Shopify Expert Insights

What's the difference between a serif font and a sans-serif font? A serif is a fine line that marks the end of letter's main stroke. Think of the little horizontal feet that the "m" on an M&M's candy sits on. Conversely, a sans-serif font lacks those little lines. (In French sans means "without.") Times New Roman is the most common serif typeface, having been around for nearly a century. It was commissioned by the UK newspaper The Times from which it gets its name. Sans-serif fonts are modernist, perceived as being "clean." The most famous sans-serif font is Helvetica which has graced everything from street signs to the logos of Apple and Target.

To avoid licensing problems down the road, it is important to only use fonts with commercial licenses. The problem with most free font websites is that fonts are licensed only for personal use or require attribution. What's a designer to do? FontSquirrel comes to your rescue. They provide, free of charge, a carefully curated collection of fonts exclusively licensed for commercial use. If you're like us, you'll end up with an over abundance of installed type faces. (Last we checked, our library of fonts had just crested 1,200.) To make managing them easier, install the free LinoType Font Explorer X.

Regardless of your layout or media, choosing the right colors for a design is critical. People respond emotionally colors, they set the mood. Pantone has founded their industry on this idea. Fortunately, there are several great choices for developing color palettes. We ranked them based on popularity:

• Adobe Kuler
• Colour Lovers
• Color Scheme Designer
• Color Hunter
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