, Poppins, Bebas Neue
3. Slab Serif Fonts - Apart from the identifying marks or feet at the ends of each letter, Slab Serif Fonts are significantly bolder than the usual serif type. They're perfect for making team names stand out on shirts and other outdoor gear like caps and water bottles.
   Popular Slab Serif Fonts: Rockwell, Fanatix, Madero Slab, Campfire Slab
4. Script Fonts - Script fonts are usually cursive and may be formal or casual. There are also script fonts that look like they are handwritten to give the design a more casual or personalized look.
   Popular Script Fonts: Pacifico, Brush Script, Parisienne, Broadley
5. Display Fonts - Also known as decorative fonts, display fonts are highly stylized and ornamental. Many companies use and patent decorative typography to create original logos to strengthen their branding and appeal to their target audience.
   Popular Display Fonts: Swashington, Playfair, Jumble, Extraordinary

LogoSportswear Font Choices

When you're on the designer tool, type your brand name or the title of your event inside the text box and click "Add Text" to make the formatting table appear. Under the Font Family dropdown menu, you'll find that our fonts are categorized according to LogoSportswear customer favorites: Block, Cool, Fun, Popular, Script, and Sports. The filter option "All" lets you view the entire list of available fonts. We listed below our best fonts according to the five main font categories so you can see them side by side the ones available on the LogoSportswear site.

1. Serif Fonts - BodoniXT, Times New Roman Bold, Typo Latin Serif
2. Sans Serif Fonts - Arial Black, Impact, Bebas Neue
3. Slab Serif Fronts - Princetown Solid, RockyX, Rockwell Extra Bold
4. Script Fonts - Brushed Script MT, Bible Script, Lousianne
5. Display Fonts - Bank Gothic, Varsity, Octin College

Why Do Font Choices Matter?

While the mileage of your company T-shirts varies, it's in your best interest to maximize its exposure. One convenient way to do this is by printing on the garment using a readable font that matches your brand's vibe. If we're being honest, going for a less suitable font won't trigger the end of the world, but wouldn't it be nice if your message is designed with a font that actually works? We thought so, too. So why does your font choice matter? We have four reasons below.

It builds brand recognition and trust. Your font choice influences people's opinion about your brand, and a professional-looking one can help you establish trust among your customers. That being said, going for a decorative font doesn't make your brand look less serious about business. A fun and creative display font stimulates customers' imagination and can equally make your brand recognizable and meaningful.

It holds the reader's attention. If you've been compelled by a font to read a poster, buy a shirt, or finish an entire book altogether, you'd know that it did its job well. A good font choice doesn't only catch the eye, it also catches the reader's attention, so they read your copy from end to end.

It establishes information hierarchy. Designing a shirt, or anything really, that has multiple lines of text in it gives you the opportunity to highlight words according to importance. A font or two (don't go beyond this unless your life depends on it) can help you emphasize specific parts especially when you execute them in complementing text sizes and graphical style.

It conveys a mood or feeling. A subject that's clearly right up the display fonts' alley, decorative fonts can evoke certain feelings and set the mood for your audience. Take the case of the Varsity font. You can easily see it on sports jackets and custom college T-shirts that you start imagining yourself sitting among the crowd and waiting for the game to begin.

Font Sources

Our Online Designer Tool carries popular fonts used on custom shirts, jackets, and other sports apparel. But if you want to try your hand at designing your shirts, here are some sites where you can find new font favorites.

• Google Fonts. Google created Google Fonts to help make people's user experience better and more responsive through beautiful typography and iconography. At the moment, Google's Fonts' catalog holds 1,482 font families and may be used on Android, iOS, and web.
• FontSpace. FontSpace boasts of more than 17,000 fonts that you can use for commercial purposes for free, which means you don't need to pay any license fees. Their portfolio also includes 100,000 free fonts for personal use.
• Fonts.com. While Fonts.com is known for paid fonts, you can also access their library of royalty-free fonts for non-commercial use.
• DaFont.com. Dafont.com is another good source of free fonts while giving users an opportunity to support artists who upload their original designs through donations. Their catalog includes a wide variety of standard fonts as well as decorative and seasonal themes like Valentine's, Halloween, and Christmas.
• Lost Type. A foundry of unique typefaces and interesting fonts, Lost Type supports contributor artists by providing a venue for uploading their original designs. They collect donations on a Pay-What-You-Want basis for fonts intended for personal unpaid projects, but you can also give more if you're planning to use the fonts commercially and in several operating systems.

Are You Having Font Yet?

The beauty of being able to create custom T-shirts online is that you get access to more fonts than you can imagine but it can be an overwhelming task to pick out the best choice for your brand. Pro Tip: don't be afraid to experiment with the ones that caught your eye and take the time to ask for a second opinion from colleagues or friends if the design works for them, too. Finally, don't forget to have fun!

Read More T-Shirt Articles:

• A Guide to Choosing the Right T-Shirt Sizes for Large Orders
• What to Consider When Choosing a T-Shirt Printing Company