Day: October 4, 2024

Photoshop offers many amazing tools for creating visual effects. For example, Photoshop actions let you transform your photos into paintings or cartoon drawings with just a single mouse click.

While these effects are fun to play with, they are also quite useful in creating attractive graphics for various designs like posters and flyers. That’s why it’s always a good idea to keep a few Photoshop actions and effects in your library to help create such graphics in an instant.

In this collection, we showcase different types of Photoshop cartoon actions, effects, and filters you can use to turn photos into cartoons as well as create unique designs. Have a look and add them all to your personal collection.

Retro Comic Photo Effect for Photoshop

This is a uniquely crafted Photoshop template that adds a comic cartoon effect to your images. This easy-to-use template, equipped with meticulous details, allows you to transform your images and graphics with a cartoon effect instantly. It’s fully editable, compatible with 300DPI projects, perfect for print, and features well-organized layers.

Comic Photo Effect PSD Template

A dynamic Photoshop template designed to apply a comic or caricature-inspired transformation to your images. Ideal for pictures with resolutions between 1000px to 3000px, this template applies a vibrant, energetic, and oily effect for a variety of visuals, whether fashion-focused, lifestyle-themed, or product-based.

Cartoonize Photo Effect PSD

This is a dynamic Photoshop template designed to convert your images into lively cartoon effects. It’s ideal for a range of pictures, like fashion, lifestyle, and even product shots. The template is most effective on photos with a resolution between 1000px to 3000px.

Cartoon Painting Photoshop Action

This is a professional-grade Photoshop action, ideal for photographers and designers looking to cartoonize their images. It provides striking effects that work beautifully on a wide range of images, even transforming them with just a single click. Adjustments can be made to suit individual photos.

Cartoonize Photo Effect for Photoshop

Another dynamic Photoshop template designed to convert your regular images into vibrant and energetic caricature-style pictures. This versatile asset offers various effects including, but not limited to, oily paint, glamour oil, portrait oil, oil retouch, and cartoon effects.

Retro Cartoon Photoshop Action

The Retro Cartoon Photoshop action is a fun and creative preset designed for photographers and graphic designers. This easy-to-use PS action can be used to instantly transform your photos into cartoon graphics and illustrations. The action is compatible with newer versions of Photoshop, from CS5 and above.

Cartoon Effect Converter PS Action

This PS Action is a quick, easy-to-use tool that can easily convert your photos into stunning painted artwork. It requires no specific skill set and offers customizable features to meet your unique requirements. Suitable for all versions of Photoshop CS4 and beyond.

Cartoon Artistic Photoshop Action

With easy setup, this Photoshop action quickly transforms images into cartoony artwork and it’s most suitable for graphic designs. The package includes a detailed help file and a YouTube tutorial to assist with language settings, making it accessible for anyone desiring fun and unique image edits.

Cartoon Painting Photoshop Action

This PS Action provides an array of striking effects, including the Portrait Oil Painting Effect, dramatic oil, oily, painting oil, glamour oil, portrait oil and oil retouch. The package includes one-click actions, an ATN file, and a helpful guide to facilitate easy installations.

Cartoon Oil Paint Photoshop Action

This PS action features a creative cartoon-style oil painting effect. It works with various Photoshop versions, from CS5 to CC. This action set stands out for its simplicity – you just load actions, choose your action, and then hit play.

Colorized Cartoon Effect Photoshop Action

This is a quick and simple PS Action that transforms your images into vibrant paintings within seconds, with a simple click. It’s user-friendly, doesn’t require any extensive Photoshop skills and provides room for personal customization to suit your needs. Compatible with Photoshop CS4 and higher.

Paint Beast Photoshop FX PS Action

Offering intense customization possibilities, this PS action works seamlessly with Photoshop CS4 and all advanced versions. It’s ideal for professional graphic designers to add a unique touch to your various projects.

Futuristic Cartoon Effect Photoshop Action

This is a fantastic tool that transforms your images into stunning paintings in seconds with just one click. Very easy to use, all it requires is to load and play the actions. You can heavily customize the end results to suit your needs. It’s compatible with all versions of Photoshop CS4 and higher.

Cartoon Effect FX Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action also offers extensive customization options and it comes with a creative cartoon-style effect, ideal for portrait photos. Compatible with Photoshop CS4 and all later versions.

