A motorist engaging with a billboard at the busy roadside is usually driving past at speed. They only have a few seconds to read and absorb the message on the billboard. Therefore, you need to make sure the design is attractive and the best billboard fonts are being used do that it’s legible for that limited time.

Here are a few tips to finding the best fonts to use on a billboard.

The Best Billboard Fonts Are Simple

Keep the audience in mind, your billboard ad must be legible from short and long distances. Try to avoid capital letters, and maintain enough distance between each letter. Letters that are too spaced out or too close will not make the advert understandable.

Fancy fonts are really nice to look at on paper, but they are a complete no for billboard advertising. Thin and fancy fonts are difficult to understand from longer distances at all vehicle speeds. Remember your message must be readable for both slow pedestrians as well as cars driving at pace. Sans Serif fonts like Arial, Calibri, Verdana, Tahoma and Helvetica are perfect for billboards. Simple, modern and easily intelligible, they are the perfect typography choice for effective billboard designs.

The Best Font Sizes For A Billboard

The key is to use big font sizes within your billboard ad. This allows viewers to absorb the message being displayed from longer distances. Big fonts are not only legible but provide the advantage of occupying unused white spaces. Incorporating too much text will not attract the consumers eye. Therefore, the trick is to use a short, yet compelling message of not more than 7-10 words. An eye-catching slogan with the best font style and size will gain eyeballs.

A point to note, you’ll need to optimise the size of your font in relation to the size of the advertising display. 6 sheet advertising units and much smaller than the massive 96 sheet roadside billboard.

Bold And Contrasting Colours

You shouldn’t consider soft pastel colours for your billboard design. Bright and bold colours with a high contrast look stunning and demand attention from passers by. Shades of bold colours like green, black, red, yellow or orange can be used to create contrasts. Furthermore, keep in mind the image that you use, it must compliment the colours and fonts.

What Are The Fonts To Avoid Within A Billboard Advert?

There’s a few fonts that are disliked amongst both consumers and marketing departments. Mainly those that have narrow letter-spacing (like courier) or fonts with overly complicated visual styles which are often described as being impractical.

Other serif fonts can be featured in this category, as these typefaces are more complex and overly artistic in a way that makes them ineligible to read from short or long distances.

What Is the Best Font For A Digital Billboard?

The same as traditional, even if you have a captivating message with digital billboards, the wrong font type will fail to grab the attention of the consumer. Regardless of how great looking fancy fonts are, you must leave them out of you billboard creative. Your advert must be readable to traffic travelling at speed as well as pedestrians. Thin and fancy fonts needs a great effort to read from distances.

Some examples of simple, modern, and easy to read fonts for digital billboards are Arial, Calibri, Verdana, Tahoma and Helvetica Sans Serif fonts.

Font Colour For Billboards

Contrast is a major component when it comes to readability. Use space and colour to achieve contrast. Bold, high contrast colours are perfect for getting your billboard ad noticed. For a design, soft pastel shades should be ruled out and bright, bold colours should be used instead. Highly contrasting colours are captivating. Green, black, red, yellow, and orange are contrasting colours that work well.