Font choices evoke emotions

Every font carries its own personality, capable of evoking specific feelings or associations. Whether it’s the confidence of a bold serif font or the playful charm of a handwriting-inspired design, your font will shape how people perceive your t-shirt.

Think about how fonts convey emotions:

• Refined for upscale, classy designs.
• Playful for humorous or lighthearted t-shirts.
• Industrial or rustic for rugged, vintage vibes.
• Modern and stylish for minimalist, trendy aesthetics.

Font style and weight

The weight of a font – ranging from thin to ultra-bold – can make or break your design’s impact. Thick, bold fonts excel for short slogans or logos, grabbing attention instantly. However, they may be a bit too much for longer phrases. On the other hand, thin fonts lose visibility at a distance or on busy patterns.

Remember, your t-shirts are meant to be worn and seen in motion. Test your fonts in mockups on actual t-shirt sizes to ensure they’re easy to read from afar.

A serif or sans serif font?

When deciding between serif and sans-serif fonts, it depends on the style you’re aiming for. Serif fonts, characterized by small decorative “feet” on letters, give off a classic vibe. In contrast, sans-serif fonts appear cleaner and more modern.

For instance, use a bold serif font to add gravitas to inspirational quotes or vintage t-shirt designs. Opt for a simple sans-serif font if you’re striving for a minimalistic, clean look for a modern audience.

Choose t-shirt fonts that vibe with your niche

To create designs that sell, align your font choice with your niche’s preferences. A playful font might appeal to a younger, fun-loving demographic, while clean, modern fonts resonate with a more professional audience.

A few examples:

• Vintage-inspired fonts are ideal for retro-themed designs, such as classic car enthusiasts or throwback music lovers.
• A modern sans-serif font works well for tech or fitness niches.
• Avoid overly ornate styles for audiences that prioritize simplicity or practicality.

Practical tips for choosing t-shirt fonts

When making t-shirt designs, consider these practical guidelines to boost your product’s appeal:

• Stick to one or two fonts per design to stay cohesive.
• Avoid overly complex fonts for long text or slogans.
• Test your designs on different t-shirt colors to ensure your fonts stay readable.
• Pay attention to kerning (letter spacing) for a polished look.
• Ensure your fonts scale well for small sizes and larger prints.

Ask for feedback

Once you’ve narrowed your font options, share your mockups with friends, family, or even your target audience for honest feedback. 

Their insights can help you fine-tune the designs and choose the best font size for the t-shirts you’re about to sell, ensuring the words and letters align perfectly with the qualities you want to convey.

Personal vs commercial licenses

While there are millions of free fonts online, you may not be permitted to use them for business. 

Ensure you have a commercial license to use a font before including it in a t-shirt design you plan to sell. Otherwise, you will violate copyright laws and may be subject to legal action. 

If you plan to print a few t-shirts for friends and family and don’t plan to sell them, you only need a personal license.

When you explore the sites above, filter by category or licensing terms to view fonts that meet your needs.

Handwritten fonts

Fonts resembling handwriting add a human touch to your t-shirt designs, creating an authentic, personalized feel. Perfect for casual or artsy designs, they work well for slogans, quotes, or lifestyle brands looking for a natural vibe.

• Camilla Handwritten Font
• Sweet November Handwritten Font
• Happy Popcorn Font
• Blank Note Font
• Handmade Handwritten Typeface

Script fonts

Script t-shirt fonts are elegant and sophisticated, making them ideal for romantic, classy, or boutique-style t-shirt designs. While more intricate, they can add a high-end feel to wedding t-shirts or sentimental gifts.

• Signalis Script Font
• Olivia Font
• Blast Handwritten Script Font
• Halcion Script Font
• Watershed Script Font

Monogram fonts

Monogram t-shirt font options scream sophistication and exclusivity. They’re ideal for logos, initials, or personalized t-shirts that need a touch of refinement. From weddings to corporate branding, these fonts add a professional vibe without overcomplicating things.

• Vierasti Monogram Font
• Leafy Monogram Font
• Sunday Quotes Font
• Marliana Monogram Display Font
• Monogram Font Big Bundle

Gothic fonts

Dark, edgy, and dripping with attitude, gothic t-shirt fonts are the rebellious teenagers of typography. They’re for t-shirt designs that dare to stand out – think horror, metal bands, or tattoo culture. They’re bold, unapologetic, and perfect for anyone who wants to create t-shirts that make a statement.

• Gothically Font
• Gothic Script Font
• Black Star Font
• Dark Widow Font
• Ravenholm Font

Graffiti fonts

If you want a loud design, graffiti fonts are your go-to. They’re all about making an impact, making them excellent for urban, streetwear, or bold niche designs. These best fonts for t-shirts thrive on rebellion and creativity.

• Graffiti New Font
• Jack Roll Graffiti Display Font
• Radical Font
• Graffiti Font Bundle
• Urban Graffiti Font Bundle

Cartoon fonts

Cartoon fonts are the playful sidekick every t-shirt seller needs. Whether for kids’ clothing, birthday shirts, or comic-inspired designs, these bold, bubbly fonts bring humor and fun to your work.