Soft Oil Cartoon Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action is ideal for photographers and graphic designers. The final result offers a soft, oil-cartoon aesthetic. The asset includes an ATN file and helpful instructions. It’s especially perfect for generating art for posters and flyers.

4 in 1 Cartoon & Vector Art Photoshop Actions

This is a bundle of Photoshop actions that includes 4 different cartoon effects. It has effects for converting photos into cartoon drawings, vector art, and paintings. Each action creates effects with organized layers so you can easily adjust the effect to your preference. You can apply them with just one click as well.

Cartoonish – Modern Cartoon Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action will allow you to transform portrait photos into cartoon drawings without effort. It features 10 different colorful effects that add a modern cartoon look to photos. The actions work with Photoshop CS4 and higher.

Cartoon Painting Photoshop Actions

If you’re an Instagram influencer or a blogger, this Photoshop cartoon action will definitely come in handy. It allows you to add a unique cartoon effect to your photos to make them look like a scene out of a cartoon film. It’s great for making your Instagram photos stand out from the crowd.

Balaclava – Photoshop Cartoon Plugin

If you want to create more complex and advanced cartoon effects, you’ll need a Photoshop plugin. This Photoshop plugin allows you to create more realistic cartoon effects using some of the built-in features of Photoshop CC. It will completely transform your portraits with face styles, backgrounds, and color effects.

Cartoon Style Photoshop Text Effects

Want to create titles and headings with cartoon designs? Then you’ll need this Photoshop text effects bundle. It includes editable PSD files with ASL files you can easily customize to create fun and quirky titles with cartoon designs.

Toon Artist – Free Photoshop Cartoon Plugin

A high-quality Photoshop effect crafted by a professional designer. This action allows you to create an amazing cartoon effect with your photos with just a few clicks. The action is free to download and use.

Comic Vintage Vector Tracing Cartoon PS Action

This is a must-have Photoshop action for graphic designs. With this action, you can create a vintage vector design look using photos. The textured cartoon look will turn your photos into a page from a comic book.

Cartoonica – Creative Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action also creates very creative cartoon-like designs from photos. It works well with portraits and photos with objects. The end result will look a lot like a cartoon drawing.

Cartoon Painting Photoshop Action

Another creative cartoon Photoshop action for transforming portrait photos. This action is very easy to use and customize. And it seems to work perfectly for selfies and portrait photos. It’s especially great for Instagram.

Realistic Vector Cartoon Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action allows you to easily change the look of your photos with a vector cartoon effect. It’s great for graphic designs, posters, flyers, and even website designs. The action works with Photoshop CS4 and higher.

Anime Speed Lines Photoshop Action

You can use this Photoshop action to quickly generate cool anime-style backgrounds for your graphic designs. There are 15 different actions in this bundle featuring all kinds of anime speed lines background effects.

Free Oil Painting Cartoon Photoshop Actions

A free Photoshop action featuring an oil painting effect. This action will instantly turn your portrait photos into cartoon-like designs. You can apply the effect with just one click. And it works with Photoshop CS3.

Cartoonizer – Photoshop Cartoon Action

Convert your photo to cartoon in Photoshop with the help of Cartoonizer, a high-quality action that will help you achieve the desired results with minimal effort. It’s a versatile Photoshop cartoon filter that can be used for a range of professional and creative applications.

Cartoon Effects Photoshop Text Plugin

Here we have a Halloween-themed Photoshop cartoon plugin that gives your text a cartoonish touch in just a few easy clicks. It’s a great choice for kids’ projects, Halloween party posters, flyers, and invitation cards.

Realistic Photoshop Cartoon Effect

Give your pictures a realistic cartoon look with the help of this amazing Photoshop action that works well with almost any sort of photography. You also get a video tutorial that helps you make the most of this cartoon effect Photoshop plugin.

Netta – Free Photoshop Cartoon Plugin

Searching for the easiest way to transform your pictures into anime scenes? Look no further than Netta, a free Photoshop cartoon filter that will put all your worries about how to make cartoon in Photoshop to rest.

Free Cartoon Painting Photoshop Action

This free Photoshop action lets you add a realistic painting effect to your portrait photos. It will also make photos look like a still from a cartoon film.

