# How many fonts?



## Jack of all trades

I am working on screenplays with a partner, in addition to writing novels. My partner and I are having a disagreement about the title image for a series. My partner wants to use multiple fonts. I think that's a bad idea, as I have read that book covers should only have, at most, two different fonts. So I'd like to know what folks here think.

How many fonts is too many?

Thanks!


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## bdcharles

My first thought was “one” but on looking into it, a little considered variety is desirable. According to the pages I just found (on phone so can’t seem to post links) try and have the fonts complement each other and set up a visual hierarchy; I’m not going to pretend to know what that is but I am intrigued - as far as I can tell it means have your big title in the fancier, style-appropriate typeface and any supporting text in a more basic font.


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## Jack of all trades

Yeah. Visual hierarchy.

But is there an opinion on the max number of fonts?


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## bdcharles

Jack of all trades said:


> Yeah. Visual hierarchy.
> 
> But is there an opinion on the max number of fonts?



Not sure. I think it would somewhat depend on the nature of the project. I keep thinking of the logo for the band Sex Pistols, where each letter is a different font. It communicates what it should do in among all that. Equally something like a smart restaurant would probably have quite a miminal aesthetic, therefore fewer fonts.

I find fonts and logos and typefaces quite fascinating. I am annoyed that I have never come up with anything like the whitespace arrow in the FedEx logo.


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## Bayview

This is fonts for a screenplay, or for a published novel?

For a screenplay, I'd say stick to one font, because you're really producing a manuscript, not a finished product that goes directly to the consumer. No point messing around or trying to get fancy.

There are lots of guides to screenplay formatting, right? What do they say?


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## Ralph Rotten

I agree with Bayview; if this is a screenplay then one font (of varying pitch) should be good.

But for a book cover, you can have up to 3:
title font
author font (though this can also be the same as the title)
message font (sometimes there is a blurb or message on the cover, a hook.)

Then the back cover is usually in another font.


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## Jack of all trades

Thanks for the responses!

The screenplay has only one font, so no problem there. 

This is for the title shot, or whatever it's called, post production. So when the title is being shown on screen to the audience.

This is for a television or internet series, with spinoffs planned. So there's an overall name for the franchise, for lack of a better word, then the series name, and a season name. The episode name will appear alone, so it doesn't need to be taken into consideration.


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