• Cartoonery Font
• Comik Font
• Comic Gecko Pro Font
• Hands Down Font
• Little Munster Font

Futuristic fonts

Futuristic fonts are sleek, clean, and forward-thinking. They’re the ideal match for gaming, sci-fi, or tech-inspired t-shirt design.

• Futuristic Font
• Verwalter Font
• Modern and Futuristic Font
• Electro Wave Font
• Exodar Font

Fairytale fonts

Bring a whimsical touch into your designs with fairytale fonts for t-shirts. These fonts are excellent for enchanting themes, from children’s clothing to fantasy-inspired wall art.

• Mallica Fairytale Typeface
• Morrow Baby Display Fonts
• Wonder Night Display Font
• Beautiful Fairytale Display Font
• Legendary Runes Font

Christmas fonts

Nothing says festive like a well-chosen Christmas t-shirt font. Warm, cheerful letters bring holiday vibes to life, making them an important part of seasonal designs and gifts. Think ugly sweater parties, family reunions, or quirky holiday slogans.

• Bold Ugly Sweater Font
• Christmas Candy Font
• Christmas Shine Font
• White Christmas Font
• Wonderful Christmas Font

Halloween fonts

Halloween is a big event for print-on-demand sellers. These spooky t-shirt fonts add a thrilling edge to your design process and ensure the letters on your creations captivate audiences in the crowded Halloween market.

• Halloween Nightmare Font
• Halloween Night Font
• Witches Friend Font Duo
• Happy Halloween Font
• Spooky Halloween Font

Tattoo fonts

Looking to write an edgy, rebellious message with your design? Tattoo t-shirt fonts are all about bold lines and dramatic flair, making them ideal for designing biker-inspired or alternative t-shirts. These fonts carry an air of toughness and creativity that’s impossible to ignore.

• Melodical Font
• Her Song Font
• Puerto Playful Tattoo Font
• Fire Needle
• AZ Sailor Tattoo

Valentine’s Day fonts

Valentine’s Day is another major design and sales opportunity for print-on-demand merchants. These t-shirt fonts are full of romance, made for creating heartfelt designs that sell like hotcakes during the season of love.

• Valentine’s Day Handwritten Font
• Valentine’s Font
• Loveya Script Font
• Blossom Heart Font
• Love is in The Air Font

Birthday fonts

Celebrating another trip around the sun deserves a font for t-shirts that match the party’s energy. 

These letter styles are perfect for capturing the joy, fun, and excitement that birthdays bring. With an emphasis on playful strokes and whimsical symbols, these t-shirt font ideas add personality to custom birthday t-shirts, making them the highlight of any celebration.

• Birthday Calligraphy Font
• Lollipop Jar Font
• Birthday People Display Font
• Heilig Display Font
• Birthday Font

Retro fonts

Vintage fonts have a one-of-a-kind, effortless cool factor that takes your t-shirt brand back in time. Whether it’s 70s grooves or 90s nostalgia, these popular fonts for shirts are perfect for evoking a specific era while keeping your designs fresh.

• 70s Retro Font
• Retromax Font
• Andala Retro Script Font
• Retro Signature Font
• Light Trail Font

Classic fonts

Classic fonts never go out of style. Their subtleness, timelessness, and versatility make them perfect for professional or understated t-shirt designs. These fonts add a touch of class without stealing the spotlight from your message.

• Grobek Font
• Pastika Font
• Kinetic Typeface
• Kanyon Font
• StaadMitte Font

How to design t-shirts with words using Printify

Ready to design an incredible t-shirt for yourself or start selling them online? You’ve come to the right place. With Printify, it’s easier than ever to play around with different fonts and find the perfect one for your design. 

Here’s how to design your first t-shirt with Printify:

1. Sign up for a free Printify account. 
2. Explore our Catalog of over 1,000 popular products, including dozens of different t-shirt styles from popular brands like Gildan, Comfort Colors, Hanes, and more. 
3. Decide on a t-shirt and select Start designing.
4. Open the Product Creator and click Add text on the left side of the screen. 
5. Scroll through our fonts and categories to find the perfect one for your t-shirt.
6. Adjust the color and size of your text and select Save once done. 

Once your t-shirt looks perfect, it’s time to order a sample for yourself to start rocking your new design.

Want to sell t-shirt designs online? Printify integrates with all the leading eCommerce channels, providing you with a streamlined listing and order management process. There are no upfront costs when selling with Printify since every shirt is printed on-demand once a customer orders, saving you money and reducing risk.

Make it readable at-a-glance

Depending on the kind of look that you’re going for as well as on length of your strapline, sometimes it pays to break up the words to create a better visual flow. You can try changing the size and font for some of the words to bring out the eye-catching keywords.

Choose an original theme

A good font can change a design. Think about the kind of an effect you want to make on your customers or the mood your design is setting out to create and choose a font based on that knowledge. It could be something fancy or rugged or old-fashioned – a good font has the power to elevate your text design.