Zombie Grime Art Photoshop Cartoon Effect

A very unique Photoshop action that creates a different style of a cartoon effect by combining cartoon style with real-life images, also known as Grime art. Using the PS action, you can make yourself look like a cartoon zombie in portrait photos. The effect requires a few additional steps to apply but the included video tutorial will help you learn how it’s done.

Cartoonize – Photoshop Cartoon Action

With this Photoshop action, you can create a realistic cartoon effect mixed with an oil painting look and feel. It creates a non-destructive effect that you can easily adjust to your preference. And it’s compatible with Photoshop CS3 and higher.

Cartoon Vector Painting Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action is perfect for giving a cartoon drawing look to your portrait photos. It’s especially perfect for making your selfies look more creative for Instagram and Facebook. The best part is this PS action even works with older versions of Photoshop, starting with CS3.

Free Photoshop Cartoon Action

Take your everyday pictures to a whole new level with this Photoshop cartoon plugin that’s not just easy to install, but also fun to play around with all the customization options. Drop everything, and grab it right now.

Vector Converter – Cartoon Avatar Photoshop Plugin

Another advanced Photoshop plugins you can use to create cartoon avatars using portrait photos. It will basically turn your ordinary photos into vector cartoon drawings. The plugin requires the Oil Paint filter to function so it’s only compatible with Photoshop CC 2015 and higher.

Photo To Cartoon Photoshop Actions

Use this simple one-click Photoshop action to instantly turn your photos into cartoon drawings. It’s ideal for Instagram selfies and social media graphics. The effect can also be easily customized to your preference to change its strength.

Free Cartoon Art Photoshop Action

Another free Photoshop action you can use to apply a cartoon effect with just a few clicks. This action works well with portrait photos and lets you create a non-destructive cartoon filter.

Free Comic Poster Photoshop Actions

Use this free Photoshop action to add a comic book-like cartoon effect to your photos. This action works with Photoshop CS3 and higher. The effect is fully customizable to your preference.

Smudge Painting Photoshop Action

With this Photoshop action, you can create a cartoon painting-like effect in just a few clicks. It’s a high-quality action that will allow you to create professional results. And, of course, you’ll be able to customize the effect to match different portrait photos as well.

Anime Style Cartoon Photoshop Action

After featuring so many cartoon effects for portraits, we finally have one for outdoor photos. This Photoshop action allows you to apply a subtle anime cartoon effect to your outdoor and nature photos. It creates a fully editable effect with layers and elements.

Photo to Vector Cartoon Photoshop Action

Create vector paintings and cartoons with your photos using this advanced Photoshop action. It creates a non-destructive cartoon effect with your portraits to turn them into cartoon drawings. The effect is compatible with Photoshop CS6 and higher.

Kartoon Painting Photoshop Action

Another simple yet effective effect for adding a cartoon look to your selfies, portrait photos, and even pet photos. The PS action works with just a few clicks and allows you to customize the effect afterward. It works with Photoshop CS6.

Caricature – Fun Cartoon Photoshop Action

Want to give a fun and quirky cartoon look to your photos? Then this Photoshop action is perfect for you. It comes with a weird cartoon effect that gives a funny distorted look to your portrait photos. Perfect for making people laugh.

MicroPro – Cartoon Oil Photoshop Action

Another cartoon Photoshop action for outdoor landscape photos. This action lets you apply a cartoon oil painting look to your outdoor photos. It also works quite well with cityscape, nature, and food photos as well. The action is compatible with Photoshop CS1 and higher.

Free Modern Art Cartoon Photoshop Action

While this free Photoshop action is made for giving a modern art look to your photos, it can also be used to create a cartoon look with just a few tweaks and adjustments. There’s a tutorial on how to use the action as well.

80 Free Smart Easy PSD Text Effects

This is a big bundle of text effects for Photoshop. All text effects are available as PSD files that you can customize to paste your own text. You’ll find a few text effects with cartoon designs in the bundle.

Toon-Me – Photoshop Cartoon Action

With this Photoshop action, you can give a truly cartoonish look to your photos. It adds several effects to portrait photos to make them fun and more cartoon-like. The effect is compatible with Photoshop CS3 and higher.

Cartoon Filter Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action is designed to make photos look like paintings. And it adds a subtle cartoon effect to photos at the same time. It’s perfect for giving an artistic look to your portraits.

