Using the type

One typeface does everything: Proxima Nova. Headings, body, buttons, labels, spec tables. There is no second brand font.

The shape of a heading

Headings are heavy. Set them in the heaviest weight you have, usually called Black or Heavy, not just Bold. That weight is a lot of what makes something look like Tow and Fert rather than generic.

Body text is regular weight. Do not set a whole paragraph in bold to make it feel important.

Keep two clear steps between a heading and the text under it. If the heading is heavy, the body is regular. A heading in semibold above body in regular reads as a mistake.

Sizes

You do not need the full scale. In practice:

• Big heading at the top of the piece.
• Section headings noticeably smaller than that.
• Body text at a comfortable reading size, never smaller than you would want to read on a phone in the sun.
• Small print for disclaimers, and it still has to be readable.

The one hard rule on size: a line of body text should not run much wider than about 65 characters. Long lines are hard to come back to when your eye returns to the left.

Sentence case, always

Headings and buttons are written like sentences. "Book a demo", not "BOOK A DEMO" and not "Book A Demo".

Capitals are only ever used for the small label that sits above a heading, or on a badge. Nowhere else.

When you cannot get Proxima Nova

This will happen. It is not installed on most computers, and PowerPoint and Word will quietly swap it for something else without telling you.

Use Montserrat instead. It is the sanctioned substitute and it holds the right proportions at heading weights. If Montserrat is not available either, Helvetica Neue or Arial at the same weights is closer to the brand than anything with serifs or a default system font.

The one thing to watch when you substitute is mixing. One font through the whole document, not Proxima on the cover and Montserrat inside.

For a Word document or a slide deck going to someone else, prefer a font that is actually on their machine. A font that silently substitutes will also break your line breaks and push text out of boxes.

Numbers in columns

If you have figures stacked in a table or a list, set them so the digits line up in columns. Most design tools call this tabular or lining figures. Misaligned numbers in a spec table look careless, and this audience reads spec tables closely.