Importance of font in a form
Overview
A nice-looking form does not require you to be a skilled designer. Zoho Forms offers you with numerous ways to create visually appealing forms, including ready-to-use templates and pre-built themes that let you customize your forms to your liking. This article is particularly to help you choose the font for your form elements. The font you choose has the potential to make your form extra appealing while preserving its visual value, enhance the readability of your content and aid customers in comprehending information from the text. It is vital in setting the tone and style of your form, ensuring a positive user experience by bringing text to life. Color, font style, and text size are all significant factors in drawing attention of your potential leads. Check out the tips on creating visually appealing forms.
Which font to choose?
It's important to know which font would suit your form, and match with your business and brand. But, before you can decide which font is best for your business, you must first understand the distinct categories.
The Font library in Zoho Forms supports over 200+ fonts broadly categorized into:
Serif
Serifs are characterized by the decorative little strokes or curves that are appended to the tips of a letter's stem. It is a classic style chosen for newspaper titles and book fonts. If you want a traditional or formal look on your form, Serif fonts are ideal, as they date back to the 18th century and are identified by the seriousness and the loyalty of your brand.
Sans Serif
As the name suggests, Sans Serif fonts do not have the strokes or curves at the tips of the letters unlike Serif fonts. They are built of basic, clear lines that are all the same width. Choose sans-serif fonts if you want your brand to appear more modern, fresh, and welcoming while still maintaining a traditional vibe.
Fixed width
These are the fonts in which each letter takes up the same amount of consistent horizontal space and this makes the words look like they are more spaced out. If you have a large portion of text on your form, choosing a Fixed width font can make the text more readable.
Display
Display fonts are typically used for headings since they are less legible for the other areas. They come in varied shapes and styles to draw the attention of readers.
Decorative
These fonts express individuality and allows businesses to choose which emotions to emphasise - casual, fun, or creative expressions. They are typically used in Logos. If you want to communicate significant information, select a less styled font unlike the decorative font which is readable and will avoid confusion.
Handwritten
They are intended to fit the distinct charm of human writing as though they have been written in hand and to give your text a more personal touch. You can showcase your business as a warmer, nicer, friendlier, more casual, or simply more reachable brand than your competitors. But keep in mind that they're also not the easiest to read. On a tiny screen or from a distance, even the finest handwritten fonts might be difficult to read.
Calligraphy
Calligraphy fonts are commonly used for brief headers or form descriptions because they can be difficult to read in longer texts. For example, if you're making a wedding RSVP form or a children's birthday party invite, you might want to keep things elegant, relaxing, and stylish with calligraphy fonts.
We also have some other fonts that we support in Zoho Forms if you have not found any suitable font for your text from the above categories. The easiest method to determine which font best suits your form elements is to experiment and solicit feedback from your team members.
Font Color, Size & Weight
Now that you know which font to use, you can move on to font color and font size.
The color of your font has the power to take your form to a whole new level. Getting your font color right can help your content stand out, but doing it wrong could result in a cluttered experience with text that conflicts with the form background. What makes your text both impressive as well as legible is the choice of font color against the background color.
- Make sure the color contrast between your form background and the font is high.The highest contrast is achieved by using black text on a white background or Light text on a dark background.
- Always preview how your form looks on different screen sizes with your chosen font and color.
- Adjust the font size of key phrases to emphasize important information.
- Use of multiple fonts in the same form should be avoided. It can have a fragmented, and unpleasant impression. A thumb rule is to keep things basic by trying variations between not more than 2 fonts in a form. Few fonts will capture more attention than others which is why using multiple fonts in a single form can be extremely difficult to deliver a perfect form.
- Try to keep colors of the same tones or shades together.
- You have the following font weight options in Zoho Forms:Normal, Normal Bold, Italic, Italic BoldWhen you use these options, be very careful with the legibility of the text. Italics used with certain fonts makes the text difficult to read.
Changing Font Settings
You can choose to change the font, and size of text elements in different sections of your form.
To modify the font settings,
- Select Font under Form Customization.
- Customize the text element by selecting the font family and the size of the font.
- If you wish to choose any other font other than the Default Fonts available,
- Click the Font Family dropdown.
- Click Manage Fonts.
- In the Font Library you will find the list of font categories and the fonts supported within each category.
- Hover over a font and click the + icon. This font will be added to the My Fonts list.
Hope this article has guided you choose a proper font style to adorn the purpose of your form. Some fonts are highly stylized and difficult to read, leaving your respondents frustrated, yet can be appropriate for short headlines with large letter sizes. Choose your font carefully throughout your form and set the tone of your form with the right color contrast!