GTA Style Cartoon Photoshop Action

Gamers will surely find this Photoshop action useful as it allows you to make your photos look like the loading screen art from Grand Theft Auto games. This bundle comes with Photoshop actions, 5 frame templates, 5 collage templates, and more.

Cartoon Oil Action – 10 Effects

You can use this collection of Photoshop actions to add a creative cartoon oil painting look to your portrait photos. It includes 10 variations of the effect that can be customized to your preference.

Cartoon Photoshop Photo Effect

If you want to add a subtle cartoon look to your photos, this action is the best choice for you. It features a simple effect that only adds a light cartoon effect to portrait photos.

Paint Cartoon Photoshop Action

For another ultra-realistic and modern-looking paint effect that will help you cartoonize any photo, this fun cartoon filter for Photoshop promises high-quality results using versions CS3 and higher and includes full supporting documentation to get you editing straight away.

Smudge Cartoon Photoshop Action

The Smudge Photoshop cartoon plugin will help you cartoonize a photo with a sleek and realistic painted effect that features sharp edges and vibrant colors and is compatible with Photoshop versions CS3 and above. It’s a great choice if you’re after a fun and professional cartoon painting look.

Retro Comic Book Photoshop Cartoon Action Kit

Next, we have a retro-inspired action kit that allows you to cartoonize a photo in an authentic, hand-drawn comic book style. It works best with images that offer a resolution between 72 and 300 DPI, and all comic elements are vector graphics which enables you to scale and tweak the effects as much as you want.

Oil Vector Art Photoshop Cartoon Action

This cartoon filter for Photoshop adds a vector art look to your images that’s inspired by the texture and color profile of a real-life oil painting, and can be applied with amazing results in just a few clicks. You can create up to 40 different color effects, and adjust each layer to your preference.

Balaclava – Photoshop Cartoon Plugin

Balaclava is a Photoshop cartoon plugin containing tools and techniques that help you achieve the most modern, professional, and eye-catching cartoon effects in just a few clicks. The cartoon effect Photoshop Action offers 4 editable Photoshop cartooning styles, 5 face styles, 8 backgrounds, and more than 20 color variations.

Looking for more? Then be sure to check out our best Photoshop actions collection.

Want to give your design a quick facelift? Using new and interesting typography trends might be the answer. Designers are using bold colors, cutouts, gradients, and even customizations to create lettering that stands out.

Changing typefaces or recreating an image or header in a trending style can give a design a fresh look without a full-scale overhaul. Not sure where to start? This list features typography trends with examples to use as inspiration for how to use them.

Here’s a look at the top typography trends this year.

1. Brutalism Typography

Brutalism design is one of the few and rare design trends that survived many decades. This trend dates back to the 1950s. It started out as a design trend in architecture and later inspired many print and digital designs, including graphic design, web design, and even typography.

Brutalist typography is simple and straightforward. There are no fancy typography elements or decorative shapes necessary to convey the idea. It’s simply text with clean, clear-cut letterforms and it gets the job done.

More designers are adopting this design trend to create striking typography for various designs ranging from posters to website headers. It especially works well for bold, raw, and Monochromatic-style designs.

2. Liquid Text

Giving a melting or liquid look to your typography is nothing new. You’ve probably seen it used by food and drink brands. However, there’s a new variant of this trend sweeping across the digital design world.

This new variant of liquid text design only liquefies parts of the letters to create a unique hybrid look. Designers are using this trend in various ways by combining it with other design trends like outline text and retro fonts.

The unique look this trend creates fits perfectly for trendy brands and timely marketing campaigns, especially for fashion and lifestyle branding designs.

3. Ink Traps

Ink trap is a popular technique used in print design when printing in small sizes where corners get removed from letters to trap the ink. So when it gets printed, the ink spreads to those removed areas, preventing the ink from spreading outward.

Ironically, this inspired a new trend in modern digital typography. We are now seeing new fonts being created inspired by ink traps featuring letterforms with deep corners, mimicking the ink trap-style design.

It certainly adds a very unique look to typography and gives a distinctive vibe to titles and headings.

4. Bubbly Text

Bubble fonts and typography are making a comeback. Inspired by typography designs from the groovy 1970s, this bubble text trend can now be seen everywhere.

