The right font can make or break your retail signage. A well-chosen font can help to attract attention, communicate your brand message, and drive sales. However, choosing the wrong font can have the opposite effect; it can make your signage look cluttered, unprofessional, or even illegible.
Choosing the Right Font
When choosing fonts for your retail signage, consider these factors:
- Signage purpose. What do you want your signage to achieve? Are you trying to attract attention, communicate your brand message, or drive sales?
- Sign/banner location. Will your signage be located indoors or outdoors? The lighting conditions at the location of your signage will affect the readability of your fonts.
- Your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with your signage? The age, gender, and interests of your target audience will affect the type of font that you choose.
Here are a few tips for choosing the right font for your retail signage:
Use a clear and concise font.
Your signage should be easy to read from a distance. Avoid using fonts that are too small, too complex, or too decorative.
Use a font that is appropriate for your brand.
The font that you choose should reflect the overall look and feel of your brand. Choose from these main typestyle categories:
- Sans Serif fonts: If your brand seeks to convey a modern and sleek look, you might choose a sans serif font such as Arial, Helvetica, OpenSans, or Impact.
- Serif fonts: If you wish demonstrate a more traditional or classic look, you might choose a serif font such as Times New Roman, Garamond, Bodoni, or Palatino.
- Script fonts: If you want to show glitz and glamour or quaint and familiarity, you might choose a script font like Lobster, Sophia, Brush Script, or Angelica. Keep in mind that some viewers find many script fonts difficult to read.
Use a consistent font throughout your signage. This will help to create a cohesive and professional look.
Sizing Your Fonts
The size of your fonts is just as important as the type of font that you choose. Your fonts should be large enough to be easily read from a distance. However, you don’t want your fonts to be so large that they take up too much space or make your signage look cluttered.
Here are a few tips for sizing your fonts for retail signage:
- Use a minimum font size of 3/8” inch (12 points) for indoor signage. Consider that for readability, every 100 feet requires a minimum of 4-inches of letter height. For outdoor signage, you should use a much larger font size.
- Consider the distance from which your sign will be viewed. The further away your signage will be viewed, the larger your fonts should be.
- Use a consistent font size throughout your signage. This will help to create a cohesive and professional look.
We developed this quick table to represent legible font size to viewing distance based on a sans-serif font like Arial. Font heights and typestyle may vary, so test your selection before making a commitment.
| Viewing Distance | Font Height |
| 30 ft | 1.5-6” inches |
| 50 ft | 2”-10” inches |
| 80 ft | 3.5-16” inches |
| 100 ft | 4-20” inches |
| 250 ft | 10-50” inches |
| 500 ft | 20-100” inches |
| 1000 ft | 40-200” inches |
When designing retail signage, be sure you consider font typestyle and sizing as two of the most important factors. We previously wrote an article on colors to use in advertising which should help the legibility of your sign or banner. To read this article, click here. To read this article, click here. The right font can help to attract attention, communicate your brand message which may drive sales.
Contact a Broker
If you need help to choose a great location for your business, and you seek advice about promoting your enterprise with signage for success including sizing your fonts, don’t hesitate to contact a professional commercial real estate broker at Matanky Realty Group. They can help you select the right site and brainstorm the most visually appealing and effective look for your retail, restaurant, healthcare, or services business.