Believe it or not, letters are a big part of our designs. They carry the readable portion of the topic on their shoulders and determine whether the viewers are able to make sense out of it. Typography is crucial. So let’s learn about typography – the text part of our design.

In this guide, I’ve selected the 10 best free and paid Typography online courses for you from the 150+ Typography courses on our catalog by following a well-defined methodology that you can find below.

But if you want to jump straight to the results, here are my top 10 picks. You can click on a course to jump to the corresponding section:

What is Typography?

As freeCodeCamp instructor Hope Armstrong explains, “typography is the visual component of the written word”. She says that typography comes into play when words are visually displayed on surfaces such as screens, paper, posters, signs, and more.

Graphic design platform Canva puts typography as “the design, or selection, of letterforms to be organized into words and sentences to be disposed of in blocks of type as printing upon a page”. So typography is basically about how you make your text look.

To better understand what typography is, here is a case study of the redesign of Class Central’s logo with a step-by-step of the development process and its history.

What is the Future of Typography?

According to an article by Adobe Creative Cloud, the future of typography lies in variable fonts. Variable fonts are a digital typeface option that allows endless variations in style within a single file. This allows designers more flexibility to control the weight and width of a typeface and create more complex compositions. This prediction is also endorsed by both AIGA and Monotype’s trend report.

The discussion on how to be responsive in a multitude of displays is not new. An article in the Design Observer from 2016, already talks about the ever increasing challenges of predicting how your font will appear in different screen sizes and what variables the designer should consider beforehand: type size, line spacing, typeface, weights and breadths, contrast, and so on.

In a more philosophical and historical article from 2017, Robin Rendle explores the origins of typography and printing press. He also expresses concerns about the implications of using standardized designs to prioritize accessibility and responsiveness over creating beautiful types on the web. According to him, this could be the end of our artistic expression in web design.

So, it becomes clear that the responsibilities of a professional typeface designer will be to consider all those variables to make an accessible and responsive internet, however, bringing along their own art and personality with unexpected combinations and new fonts to illuminate our lives, create remarkable brands, and facilitate communication.

What is My Experience with Typography?

If you’ve read my previous articles, you’ll know that I love art and design. And most of the time, the designs have a text part – that’s where typography comes into play. Even though our designs at Class Central follow a certain style, my personal design projects contain many different styles of text depending on the topic.

When I was younger, my dad designed his own fonts on his computer. As much as I can remember, internet wasn’t much of a thing back then, so he had to learn and do everything on his own. He had taught me the importance of typography and how not to overdo any design. By the way, he had excellent handwriting that looked like print!

Here are some more of my earlier designs in Canva:

Besides that, I am a Guided Project Instructor and a Beta Tester at Coursera, having tested many courses before they’re officially launched. I have taken over 50 online courses in various subjects.

My experience as an online learner and teacher has given me some perspective on what to look for in an online course. I used my experience to evaluate each course in this list.

Course Ranking Methodology

I built this ranking following the now tried-and-tested methodology I used in previous rankings (you can find them all here). It involves a three-step process:

1. Research: I started by leveraging Class Central’s database with 100K online courses and 200K+ reviews. Then, I made a preliminary selection of 150+ Typography courses by rating, reviews, and bookmarks.
2. Evaluate: I read through reviews on Class Central, Reddit, and course providers to understand what other learners thought about each course and combined it with my own experience as a learner.
3. Select: Well-made courses were picked if they presented valuable and engaging content and they have to fit in a set of criteria and be ranked accordingly: comprehensive curriculum, release date, affordability, ratings and enrollments.

The end result is a unique selection of courses that combines a decade of Class Central data and my own experience as an online learner to try to get the best of both worlds. So far, I’ve spent more than 10 hours building this list, and I’ll continue to update it.

Course Ranking Statistics

Here are some statistics regarding this course ranking:

• Combined, these courses have accrued over <number> enrollments.
• 4 courses are free or free-to-audit and 6 courses are paid.
• The most-represented course provider in the ranking is YouTube, with 4 courses.
• 9 courses are in English, and 1 course is in Spanish.
• The Typography subject is followed by over 2.2K learners on Class Central, and accounts for over 150 courses in Class Central catalog.