The fun, creative, and playful look it adds to the text is unmatched. It’s one of the many reasons why designers choose this style to create titles and text for brands with playful vibes.

The bubbly text trend also comes in many different styles and variations, including ones with balloon-style letterforms as well as urban graffiti-style letters.

5. Big, Chunky Titles

When it comes to creating titles that instantly grab attention, nothing beats a good old-fashioned big, chunky letter design. That’s part of why this typography trend has survived many decades and is still relevant today.

Designing titles and headings with big, chunky letterforms is the most effective way to craft typography that stands out. This trend also has diverse use cases across various genres. With a slightly playful font, you can make it fit in with a lifestyle brand. Or with a clean-cut letter design, you can use it for a luxury brand.

6. Art Deco Typography

The beautiful symmetrical lines and sharp edges of the Art Deco style completely transform the look and feel of typography. The blend of elegance and sophistication it brings is unmatched by any other design trend. It’s no wonder why this typography trend has survived longer than a century.

Over the past few months, we saw many brands and marketers use the Art Deco trend to their advantage to create typography that evokes a sense of nostalgia and takes people back to a time when things were simpler.

Art Deco typography is also often used in visual storytelling, especially on websites, posters, and packaging designs. Clearly, it’s a trend that will evolve and stay relevant for many more years ahead.

7. Psychedelic Fonts

The psychedelic design trend has been a popular choice among designers who seek to break free from the traditional and common ways. And it has now made its way over to typography as well.

The bold shapes, curves, and distorted letters of the psychedelic fonts give logos, titles, and badges a unique look inspired by the aesthetics of the 1960s and the hippy culture. The psychedelic typography trend does a great job of bringing out a chill and relaxing feeling while also mixing a sense of a rebellious vibe.

8. Urban Graffiti Titles

Lately, we’ve been seeing less and less graffiti art out on the streets. Graffiti art is one the purest forms of creative expression, especially the graffiti typography is something that always catches your eye. So we’re glad to see this art form transform into the digital world.

Designers have been using graffiti-style typography with various types of graphic designs over the past few years and it seems to be growing in demand. The main reason for the popularity of this typography trend is its ability to create a bold, urban vibe with a gritty aesthetic. The raw, real-world look of the graffiti typography is quite unmatched.

9. Retro Disco Text

The disco era is a time period that everyone longs for regardless of age. The current revival and popularity of disco-style music among modern musicians prove that even the younger generations are enjoying this trend.

As a result of this newfound desire for the disco era, disco-style retro typography is also making a comeback. Nothing beats this typography trend when it comes to creating titles and text that exude fun and energetic vibes.

The blend of retro rainbow colors, sparking elements, and classic weathered textures make this trend one of the best for designing typography for everything from posters to brand logos and much more.

10. Elegant Royal Fonts

This growing typography trend is the go-to choice among many luxury and high-end brands that seek to convey a sense of authority and class. The way it creates a sophisticated and regal look often adds a Royalty-like vibe to any logo, badge, label, or packaging design.

Often used in combination with gold colors, royal-like ornaments, and stylishly curved letterforms, the royal typography trend often succeeds in enhancing the luxurious feel of various types of designs.

Elegant royal-style fonts are also a great choice for adding an authentic and traditional look to create a timeless feel for any digital and print design.

11. Neo-Futuristic Techno Vibes

When talking about futuristic techno-style designs your mind often goes to neon colors and Cyberpunk-style designs. But that’s not what this new trend is all about. Neo-futuristic techno typography offers a much more gritty and bold vibe for creating a strong futuristic industrial look.

This trend is often seen on modern websites and poster designs as it helps create better visibility for your text and titles. The fonts designed in this style often have sharp letterforms with monospaced characters. It also uses strong contrasting colors to make your text pop with a clean, minimal, and stylish look.

12. 3D Text

The 3D typography trend is evolving beyond just blocky, extruded text into more creative styles with perspective views and unique letterform designs.

With easier access to 3D modeling tools like Blender and new 3D tools in Adobe Illustrator, crafting these unique 3D typography designs is now much easier than ever.

Especially when designing with a retro-futuristic style, the 3D text and typography fit perfectly for creating a more immersive look and feel. This trend will likely evolve beyond this year and last for many more years ahead.

