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I have a question, our client and us are conflicted between selection of a font, we are using standard OpenSans Font for mobile app and the client is insisting on using font named David, for us the font looks completely out of sync with the design. For your reference, I have uploaded two screenshots for the same.

Design with OpenSans Font
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Design with David Font
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Can you help us make the case on which font is better suited and why?

PS: design is dark colored theme with gold and black combination representing gold and luxury. (this is what client conveyed us)

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    This isn't an answer to your question, but you might consider increasing the color contrast between your text and background. The field labels are pretty hard to read. WCAG suggests a contrast ratio of 3:1 or 4.4:1. – Ken Mohnkern Oct 15 '18 at 17:46
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    Ultimately, what the client wants governs; you may not want to try to push too hard on this. However, the primary case to be made is that at the relatively low resolution of screens (as compared to print), sans-serif fonts are often more readable and suffer less distortion. This has been mitigated in recent years, though, by the increasing resolution/pixel density of modern displays, even on small devices such as phones. Your comment about 'out of sync' for the design indicates that the difference is principally one of opinion, and on that, you lose if you can't articulate a compelling case. – Jeff Zeitlin Oct 15 '18 at 17:46
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    Hi Ibrahim, this forum doesn't do site reviews, and largely opinion based graphic design questions. You should try this on graphic design instead. – Mike M Oct 16 '18 at 13:32
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I see two big problems in your question:

  1. You are asking a question about a composition element of relevant importance in design as if it were just a decorative element. At this level, you are asking if the chocolate cake cover is better with a multicolored funfetti or shredded coconut. Either of the two options are perfect.
  2. It's obvious that your client knows what their company is doing, that's why they insists on this particular typeface. You should put the possible person who answers your question in that situation: knowing what the company is doing and what is the basic briefing for the application design. The typographic choice is based on that.

I don't know if this is the most appropriate site for this type of question. Anyway, if the question is intended for someone with certain criteria about a typographic family selection for a design, let's say this person can be a graphic designer, there are few options for you to get a good answer without saying the main function of the company to which the application is intended.

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Here is a blog post from UserTesting.com which had inconclusive results, with some recommendations for further testing.

First, serifs alter the outline of each letter, so they can be more difficult to make out for people who have dyslexia or visual disabilities.

Second, because those little horizontal lines are so small, they tend to reproduce poorly on older computer screens, which have much lower resolutions than print. (Retina screens on smartphones, however, have higher resolutions that make serifs easier to see.)

https://www.usertesting.com/blog/choosing-the-right-font-a-guide-to-typography-and-user-experience/

Here is one from NNGroup also concluding no strong benefits:

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/serif-vs-sans-serif-fonts-hd-screens/

I think to move forward, you could conduct a simple preference test asking users which one they prefer and why. You can set one up easily with Usability Hub - https://usabilityhub.com/product

This way you can approach your client with a strong case based on user opinion rather than yours or the client’s.

My inclination is also that Sans should be more preferable since Serif is associated more for physical prints (newspaper) and users like consistent patterns. So much so that the Serif might give a negative “old” or “broken” or “product in beta” impression, affecting brand perception.

If nothing else works, propose an A/B testing and see which one performs better. Maybe your users are older gentlemen or lawyers who do prefer Serif?

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