How we choose a typeface for a small business

A typeface is the first thing a customer reads, long before they read a word. For a small business that has to look trustworthy on a shop window, a website and an invoice, the choice matters more than most people expect.

We usually start with constraints rather than taste. Where will the text be read, at what size, and by whom? A bakery sign is read from across a street; a booking form is read on a phone in bright sunlight. Those two situations ask for very different letterforms.

Next we look at the personality words the owner uses about their own work: warm, precise, local, playful. We pair one distinctive display face with a calm text face and test them in real layouts, not in specimen sheets.

Finally we check licensing and performance. A beautiful font that adds 400 KB to every page load is a poor choice for a rural customer on a mobile connection. We subset, self-host and keep the weights to a minimum.

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