How to make a poster font with perspective

Poster lettering with perspective comes from letters that narrow or widen towards the top, paired with a heavy weight so the strokes stay strong. Font by Zaweba has a Perspective Poster preset that sets this up in one click. You can also build it yourself: the Perspective operation sets the width at cap height compared with the baseline, from 0.3 to 1.7, with the vanishing point at the centre, left or right.

Here's how to get a bold, dramatic poster face and keep it readable.

Planning the poster

Perspective lettering is for big, short text. Think of a film title, a gig poster, a fairground sign or the cover of a programme. Have the actual words in mind, ideally in capitals, since a clean top line shows the effect most clearly.

Decide which way you want the letters to recede. A centre vanishing point gives a symmetrical, head on look. A left or right one makes letters seem to sweep past, which adds direction to a layout.

Building it step by step

Open Font by Zaweba and choose the Perspective Poster preset to see the effect immediately, or start from Bold Plain or Slab if you want to build it up.

Set a heavy weight in the style stack. Perspective narrows part of every letter, so thin strokes get thinner still. A heavy weight keeps them solid.

Turn on Perspective and set the amount. Values below 1 narrow the letters towards the top, as if they lean away from you. Values above 1 widen them towards the top, as if they loom over you.

Choose the vanishing point: centre, left or right.

Add finishing touches. Slab serifs suit old poster lettering. A little vertical shear adds sweep. An outline or inline can look striking, as long as the hollow parts don't close where letters are narrowest.

Check your words in the live preview at large sizes, where posters live, and in white on black if the poster will be dark. Then name the font and export it.

Making it look right

Order matters in the stack. If perspective comes before serifs, the serifs keep their own shape; if after, they're squeezed along with the letters. Move the operation and compare.

Mind lowercase. Perspective is measured against the cap height, so lowercase letters with ascenders and descenders are affected unevenly. For a poster, setting the title in capitals is often the cleaner choice.

Look at diagonal pairs. AV, VA and similar pairs change their fit when letters narrow at the top. Spacing and kerning are redone after every change, but for a title that matters, check each pair and use the kerning pair editor to adjust and lock any that look loose.

Don't use it for body text. A perspective font is hard to read in paragraphs. Pair it with a plain font for the smaller text on the poster.

Taking it to the poster

Install for me puts the font on your Windows account with no administrator prompt, so you can use it straight away in the program you lay out the poster in. If the poster is a web page, the web kit gives you WOFF2 files, a fonts.css and a demo page. A specimen PDF is a handy way to show the lettering to whoever is approving the design before you commit.

With a heavy weight and a strong perspective, Font by Zaweba turns a sensible alphabet into proper poster lettering in a few minutes, and the .zfont project keeps every setting so you can make a matching version for the next event.