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Q. What is a titling font?

A. Titling fonts are all-cap typefaces that look best at larger sizes. They often have more weight contrast between the thick and thin parts of the characters, and they can have more condensed proportions than their text-sized cousins. They can also have more pronounced design details that add personality and elegance to larger settings. However, some titling fonts don’t follow this model at all, such as Neutraface Display Titling, which is a heavy weight, all cap version of lighter weights of this typestyle.

Figure 1.
Titling versions are shown above the regular versions of Adobe Garamond Pro, ITC Golden Cockerel, and House Industries Neutraface Display.

Titling fonts are usually single-weight variants of a type family, such as those available with Adobe Garamond Pro and ITC Golden Cockerel, but they can also be standalone designs, such as Victoria Titling MT Condensed.

Figure 2. Victoria Titling MT Condensed is a stand-alone titling font.

Titling fonts that are part of a type family (as opposed to standalone designs) are often separate fonts you have to load and activate individually. But some OpenType fonts have titling alternates you can access from the OpenType palette of design programs, such as InDesign, QuarkXPress, and Illustrator.

Figure 3. You can access titling alternates (when they're available) in some OpenType fonts from an OpenType panel, as shown in this screenshot of InDesign.

Love type? Want to know more? Ilene Strizver conducts her acclaimed Gourmet Typography workshops internationally. For more information on attending one or bringing it to your company, organization, or school, go to her site, call The Type Studio at 203-227-5929, or email Ilene at info@thetypestudio.com. Sign up for her e-newsletter at www.thetypestudio.com.