I'm new. I registered here to ask this but, incidentally, am very glad I found a forum about fonts. It never occurred to me before that there would be a forum dedicated to this subject.

Awesome!

So what kinds of fonts would you suggest for a joke book? The audience is kids to adults. These are short jokes, not huge portions of text. I just need something easy and light (mood-wise, not weight-wise). 

I considered comic book fonts, but not sure that's quite the way to go. At least, it would need upper and lower case.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Based on the description, I would start looking for a friendly low-contrast (but not monolinear) slab serif.

Something like Tisa, or Cabrito, or similar.

 

That's good stuff. I'm still learning what some of that means. I'm not yet familiar with all of the terminology.

 

What do you think about Sanchez Condensed? I found that on one of those links. Looks playful. What detail or consideration might I be missing about it?

 

Otherwise, of the links you provided, I like the Cabrito Con Book style. It has a great question mark too, which is important when there are so many in the book.

37 minutes ago, FourL said:

What do you think about Sanchez Condensed?

Because it is almost monolinear (i.e. it lacks variation in the width of the strokes), it is possible it would appear a bit stiff on the page in a text setting. Speaking of text setting, the regular weight seems to be quite dark (and the Light maybe too light).

But, of course, you should try whenever possible on the page to see if it is the case.

Thanks for the feedback, and the lesson too.

 

Is there any way to trial a paid font, to see how it looks, and how much space it fills up for a given paragraph, before buying it? Just thinking maybe there's some kind of website or tool that insiders know about.

Many foundries (and retailers) offer trial fonts or demos (usually with limited characters and features). If it is not immediately apparent they do, you can try and contact them.

On some foundries’ websites it is possible to set entire paragraphs instead of single lines.

You can also try to find a similar readily available typeface (either already in your computer or free to download) to create your mock-ups prior to invest in the chosen one for the final product.

Thanks for this help. I keep coming back to remember the terminology you used (low-contrast, but no monolithic, slab serif) and use it in my searches.

 

I hope it's okay if I come back from time to time and ask suggestions, and then explanations as to why those types of fonts fit the application best. It will help me understand what are the options to consider and what characteristics are best for different uses.