Hello there, Stefanie here today with my personal take on choosing a journaling font.
I am the first to agree that every layout requires at least some journaling. The date at the barest minimum, but my goal is always to include the story, I imagine myself leaning over someone’s shoulder and telling them the where, when and what (funny thing) that happened when the photo was taken. Option 1: You could use something deeply personal like your own hand writing in a font.
The problem with that is that I never liked my hand writing in person so a font is much the same. In fact the only time I actually used my hand writing font was in a letter that I typed out for my children.
So option 2: is to use a great easy to read font, such as a typewriter font (like Bohemian Typewriter or Another Typewriter – both available at DAFonts.com) or something like Century Gothic or Arial. I love Arial for getting the maximum number of words into a small journaling area. This is easy on the eye and even on a layout that has been resized for the web this can be easy to read.
The problem arises when the children are older and don’t want Aunt Sue and everyone else on the internet reading about what they regard as something deeply personal and you as a mother regard as an entertaining anecdote. With digital layouts you don’t have the option of putting the journaling into a pocket that can be pulled out and read by select family members. You could attach the journaling behind the layout, but I like to either make the font size really small (and essentially illegible) or to use option 3: a sweet hand written font. There are a whole range of great Pea fonts that are free to download at KevinandAmanda.com, for this layout I have used Pea Ashlee Rose.
This time the journaling is more difficult to read when viewed as web -sized but when printed out as a 12×12 – it will be just perfect.
For something factual I would tend to choose a typewriter or sans serif, for something more personal to me, or something more playful I would go with a fun and quirky hand written font every time.
So what do you think? Do you match the font with your mood for the day or do you play it safe and always use the same old font because you know what you like? Do your favourites change through the years?
I used A little Bit Quirky by Digital Scrapbook Ingredients for my layout.
What a great post! I tend to use quirky, hand-written script fonts I’ve downloaded from Kevin&Amanda, too. You’re absolutely right about these fonts–I’ve found that most people flipping through my photobooks don’t take the time to read my journaling when they are in these fonts, because it takes more time and energy. That’s fine by me, as I’m really journaling for posterity’s sake and want my child to be able to read it when they are older. Great tip!