Best Fonts for T-Shirts

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Have you ever looked at a t-shirt and wondered, what it said? Most screen printed t-shirts are created to communicate a message. Don’t use a font that no one understands  but you! So when you design a screen printed t-shirt, take some time to find the right font to support the design and message. To make the task a little easier, I’ve compiled a list of handy fonts as well as some helpful tips and tricks.

As you begin your quest for the perfect font, ask yourself these questions when you find a font that you like:

1. Can it be easily read?

2. When shown to someone else, do they struggle to read it?

3. Do they ask me what it says?

4. Does the font capture the style of the design?

5. Is the font too delicate? If held several feet away, is it still easy to read?

These aren’t necessary the best fonts for t-shirts, but they’re certainly hard to screw up.

If you need a simple and classic font, consider sans-serifs like Helvetica, Avenir, Futura, Arial, Gill Sans, or Century Gothic, or serifs like Garamond, Goudy, Palatino, and Times New Roman. If you’re looking for a font with more personality, you’ll have to search a bit deeper. School groups and sports teams often like Collegiate, or Princeton while drama clubs sometimes drift toward Broadway. Need something old-fashioned, try Old English Text. Want a stylish but readable font, try Brush Script or Script MT Bold.

Countless fonts are available these days, so don’t limit yourself! Explore your options.

Use these tips and tricks:

MOCK-UPS. Print out a mock-up of your design and lay it on a t-shirt. How does it look? Are the sizing and the scale all right? Make any needed changes and then show it to someone else. Can they read it? Do they like it? Do you need to boost the font size? Should you choose a different font altogether? Mock-ups are a great way to avoid unpleasant design surprises.

 FONT PERSONALITY. Fonts can have strong personalities or subtle leanings. What sort of attitude is the font giving? “Loud,” “basic,” “old-fashioned”.

COMPATIBLE FONTS. When you’re using two or more fonts, those fonts should complement each other. Typically, they will either correspond and be somewhat similar, or contrast and be quite different.

COMMON FONTS USED IN SCREEN PRINTING

Arial Black
Helvetica
Aachen
College
Century Gothic
Futura
Vedana
Garamond
Adventure
Artistamp
Ballpark
Bleeding Cowboy
Athletic town
ChillerHarlow
Ink Burrow
Lithograph
Luna Bar
Marcelle Script
Marker Felt
Old Copperfield
Old English
Optima
Paint Peel
Papyrus
Rockwell
Scriptina
Stencil
Zapfino
Baskerville
Clarendon
Brush Script
Catfish Pro
Cheer Script
Choplin Script
Mistral
Rage Italic
Fine Hand
Impact
Collegiate
Princeton

Good luck!