Brand typeface

The set is smaller than companies expect. One typeface in three or four weights is enough, say regular, medium, bold and italic. A second typeface is added only when it has a job the first cannot do. Rules come with it: what size for a heading, what line spacing for body text, when capitals are used. Without those rules every document has its own typography and the company reads as a collection of departments.

Why it matters financially: a desktop licence covers work in Word and in design software, a web licence is priced by traffic and an app licence is separate again. A company that bought one desktop licence and handed the font to its web supplier is in breach and does not know it. Prices run from tens to hundreds of euros per weight, so a full set is a real line item, but replacing a typeface two years in costs more.

How to choose: start with where most of the text will live. If that is the website and long copy, readability on a phone decides it, not originality. Test a real paragraph of your own sentences rather than a word in a specimen, and always with Slovak diacritics, because some typefaces have poorly drawn accents. Then verify the licence for every use you can name, and store the font where your suppliers can reach it.

Where it goes wrong: free fonts from the internet with no clear licence, which vanish in a year or turn out to be non commercial. The opposite mistake is buying an expensive exclusive typeface for a company that publishes three documents a year. There it is wiser to use a good system font and put the money into photography or video, which will do more.

With every identity we write one page saying who holds which licence, for what and until when. It is a boring document that occasionally saves an unpleasant email. Try it today: find out whether your web supplier uses the same typeface as your presentations, and whether they are licensed for it.