Best Fonts for Scientific Figures, Posters & Abstracts

Typography is the quiet half of a good figure. The right font, at the right size, makes labels effortless to read; the wrong one makes even a beautiful figure look amateur or, worse, unreadable at print size. Here's what to use and what to avoid.

Why sans-serif wins

For figures, sans-serif fonts are the standard because they stay clean and legible at small sizes and when the figure is scaled down for the table of contents. Serif fonts (with their small strokes) can blur or break up at low resolution. Most publisher guidelines explicitly recommend sans-serif for figure text.

Recommended fonts

Safe, widely accepted choices include Arial, Helvetica, and Calibri; some journals also accept Times-family fonts where they match house style. These are readable, available everywhere, and embed cleanly. The exact recommendation varies — Elsevier suggests Times, Arial, Courier or Symbol, while ACS asks for sans-serif — so check your journal, but a clean sans-serif is rarely wrong.

Get the size right

Figure text must be legible at the final printed size, not just on your monitor. A common rule is to keep figure type no smaller than about 6–8 pt at final size (ACS specifies around 8 pt, minimum 6). Posters are the opposite extreme — body text should be readable from about 1.5 metres, which usually means 24 pt or larger, with much bigger titles.

Consistency beats variety

Use one font family across all your figures, and limit yourself to a couple of weights (regular and bold) rather than mixing typefaces. Consistent type makes a paper's figures feel like a coherent set and lets readers focus on the science instead of the styling.

Common typography mistakes

Avoid these: text too small to read at print size; mixing several fonts; using decorative or condensed fonts that hurt legibility; inconsistent sizes between panels; relying on italics or colour alone to distinguish labels; and forgetting to embed or outline fonts, which causes text to reflow or substitute on the publisher's system. Always embed fonts in your PDF/EPS exports.

Related reading: How to Make a Scientific Figure for a Paper and Best Colour Palettes for Scientific Figures.