13. Variable Fonts

Variable fonts are slowly gaining in popularity as more designers are choosing the new format for their design projects. There are many benefits to using a variable font in your designs and having flexibility is one of them.

When using variable fonts, you have the flexibility to create unique typography with different styles of letterforms, weights, and features without having to use multiple fonts. Variable fonts come with multiple styles packed into one font.

Designers are now finding unique ways to take advantage of this technology to create incredible typefaces with inventive designs.

14. Rounded Typography

The rounded typography trend has been around for several years. However, designers are now taking this trend to new heights by leveraging the new tools available in design software such as Photoshop and Illustrator.

These new rounded typography designs feature more geometric-style rounded letterforms with a soft and aesthetically pleasing look for big titles and headings. Today, the trend is often used in branding designs and packaging designs.

15. Vertical Text

Usually, we don’t recommend throwing readability out the window but it appears to be the latest trend to take over the design world, especially website designs. This trend will have you tilting your head sideways, literally.

Actually, it’s a clever way to grab attention and engage with the website visitors. It arouses your curiosity and makes you tilt your to read the text.

Designing text and titles sideways in a vertical alignment will also work for banners and posters. You should use large and bold fonts with a clean letter design for this strategy to work more effectively.

16. Unaligned Text

Oftentimes, when designers defy the rules and guidelines, things don’t go well. This new trend is a rare exception where we can disregard the guidelines to make unique typography creations.

Keeping text aligned is an important part of designing typography. This guideline is quite important when designing websites as well as other mediums of digital and print designs. However, breaking this rule seems to be one of the most popular typography trends these days.

We’ve been seeing this unaligned text trend everywhere from websites to posters, album covers, social media posts, and everything in between. Without a doubt, we’ll be seeing it throughout this year too.

17. Mixed Typefaces

Surely, you must’ve thought about this once or twice while designing fun title designs for projects. Mixing multiple typefaces to design a title sounds fun but we are often afraid to go there. Well, now you have permission to try it out thanks to this new trend.

The BMW Motorrad website uses clever animation to infuse this mixed typeface design in a subtle way. However, you don’t have to go to such extreme levels. You can start by blending a few outline and condensed fonts with your regular typography designs.

Admittedly, we haven’t seen this trend a lot but we hope it will catch on this year.

18. Stretched-Out Titles

We’ve seen ultra-condensed title designs, tall and narrow typography designs, but this new trend combines them together to spawn a new way to craft titles by simply stretching them out as much as you can.

It doesn’t matter which way you stretch it. You can stretch it vertically or horizontally. You could also stretch just a couple of letters while the rest of the letters stay the same. The result will always be something pretty wild.

The good news is you don’t always have to go into free transform mode to stretch your text. There are now fonts out there with stretched-out letter designs made for this new trend.

19. Fullscreen Titles

The title is arguably the most important element of most graphic and web designs. You often try different trends and strategies to try and bring more attention to it. So, why not make it as big as the entire canvas and be done with it?

Well, that’s exactly what this new trend is all about. Basically, you just make the title as big as the screen or the design canvas. You can use tall and bold fonts to grab extra attention as well.

It’s a very simple and easy way to make your typography designs stand out, especially for making bold statements.

20. Pixelated Fonts

Pixelated style of text and typography designs is quite popular among tech brands and startups. It adds a subtle tech-savvy look to any design that’s also relatable and familiar to many people who grew up playing pixel-art video games.

Intentionally adding a pixelated look to text is now much easier with many pixelated fonts to choose from. These fonts come in various styles ranging from the classic 8-bit style to modern pixel art designs.

Whether it’s to add a bit of nostalgia to your designs or to make titles look more playful, this is a typography trend that’s worth keeping an eye out for this year.

21. Neon Outline

This isn’t exactly a new trend but it is something that we are likely to see growing this year. Inspired by the bright neon signs from the 80s and the 90s, this typography design gives a classic retro look to your titles with neon glowing outline letters.

Adopting this trend is also much easier than most other trends on our list. All you have to do is find an outline font and apply a neon glowing effect.

You can add more style and appeal to it with animations. In the above example, the website uses a subtle flickering effect to make the text look more like a glitching neon sign.

22. Thin and Condensed

The next two trends have a very yin and yang feel to them. Here, thin and condensed lettering is gaining popularity. Once taboo, a predominance of high-resolution screens has made this style of typography more readable and easier to work with.