TOP 10 Popular fonts people love to use:

1. Helvetica (Max Miedinger 1957)
2. Baskerville (John Baskerville, 1757)
3. Times (Stanley Morison, 1957)
4. Akzidenz Grotesk (Brethold Type Foundry, 1896)
5. Gotham (Hoefler and Frere- Jones, 2000)
6. Bodoni (Giambattista Bodoni, 1790)
7. Didot (Firmin Didot, 1784-1811)
8. Futura (Paul Renner, 1927) Is One of The World’s Most Popular Fonts
9. Gill Sans (Eric Gill, 1928)
10. Frutiger (Adrian Frutiger, 1977)

Try something what already sells [not copy]

 Your niche + search on Amazon

With this simple hack, you’ll be swimming in new t-shirt ideas in no time. First, determine your niche.

Let’s say you want to explore the ‘bread baking’ niche in more detail. Head to Amazon and type in “bread baking shirt” in the search field, then sort the results by average customer review to get a 360-view on what’s trending on the market. If you have your account set up with Amazon Merch, you will also be able to see the total sales for each item, which is helpful with gauging any idea’s profitability.

Word / phrase + search on Amazon

This idea leverages Amazon’s auto-complete and has the capacity to feed your brain with interesting (and often unexpected) ideas. All you need to do is type in one or two words of a chosen phrase, say “why not”, “did you” or “this guy” and look at the suggestions that Amazon will bring up.

So what kind of phrases are we talking here? Anything that rolls off the tongue and would do well on a t-shirt, such as:

1. No new friends
2. I already miss my bed
3. Squad goals
4. That’s finesse
5. Just for laughs
6. I’m only here for the pizza

Of course, keep in mind that Amazon’s algorithm shows the most popular things that people search for, so it’s not necessarily the best way to get ahead of trends – but it’s certainly an excellent method to fish for new shirt concepts. You can always take a popular phrase and twist it slightly by replacing one or two words.

For some crazy phrase or word ideas you can also try online random Word Generator.

Etsy search

Since it’s a platform for artists, the Etsy marketplace is filled up to its brim with unique concepts and products. You can say it’s like a treasure trove for design ideas.

If you need a bit of a creative boost, head to Etsy and check out their ‘Tops & Tees’ sections – you’ll find separate categories for men, women and kids. If you sort the results by “Most recent”, you’ll be shown the t-shirts that have sold recently because Etsy tends to automatically re-list all products whenever they sell. To get a rough idea on how well a store is doing, click through to their profile and check the stats on the left – in most cases you’ll be able to see the total number of sales as well as the number of “admirers” (people who favorited the store).

This is in no way saying that you should go to Etsy to steal someone’s ideas, though. Please treat Etsy as the inspiration source that it is and not a quick way to come up with profitable designs. If you find a t-shirt idea that you really like, brainstorm similar concepts that would tap into that particular market segment and audience. What else could interest them? Keep in mind that people who purchase text design t-shirts do so because they can relate to and in some way support the “idea” behind the design, not because it’s a particularly fashionable piece of clothing.

Think outside the shirt

It’s easy to get stuck in the thinking that to produce top selling t-shirts you must look at top selling t-shirts and reverse engineer your ideas from there. For instance, you see that feminist shirts are on the rise, so you jump on that bandwagon. And while it can turn out to be a great cash cow, it’s not necessarily the best strategy in every case.

To find untapped or underserved markets, you need to start thinking outside the t-shirt world. This means, starting with your target audience or people in your target niche in mind and branching out to other niches and areas of interest that could provide inspiration. Some of the places that could give you a good creative kick are:

>  Book trends:

This is an incredibly rich product category that breaks down into a number of subcategories, all of which are niche markets on their own. A simple Amazon search might fill your mind with a dozen of t-shirt ideas.

>  Stationary, posters and greeting card designs:

When it comes to seriously good design thinking, brands that specialise in visual communication (posters, greeting cards or stationary in general) like Ohh Deer or We Built This City, have a lot going on that could kickoff your creative process. You can look at different illustration styles, colours, fonts and design concepts to identify new trends and lay the groundwork for your next masterpiece.

> Facebook groups, YouTube cideos, 9GAG, Reddit, etc. : 

Using social media to uncover cool design concepts is one of the most obvious strategies, but its effectiveness cannot be understated. To catch a trend before it reaches the mass audience, you have to go where conversations are happening.

Hire a designer to make designs for you

The other great option available to you is to hire a professional t-shirt designer. While top-notch t-shirt designers are quite difficult to come by, they’re not unicorns – we’ve written extensively about all the factors you should take into account before hiring anyone as well as where to find the best design talent. An important thing to remember is that many designers know several design areas well, but they aren’t proficient at all-things-design. That’s why it’s critical for you to have a solid idea of what type of design you want and what kind of skills would be needed to bring it to life before starting your search.

Purchase printing rights from a designer or agency

If you can’t do the designs yourself and don’t want to pay someone else to do it, you still have the option to purchase printing rights of the designs you love. This is a super fast way to go from idea to the end result without spending too much on cool designs.