Fonts

Fonts

I wanted to start looking at fonts for my cookbook as this is now what i have to begin thinking about. Although the layout is important with the right images without text the cookbook will be useless. I decided that it would be a good idea to have a look and see what others have used in their own books. This will then help me look at ideas surrounding whether i should use a bold font, swirly etc.

The image above is an example of something i want to avoid in my book as i really dislike the way that it is done. The colours i feel do not work well together at all. Personally i would have used a colour that was either directly opposite the orange or the green. Added with grey shading i don't feel that it works well as a title. The actual font is something else that i don't feel works well either. The bold text works well and i know that the 'simply' has been put in a 'soft' font to juxtapose the other. This normally works quite well but for some reason this particular combination really does not appeal. It may be because of the size difference and closeness to each other. Overall this is something that i definitley want to avoid in my own cook book as it is not a font combination that i find appealing at all.

These two fonts are ones that i would definitely consider using in my cook book. I would like to juxtapose something as bold and strong as these against something more 'feminine' but i feel that they work well together. Compared to the first fonts i very much prefer these. The only aspect that i don't like is the typewriter feel, if it was a proper typewriter style i feel it would work better. Here the font is a little softer which rounds off many of the numbers making a few of them, in my opinion, look a little off. These fonts i feel would work better in a more 'serious' 'high end' style of cook book. They are quite serious for what i want to do but again this could just be down to the colour choice so it is nothing something i am going to rule out until i have tried it.

Here i feel the way the fonts change and reduce in size works really well. This technique is something i have seen a lot of recently, mainly with photo books. When i was in Paris there were many books like this in the book fair. It seems that it has become the new 'fashion' for creating an asthetically pleasing and interesting cover. Again this seems to be used very much with the new fashions that have risen through the last few years. Something like this could work really well with the book i want to make however i do feel that the use of these particular fonts is very 'masculine'. If i were to do it in my own book i may be loosing sight of my target audience. Something like this i will keep in mind as if there was a different colour scheme i feel it could work well.

The reason that i chose this image is because i really like the fonts that have been used. A few of them are exactly what i was looking for to use for my book. The reason for this is they are simple yet add a little more interest than a standard 'windows' font. There are four that i would like to experiment with; these are 'Lemon Chicken, Pea Ellie Bellie, Bergamot Ornaments and Oil Can'. The reason these fonts stand out to me are because there are similar ones that are often used in the more 'home style' cookery books that i have been looking at. With this in mind i feel that using these fonts i will have to be careful. I am more likely to use them for titles and for the name of the book. If i were too use one of the for the text i feel i would struggle as the font would either be too fine to read or would be so big and bold that it would distort.

This i included more for the way that the text and image have been laid out. In my opinion this would work well for an introduction into the recipe rather than using it for the actual recipe. The fonts i feel are bold and minimalistic which is something that has now come back into fashion. However this is something i feel promotes the new 'modern' home. For my book i want it to take a step into the more vintage style to give it that bit more of a homely feel. With this in mind a layout and font like this would not necessarily work in my cook book as it would make it too 'square' and formal.

This image i wanted to use as an example for the sort of font i wouldn't want to use for my actual recipe writing. The instructions i feel are too 'fiddly' and make it hard to read from a distance. If you're cooking you want to be able to prop the book up or have it laid out close so that if you get stuck you can refer back to it; at the same time you don't want it so close that you have to have it around your ingredients. I do like the typewriter style font that has been used for the ingredients as i feel the juxtaposition works really well.

This is actually a sample for a cook book for both the colours and typeface. In my opinion this would be perfect for a cook book that focused on cakes and light desserts. The main reason for this is because of the colours that are being used. For my book this would be useless as it would be the wrong scheme for what i want to achieve. However i do like the contrast between the top two fonts as the decorative script is not too over the top. The sans serif font is also quite fine but still has a bold impact so they do not look too out of place together. Overall however i know that i will not be using something as fancy as these as if i do it will be completely wrong for my book.

I chose this as something like this is what i want to avoid. Although i do not want to be too fancy and over the top i do not want to be this simple with the fonts i use. This is meant to be focused on the food and the font used is to exaggerate the simplicity of it. Although my food is going to be cheap and easy to make i want it to have a little more 'feeling' towards it. This is very basic but at the same time too basic for my liking.

This cover is almost exactly how i want to try and make my book without the photograph. The fonts are not too basic nor are they too over the top. The colours all work together and give off a typical 'french style'. The main reason this works is down to the little lines of text that have been used in the spaces of the text. Without this those spaces would become a lot more noticeable and would draw your attention away from the cover.

Overall i feel that i now have a much greater grasp on what fonts i want to use and the way that i am going to use them. With this i want to look at the sort of colours that i will use to make it.