Fonts for board books -- plain and simple one rounded block
February 8, 2018 6:06 PM Subscribe
I'm making two board books. I need fonts that are either commonly included on a windows computer or free. I need a font for the body of the book A. The title of Book A will be in Gabriola. Book B will be a counting book (1 apple, 2 bananas, say). I would like a nice rounded block font that I can put in colours for the numbers and a body font for the other words (e.g. "banana"). Any suggestions?
The title and body of book A won't appear on the same page, so it's not that important they coordinate well, but it certainly wouldn't be bad if they did. I feel like since these are for a baby/toddler, a sans serif font would be better since it fees more basic, but all the non-serif fonts I see on my computer just seem so "thin" for lack of a better word. I think I want something weightier (this may not be the right word. I'm not a design expert/person). For the counting book I'd like the numbers to look colourful and whimsical, but still be standard number shapes rather than too outlandish.
The title and body of book A won't appear on the same page, so it's not that important they coordinate well, but it certainly wouldn't be bad if they did. I feel like since these are for a baby/toddler, a sans serif font would be better since it fees more basic, but all the non-serif fonts I see on my computer just seem so "thin" for lack of a better word. I think I want something weightier (this may not be the right word. I'm not a design expert/person). For the counting book I'd like the numbers to look colourful and whimsical, but still be standard number shapes rather than too outlandish.
Response by poster: That seems like it would work well for the text. For the numbers I was hoping for something round and full like this. (Especially since I have those actual letters and some photographs with them might appear in the book).
For Book A, I think I'll go with ABeeZee, which I found poking around to figure out where I could download Poppins.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:16 PM on February 8, 2018
For Book A, I think I'll go with ABeeZee, which I found poking around to figure out where I could download Poppins.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:16 PM on February 8, 2018
Oh sorry, you said free/included with Windows.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:57 AM on February 9, 2018
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:57 AM on February 9, 2018
You want a rounded font in a bold, heavy, or black weight. I think Arial Rounded is included in Windows (I’m not a fan of Arial but the rounded version is okay) but if not, “rounded” as a search term will help you.
posted by Metroid Baby at 3:11 AM on February 9, 2018
posted by Metroid Baby at 3:11 AM on February 9, 2018
Best answer: How about Coiny, Baloo, or Pusab?
Free fonts from the site FontSquirrel include a license for commercial projects if you're planning on selling this book.
posted by bcwinters at 5:33 AM on February 9, 2018
Free fonts from the site FontSquirrel include a license for commercial projects if you're planning on selling this book.
posted by bcwinters at 5:33 AM on February 9, 2018
Another search term that might help is "ball and stick" font. It's pretty much how it sounds: letters look like they're made up of circles and lines: e.g. the letter a is basically a circle with a line (e.g. like Coiny in the examples above) rather than the double story a used in e.g. Ariel.
Background: I work in educational publishing and that's our basic requirement for books for K-2 and younger readers. We swap out fonts for those age groups if they're NOT already ball and stick types/ This is to make it easier for young children to read because that's the way they're learning to form their letters.
posted by irishalto at 8:59 AM on February 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
Background: I work in educational publishing and that's our basic requirement for books for K-2 and younger readers. We swap out fonts for those age groups if they're NOT already ball and stick types/ This is to make it easier for young children to read because that's the way they're learning to form their letters.
posted by irishalto at 8:59 AM on February 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:31 PM on February 8, 2018