Again, this trend needs just the right words and typeface to be effective and works best when you aren’t delving into exceptionally long blocks of text.

In the example above, thin and condensed lettering perfectly fits the style of the overall design and is complemented on the scroll with a monospaced, highly readable option.

23. Slabs

On the other end of the spectrum from thin typefaces is the use of slabs.

While bold headline options have always been rather popular, many designers have shied away from going all-in with slabs because, like caps, they can seem to scream at users. The trick is to combine spacing, short phrasing, and readable typefaces so that usage is an asset, not a challenge.

What we love about the example above is the use of a smaller slab headline at the bottom of the homepage, with super friendly and soft imagery to balance the weight of the font itself. It highlights the importance of the words in an approachable way.

24. Outline Fonts

Outline fonts are a big deal.

You’ll find this trend mostly in the hero area of web pages for the main copy. While uses vary somewhat there are a few elements that you’ll find almost every time:

• Sans serif typeface
• All caps text for outline letters
• Paired with filled lettering
• Oversized text elements

Outline font options can be a lot of fun to use. You just have to be cautious when it comes to readability. Letters can get lost in background images and videos quickly. So take care with color, contrast, and placement.

And don’t overdo it. An outline font works best for a point of emphasis, not to create your entire message.

25. “Unreadable” Layers

The next two typography trends and somewhat similar and both break an unexpected rule: They are a bit unreadable. But that’s ok because the rest of the design fills in the blanks and keeps the site interactive.

In this example of the trend, oversized text elements are in a layer behind a foreground element. Every other type element on the screen is highly readable to provide plenty of support for the element that isn’t.

The foreground object also, in the example above, fades in and out over the text so that you can read it back and forth.

The final element that helps pull it all together is the idea that the word isn’t vital to the design. It’s the brand name, which you might know from the logotype, but is less important than what the company/website does.

26. Text That Goes Off the Screen

Following the trend of “unreadable” layers are text elements that lose readability because they animate on and off the screen. This typography effect is all over the place and often paired with an oversized font and just a couple of words that scroll toward the left side of the screen.

This typography trend works best when there’s not a lot of other motion on the screen and the words are readable with just a few seconds of watching. If the text is too complicated, you risk users never figuring out what the words say.

As with the previous example, make sure the supporting text elements provide plenty of information so that people know exactly what the design is about.

27. Experimental Typefaces

Experimental typefaces are all the rage with expressive and interesting styles that add plenty of personality to design projects. Experimental typefaces come in a lot of different forms – they may include funky shapes or strokes, color, or animation.

The best part about these type-styles is that they can inject a unique, and very specific, vibe into a project.

You can find experimental typefaces from several different foundries or independent type designers. If you want to take a peek at some new experimental options, head over to Typelab.

28. Short, Fat Fonts (Low X-Heights)

Another type style that is trending in a major way is typefaces that have short stature and wide stance. Many of these typefaces feature all-caps character sets, but when they feature lowercase letters, can be identified by a low x-height.

This type style tends to work best when there’s not a lot competing with it on the canvas. It’s also best suited for shorter words or phrases, due to readability.

These short, fat fonts also work best for designs that have a super-modern feel. They are almost futuristic in scope and design in many instances.

29. Handwriting Styles

The Sharpie marker style is quite popular among website designers when it comes to display typefaces. And there are plenty of handwriting typefaces to choose from so that you get just the right look and feel.

Much of the current handwriting typeface trend is focused on printed letters with upper and lowercase characters with thicker strokes and a bit of roughness to them.

Typefaces might also include little extra embellishments that make certain characters feel even more special. When it comes to handwriting styles with more cursive or script-type designs, you are likely to find long tails and elaborate swashes.

30. Subtle Gradients

Designers just can’t seem to get enough of gradients. (I’ll admit to being one of them!)

Subtle gradients as an accent in typography are the next evolution of this trend.

What’s nice about the trend is that gradients are so subtle that you might not even see them at first. There’s just a slight variance in the color that helps pull the eye across the lettering.

Gradients are best used with thicker typefaces and to accent specific words or phrases.

Be careful not to overdo it too much. A good text gradient maintains consistent contrast across the word so that it’s not jarring to read and so that it stands apart from the background.

