Use one font for character and one for reading
Most good menus use two fonts:
- A heading font for the restaurant name and section titles. This is where the personality goes: a classic serif for a trattoria, a bold condensed face for a diner, a hand-drawn style for a café board.
- A body font for dish names, descriptions and prices. This one should be plain and clear.
Two is usually enough. For more variety, change the size or weight (regular, bold) instead of adding a third font.
Here are some pairings from Menupresso's templates, as examples of how this works:
| Template | Heading font | Body font | Feel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trattoria Rosa | EB Garamond | Merriweather | Classic Italian |
| Roadside Diner | Bebas Neue | Nunito | Bold and friendly |
| Corner Chalkboard | Fredericka the Great | Quicksand | Café board |
| Enoteca | Bodoni Moda | Crimson Pro | Wine bar, formal |
| Pure Type | DM Sans | Inter | Clean and modern |
In each one, the heading font does the talking and the body font stays out of the way.
Fonts that work for the body text
For descriptions and prices, pick a font with simple, open letters. Some good options:
- Sans-serif (no little feet on the letters): Inter, DM Sans, Open Sans, Source Sans 3, Lato, Work Sans, Nunito. They stay clear on small phone screens.
- Serif (with little feet): Merriweather, Lora, Crimson Pro, Libre Baskerville, Newsreader. They suit a more classic menu. Choose one with sturdy strokes, because very thin serifs can look faint.
Keep these styles for headings only, or skip them:
- Script and handwriting fonts (like Pacifico or Caveat). Lovely in a name, slow to read in a description.
- Chalk and hand-drawn fonts (like Fredericka the Great or Amatic SC). Fine for a section title. Tiring over a whole menu.
- All-caps display fonts (like Bebas Neue). These have no lowercase letters, so they can't be used for descriptions.
- Blackletter (the "Old English" style). Many guests struggle to read it at any size, so avoid it for anything they need to understand.
UK clear-print guidance, summarized by the charity Sensory Trust, says the same thing: "Avoid very decorative styles such as 'handwriting' fonts, as these are harder to read."
Size: bigger than you think
Menus are often read in low light, by guests of every age, sometimes without their reading glasses.
On paper: the clear-print guidance Sensory Trust summarizes asks for "a minimum font size of 12pt Arial, ideally 14pt", for readers with sight loss. That's a sensible floor for descriptions on a printed menu, with dish names a little larger. Sizes vary between fonts, so 12pt in one font can look smaller than 12pt in another. Print a test page instead of trusting the number.
On a phone: most web browsers use 16 pixels as their default text size. Descriptions much smaller than that get hard to read, and guests end up pinching to zoom.
Keep prices the same size as dish names. Guests look for both together.
Contrast: dark on light is easiest
Text needs to stand out from its background. The web accessibility standard (WCAG) asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text and 3 to 1 for large text. A free online contrast checker will tell you whether your colors pass. Light gray descriptions on a cream background often fail.
Dark menus are popular in bars, and they can look great. But Sensory Trust notes that white text on black "is less sharp and tiring to read for most people", and suggests keeping it to headings and short blocks. If you use a dark menu, make the body text a little larger and a little heavier.
Never put descriptions on top of a photo.
Capitals, italics and thin weights
- ALL CAPS works for short section titles like "STARTERS". For descriptions it slows people down.
- Italics are common for descriptions. Keep those descriptions short, or use regular text in a softer color instead.
- Thin weights can look elegant in a preview on a bright laptop. On a dim phone or a cheap printer they can almost disappear. Regular weight is safer for body text.
- Numbers: some fonts draw numbers that dip below the line. Check that your prices still read easily at a glance.
Test it before you print
- Print one page at full size.
- Sit at your darkest table and read three descriptions at arm's length.
- Ask someone who wears reading glasses to try it without them.
- Open the online menu on a small phone with the brightness turned down, outdoors if possible.
- Check that every price is as easy to find as its dish name.
If you use Menupresso, each of the 28 menu templates starts with a heading and body font that work together. You can change either one from a list of 43 Google Fonts, and adjust the body size from 85% to 120%. The editor's phone preview shows the change as you make it, so you can test readability before guests see it.