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taylorvich writes:

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-font-typography.html

When used correctly, font selection usually goes unnoticed, blending seamlessly with content and reader. When the One Times Square Billboard used a retired Microsoft Word default Calibri font to usher in 2025's "Happy New Year" message, it was immediately met with sarcastic scorn and delightful derision for the uninspired choice (at least by people who pay attention to such things). Had the font faux pas been the branding rollout of a new app, product, or company, the consequences might have been more severe.

Hanyang University researchers in Korea have attempted to take the intuition and subjective judgment out of the art of font selection. Using computational tools and network analysis to develop an objective framework for font selection and pairing in design, the researchers aim to establish foundational principles for applying typography in visual communication.

Font choice plays a critical role in visual communication, shaping readability, emotional resonance, and overall design balance across mediums. According to the researchers, designers have traditionally relied on subjective rules for font pairing, such as mixing Serif and Sans-Serif or creating contrast. These rules are difficult to formalize and often apply to only a narrow subset of fonts.

Recent advances in AI-based font generation models have focused on creating and predicting fonts rather than studying their systematic use in pairing. Given the growing reliance on computational tools in graphic design, the researchers explored font characteristics and pairing rules that can be more easily incorporated into generated texts and design processes.

In the study, "Typeface Network and the Principle of Font Pairing," published in Scientific Reports, researchers collected 22,897 font-use cases and 9,022 fonts from Fontsinuse.com, analyzing font use across 19 design mediums, including web design, magazines, branding, and album art.

The visual elements of fonts (uppercase, lowercase, symbols, and numbers) were analyzed using non-negative matrix factorization, reducing font design parameters to three interpretable dimensions: Serif vs. Sans-Serif (X-axis), Basic vs. Decorative letterforms (Y-axis), and Light vs. Bold (Z-axis). [...] Serif fonts like Times New Roman dominate traditional print media, such as magazines and periodicals, with a MeanX value of 41.95, indicating a strong preference for this font category.

Digital media, such as web and mobile, preferred Sans-Serif fonts, like Helvetica and Futura, with thicker fonts achieving a MeanZ value greater than 30. This finding aligns with the need for thicker, more legible fonts in smaller screen environments, where pixel clarity is critical.

Helvetica showed high frequency in album art and physical consumer products but was less frequent in film and video. In branding and identity, bold Sans-Serif fonts such as Helvetica Neue ranked highly.

Neue-Helvetica was frequently seen in the "Software Apps" category. Notably, while most fonts had negative authenticity in the "Web" domain, Neue-Helvetica showed significantly positive values.

Original Submission