Choosing the right typeface is fundamental in shaping a product’s identity. Designers often rely on their expertise to weigh factors like brand personality, mood, user needs, and cultural nuances—crafting typographic choices that resonate deeply with their users. But with thousands of typefaces available today, where does one even begin? The process can feel overwhelming and time-consuming, with the risk of overlooking great options simply because they’re buried in an endless sea of possibilities.
This is where AI steps in as a practical ally. It can quickly sift through vast libraries, generate recommendations, and test technical aspects like readability and accessibility. Yet, AI alone cannot replicate the designer’s intuition or the strategic thinking informed by hands-on experience. So, how can we make this process more efficient and impactful? Let’s explore how the typeface selection process unfolds when combining the strengths of AI and a designer’s expertise.
Start with the basics
Every project begins with a clear understanding of its fundamental purpose. To successfully select an effective typeface for your product, you will need to first identify who will be reading your content, where and how they’ll encounter it. You will also need to take into consideration the mood you want your product to have and what typeface can help you amplify that mood. The mood of your typeface should always align with your brand’s personality - whether that’s projecting professionalism, playfulness, or elegance. During this initial phase, make sure to list out any specific requirements like minimum readable sizes or accessibility standards that need to be met. It will come in handy later when you want to test.
You can figure out the mood of your product by considering the brand value and purpose, and also by thinking about the audience that will be using the product and the emotional impact you want to have on them.
Find inspiration with some good ol’ research
It is important to approach any design process with some form of research. Taking the time to see and review what other designers have done with typography on their products, can be really helpful to see what works in existing products and spark some ideas on how to make yours even better. Some of my go-to places to find typography inspiration are Pinterest, Mobbin and good ol’ google search for products or platforms, I have encountered in the past that evoke certain moods or that I just really liked.
Use AI tools to quickly generate initial ideas
Using AI as a brainstorming partner has the potential to speed up your design process. I have benefited greatly from incorporating chatGPT and ClaudeAI into my typeface selection process. These tools help me generate initial typeface suggestions based on the mood, goals and tone that I came up with in the first step. Good prompts are your secret to discovering really great typeface suggesting when brainstorming with AI, Here are some good examples of prompts I have used in the past when doing typeface exploration.
- Suggest typefaces for a healthcare website that convey trust, professionalism, and accessibility.
- What typefaces would appeal to a younger audience for a fashion and lifestyle brand?
- Suggest typefaces that reflect a professional yet approachable personality for a corporate consulting firm.
Once I get some suggestions, I proceed to visualize them in my design tool to help me filter them based on my preferences. Another way to visualize this typeface suggestions more quickly and narrow down your options are through visualization tools like AdobeFonts, Canva or FontJOY. I have found it is always a good idea to narrow them down to two or three options in this phase.
Explore typeface pairings with some AI assistance
Typeface pairing allows you to combine visual harmony and functionality of two separate typefaces. When selecting typeface combinations, it is often a good idea to look out for typefaces that complement each other while maintaining distinct roles. A common approach is to pair a bold, characterful typeface for headlines with a more neutral, highly readable typeface for body text. The goal is to create a clear visual hierarchy while maintaining harmony across your design. The contrast between your chosen typefaces should be obvious enough to serve a purpose, but not so dramatic that it becomes distracting.
This an aspect of typeface exploration that AI can save you alot of time on. having narrowed down the choices on the initial typeface to the recommended two or three options, you can rely on AI to generate complementary typefaces that best work with your options based on a defined criteria. An example of prompts I will use to carry out this exercise are:
- Recommend a secondary typeface that pairs well with Comfortaa and Garamond, suitable for body text.
- What font would complement Comfortaa as a bold headline typeface while maintaining contrast in a thin, readable body font?
- Recommend a typeface that creates visual contrast with Garamond without feeling disjointed.
- What secondary typeface would pair well with Comfortaa for captions and small text while keeping the design cohesive?
Same as in the step above, It is also a good pairing to filter down your typeface pairing suggestions down to two or three options.
Manually test and refine
Once you have selected your potential typefaces, you would need to test them within the context of the product you are designing. Create actual layouts using your chosen typefaces and examine how they perform across different sizes and formats. Check if headlines are sufficiently impactful and if body text remains comfortable to read in longer passages. Test your typography across various devices and screen sizes to ensure consistency. Pay special attention to readability and accessibility issues; if users are struggling to read your text, then your typography choices have failed their primary purpose.
Generate a typography style system using AI
In design, styles form the backbone of consistent design implementation. Beyond just selecting typefaces, you need to establish a comprehensive system of styles that can be applied across your project. This includes creating specific styles for different text elements like headings, subheadings, body text, quotes, and captions. For each style, define not just the typeface family but also precise specifications for size, weight, line height, letter spacing, and color. Consider creating responsive variations that adapt to different screen sizes.
AI can play a key role in automating the creation of a hierarchy by suggesting font sizes, weights, and spacing that align with typographic best practices and the preference for your project. This shortens the process, ensuring that the typography system feels cohesive, adaptable, and easy to implement across your project. After getting this suggestions, I prefer to take them and organize these styles in a logical hierarchy and name them clearly according to what they will be used for through out the project, this approach helps the team to easily understand and apply them through out the project with little inconsitency. Here is an example of what that will look like:
- Main Title - Comfortaa, 48px/700, #1A1A1A
- Section Title - Comfortaa, 36px/700, #1A1A1A
- Card Title - Comfortaa, 24px/700, #1A1A1A
- Body Text - Inter, 16px/400, #2A2A2A
- Button Label - Inter, 14px/600, #FFFFFF/#1A1A1A
- Caption/Helper - Inter, 12px/400, #6A6A6A
Manually create documentation
When you are done selecting your preferred typefaces, it is important to create clear guidelines for their use. Document not just the chosen typefaces but also specific rules, such as exact sizes for different contexts, spacing requirements, and color combinations. Tools like figma styles and variables allow you to save and apply predefined typography settings across your project, while variables add an extra layer of flexibility. With variables, you can document and organize each style with contextual labels, making it clear when and where each should be used—whether for responsive design, light/dark modes, or different components.
These tools allows you to ensure consistency across the product while providing an accessible and well-documented system for your team. This approach not only simplifies implementation but also helps maintain the integrity of your design decisions throughout the product.
Making it work
Making successful typography decisions comes from balancing visual appeal with practical function. Your chosen typefaces should enhance your content’s message while reflecting your brand’s character, mood and tone. It has to achieve all these while remaining easily readable for the users of the product you are designing. When typography is done right, it becomes an invisible force that guides readers through your content effortlessly. You can begin today to leverage AI to discover newer more amazing typeface options while shortening the time you take to go through your usual typography selection process.