31. Animated Typography

One of the biggest overall trends in design is animation. And there’s no reason this can’t apply to typography as well.

More designs are using lettering that moves, shifts, or is impacted by a hover state (such as the example above). All of these techniques can lead to a more interactive, richer user experience.

When animating text, it’s important to consider how and where users will be reading the information (some animated elements such as video don’t work well on all mobile devices yet). Make accommodations so that even if the animation doesn’t work properly, there’s still a worthwhile user experience where messaging is clear.

In that regard, the best text animations often start with lettering that is clear and easy to see. Animation comes into play after a delay or as part of user interaction. This can delight and surprise users (maybe even resulting in more time on-site).

Consider speed carefully with typography animations – if the text moves too fast, users will miss the message completely; if the text moves too slowly, users might click away before reading all of the content. It must be just right. (User testing can help you find an ideal speed.)

32. Stacked Text Blocks

While typography is trending toward being somewhat smaller in size, it still carries just as much weight. Designers are stacking multiple lines of text, particularly in hero headers, for a weighted message with more words.

The trend is important to note because it shows a shift in trying to communicate a little more fully with users and less of an expectation that one word will be enough to entice someone to engage with a design. More information presented in a visually engaging way can be a better solution that leads to more user engagement.

The key considerations when it comes to stacking multiple lines of text are to find a typeface that is readable when used with more letters (or even when used in all caps, which is a popular option), has adequate linespacing so that lines are easy to distinguish and that breaks in the copy are logical. When stacking text, there should be a distinct flow from line to line that’s both obvious in how to read the words and that users should move to the next line of copy before any other part of the design.

Because of challenges with line breaks and ease of reading, text stacks are often on one side of the screen so that the designer has more control. This structure can also create harmony between a text element and another visual on the screen for an asymmetrical balance that’s appealing to look at.

33. Color Fonts and Type

Color fonts are a class of type of their own and have popped up all over the place. They’re more popular than many originally expected and have fun applications in design projects.

You can read all about color fonts here in our beginner’s guide. The concept of color fonts has opened up more projects to color in typography overall as well.

While there was a lot of black and white text in more minimalist styles, colors are roaring back. Many designers are using bright color typography with minimal styles, such as the Tilted Chair, above. Color can add extra visual interest and emphasis on the words in color.

Bright options, such as the red in the example, help draw the eye and serve as a great springboard for messaging, building brand identity, and drawing users into the design.

34. Cutouts and Overlays

 

 

Layered effects are a great way to make a design look a lot less flat. Doing it with typography can be a nice option.

Cutouts and overlays refer to text elements that have no color fill. A cutout allows whatever is in the background layer to show through the type design, such as the animated sports imagery in the example above. An overlay is often transparent lettering over a background so that you can see the background through letters while still reading them.

Both of these techniques have a lot of visual interest and can be fun to create. They work best with large lettering, not many words, and a display typeface.

Overlays work great with photos, textures, or even video backgrounds. Just make sure to avoid a lot of other design effects when using this technique. (You don’t want to overwhelm the user.)

35. Layering with Other Elements

 

 

In most projects, text elements and other elements are kept fairly separate. But that idea has changed quite a bit and designers aren’t shying away from allowing text and other elements to overlap. The end result can be pretty cool and actually help users focus on the words on the screen a little more.

While the most common uses of the typography trend in practice are text elements that overlap boxed images or color, MJND kicks it up a notch. This design merges the person in the image with typography so that it is cut out around him (like the person is walking into the words).

This is a technique that comes from print design where it is more popular – and quite honestly easier to execute – and can create a stunning display. The trick is having the right image and maintaining the readability of every single letter. (Be careful not to create unintended words because of missing character strokes or parts.)

36. “Overdone” Effects

It’s not often that “overdone” is used favorably when talking about any design technique. But when it comes to the overdone typography trend, it can work.

This type trend has a retro feel and is characterized by text and text effects that are so over the top that you must read the words. There are outlines and shadows and bevels and fades and crazy colors. No effect is off the table.

And the more effects you pile on, the more users might look. This style works best with a simple design scheme, such as Schnitzel Love, above.

Conclusion

When using these trends in your designs, remember to carefully analyze your brand style and target audience to ensure they match the message your designs are conveying.

Be sure to bookmark and follow our Trends category to stay on top of all kinds of design trends.

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