Restauranteurs might spend days, weeks, months, or even a lifetime developing the perfect menus for their dining establishments. It would be a shame if the menu’s design left so much to be desired that patrons were uninterested in the quality dishes listed inside. A menu often represents customers’ first impression of a restaurant, and it’s vital it’s designed in a font that is unique, readable, and inviting.
How to Choose the Perfect Menu Font for Your Restaurant
With millions of typefaces to choose from the best font sites like Adobe Fonts and Envato Elements, how do you choose the perfect menu font for your restaurant?
You don’t have to be a professional designer to choose the best menu fonts. Whether you’re creating the menu from scratch or relying on a restaurant menu maker, just consider the following tips to choose the perfect mix of letting.
Identify the Font Family
Before you can select the premium fonts for your menu design, you can significantly narrow down the options by deciding what font family best represents your restaurant’s brand. Will you choose a font that includes a sans serif or a serif typeface? Perhaps you might even prefer a handwritten script font or a novelty display type.
Focus on Clarity and Readability
Restaurant patrons don’t want to strain their eyes to read your menu, so be sure to choose menu fonts that are readable and clear even for customers with poor vision. If they can’t read the menu, they aren’t likely to become regular customers who try new foods. While you want to choose unique and memorable typefaces for your restaurant menu design, be sure you don’t sacrifice clarity.
Determine Your Menu Tone
What mood do you want your restaurant menu to inspire? A font carries a lot of weight in determining the overall tone presented by a brand. Do you want your restaurant to be known as classic and elegant? Choose a serif typeface. Fun and adventurous? Stick with san serif or some handwritten fonts. Your chosen menu font gives personality to your brand, and choosing the wrong typeface can result in a confusing dining experience.
Reinforce Your Brand
Does your restaurant have its own logo? Consider your brand’s existing designs when choosing menu fonts. If you can’t match the fonts exactly, consider choosing a typeface in the same font family as your sign, logo or other food packaging and displays. If your logo relies on a delicate script font, for example, it might not be the best idea to use a relaxed sans serif display font for your menu design.
Best Handwritten Menu Fonts for Restaurants
Handwritten fonts are typefaces designed to resemble authentic human writing, and they are a popular choice for menu fonts because they foster a personal connection between customers and brands. Handwritten fonts also make noteworthy and memorable menu designs. What are some of the best-handwritten fonts for menus?
1. Timberline
The graceful strokes and textured lines of the Timberline font, available from Adobe Fonts and other popular sources, promise to provide character to restaurant menus. The versatile font could highlight menus for a variety of restaurants, from the hip and trendy coffee shops to classic and elegant fine dining establishments.
2. Rude Cookie
A unique handwritten font with true character, the Rude Cookie font promises to stand out on restaurant menus and joyfully welcome customers to the establishment. Rude Cookie is available from a variety of popular sources, including Envato Elements.
3. Haste
Another popular handmade font for restaurant menu designs, the Haste font is available from Envato Elements, among other online sources. Haste is sure to be the highlight of any menu it adorns, thanks to its unique characters that truly resemble handwritten art.
Best Display Fonts for Restaurants
Perfect for menu titles and headings, a display font is a typography designed specifically for viewing at larger sizes. Because of their expanded appearance, display fonts often can be designed with more creative elements than other fonts. What are some of the best display fonts for restaurants menu design?
4. Armadira
The clarity of the Armadira display font promises to clearly convey your intended message. Available from Envato Elements and other popular font sites, the Armadira font is sure to become a timeless classic illustrating the contents of any restaurant menu design.
5. Decohead
Decohead is an elegant display font characterized by its graceful strokes of varying widths. The art-deco-inspired typeface is available from Envato Elements and other popular font sites, and it promises to add a sophisticated tone to any menu design.
6. Morthern
Want to select a menu font that reflects the charm and quirkiness of your restaurant? The Morthern font is a lively display font featuring Old Style characters, and it can be found at Envato Elements as well as other popular sources.
Best Sans Serif Fonts for Resturaunt Menus
Sans serif typefaces make some of the best restaurant menu fonts because of their classic style and clear readability. Basic sans serifs are some of the most popular menu fonts because their simplicity allows them to mesh with practically any design, and their clarity makes the characters easy for any restaurant patron to read.
7. Cuciniere
A brand new typeface available from Envato Elements and other online sources, the Cuciniere font was designed specifically for food lovers. The unique font is teeming with character, nearly resembling a handwritten typeface while retaining the structure of sans serif characters.
8. Cafe Francoise
A simple yet charming typeface sure to be the highlight of any restaurant menu, the Cafe Francoise font was inspired by outdoor chalk menu board signage showcasing a cafe’s specials of the day. While the font is available from multiple sources, it can be found at Envato Elements.
9. Coffee Morning
A handmade sans serif font, Coffee Morning welcomes customers with cheerful typography while retaining its clarity and readability. The font, available at Envato Elements, features imperfect shapes and rough strokes, giving it the character for which so many restaurants hope to be known.
More Amazing Fonts for Menu Items
Want to create a restaurant menu design that is welcoming, powerful, and memorable? Don’t limit yourself to the above font choices. There are plenty of other amazing fonts for menu items.
10. Baskerville PT
The purpose of any menu is to be read, so it’s important that typography detailing menu items is clear and readable. The Baskerville PT font, available from Adobe Fonts among other sources, is a popular serif typeface, the perfect choice of font for restaurant menu items.
11. Original Burger
Perfect for hip burger joints, the Original Burger font is available from Envato Elements and other popular font sites. The handmade font consisting of uppercase letters, punctuation, and numbers sets the proper tone for exciting and relaxing restaurant atmospheres.
12. Giaza
A classic addition to any fine dining experience, the Giaza font uses smooth curves to create a beautiful serif typeface. The font is available from a variety of popular font sites, including Envato Elements.
13. Theodore Handwritten
A handwritten typeface, the Theodore Handwritten font is a modern script that is suitable for both menu highlights and menu item details. The font is available from Envato Elements as well as a variety of the other best font sites.
14. Keneisha
Looking to highlight your menu with a calligraphic script font? The Keneisha font features a varying baseline, designed to convey elegance and style. Available from online sources including Envato Elements, the font promises to bolster the creative design of any menu.
15. Brioche
A modern yet classic serif font, Brioche features sharp edges and smooth lines to create an ideal menu typeface for elegant eateries or casual diners. The font, offered by Envato Elements, features alternates for many characters, making it a versatile choice for menu design.
16. Linotype Didot
A popular serif font that is known for its clarity and readability, the Linotype Didot font, which is available from Adobe Fonts, makes a great alternative for printing menu items.
What is the best font for menus?
What is the best font for menu items? The font your choose for your restaurant menu can greatly impact how customers perceive your small business. The best menu font is Baskerville PT. The serif typeface is the perfect font for restaurant menu design because it conveys a sense of class and elegance while remaining legible in a variety of sizes.
What is the best font size for a menu?
Menu fonts should be easy to read, even for diners with less than perfect vision. The best font size for a restaurant menu is no smaller than 20-30 points, although headings and titles should be in larger fonts. For display menus, your text should be 1 inch larger for every 10 feet of distance between your customers and the menu.
What is an easy-to-read font for a menu?
Sometimes it’s best to choose a simple font in order to design an easy-to-read menu. If you’re looking for an easy-to-read font for your restaurant menu, try basic sans serif fonts such as Helvetica, Arial, or Georgia. Coffee Morning is also an easy-to-read sans serif typeface with a modern twist that offers a unique character to restaurant menus.
Image: shutterstock
This article, “16 Menu Font Choices for Restaurants” was first published on Small Business Trends