So without further ado, let’s get to my picks for the best Typography online courses.

1. Typography for Developers Tutorial – Full Course (freeCodeCamp)

My first pick for the best Typography online course is the free course Typography for Developers Tutorial – Full Course, offered by freeCodeCamp on YouTube.

Taught by a Treehouse instructor, this free course covers all you need to know to create good typography. It starts from the very basics of typography such as what typography is, lettering and fonts to topics such as typeface genres, scripts and font styles. You’ll even get the opportunity to complete your very own typography project using Figma.

What You’ll Learn

First, you’ll learn what typography is, typography vs. lettering, typeface vs. font, how typography affects user experience (UX), elements of typeface, serifs, sans-serifs, letterform contrast, text contrast in comparison to the background, and text color contrast.

Next, you’ll explore typeface genres, serif sub-genres, sans-serifs sub-genres, scripts, print design vs. digital design, fixed vs. fluid layouts, choosing and using typefaces, installing fonts, font formats, and counters (enclosed whitespace in text).

Finally, you’ll understand typeface ‘mood’ matching the content, choosing a display typeface, translating text typeface to display typeface, weight, styles and sizes, faux bold and italics vs. true bold and italics, font weighting and styles, and a project using Figma.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 29 videos. Each video involves about 1 to 5 minutes of work. Concepts are taught through video lectures only.

Fun Facts

• This course was made possible by a grant from teamtreehouse.com, based on this paid course.
• Armstrong is a Senior Product Designer at Treehouse who has worked in education, tech, and nonprofits since 2009.
• freeCodeCamp has nearly 7M subscribers on their YouTube channel where they regularly post full blown programming and web designing courses.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

2. Learn about fonts (Envato Tuts+)

My second pick for the best Typography online course is the free course Learn about fonts, offered by Envato Tuts+ on YouTube.

This free course on typography is focused on fonts. Rather than calling it a course, it’s better to call it a series of tutorial videos containing a lot of information regarding fonts – be it current or past font trends, how to create a font, fonts from different genres, how to use each font type, using InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator, and so on.

What You’ll Learn

First, you’ll explore font trends for 2022, tips, tricks and hacks, anatomy of a letter, how to and how to not upload fonts to Cricut design space, art deco graphic design, creating a font in Adobe Illustrator, and typography poster design in Adobe Photoshop.

Then, you’ll learn about creating a typewriter font text effect, combining fonts, the best font combinations, best kinetic typography (animated text) templates for After Effects, using a tattoo font to add a realistic tattoo to a photo in Photoshop, and how to install a font.

Next, you’ll take a look at typeface vs. font, creating a Japanese brush font text effect in Photoshop, typeface classification, adding fonts to Photoshop, retro fonts, text effects, installing and using fonts in Procreate, using swash fonts in Photoshop.

After that, you’ll understand top beautiful modern script fonts, using font ligatures in InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator, serif vs. sans serif fonts, variable fonts for web design, best cute fonts, designing a monogram logo online, and vintage fonts.

Finally, you’ll get a brief history of display fonts, decorating your text with font swashes, best free fonts for Cricut, best fonts for making monograms and logo designs, web fonts, shadow text in Cricut design space, and font trends for 2023.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 46 videos. Each video involves about 5 to 10 minutes of work. Concepts are taught through video lectures only. Useful links are also provided in the YouTube description of the course. Just click on Start Learning and go to Direct link.

Fun Facts

• Envato Tuts+ provides courses and tutorials for web designers.
• They have over 1M subscribers on their YouTube channel where they post video tutorials daily.
• They have already been featured in our best courses guides for Sketch, Adobe After Effects, Adobe XD, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, and Photography. 

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

3. How To Make A Custom Font Using Fontself (The Futur Academy)

My third pick for the best Typography online course is the free course How To Make A Custom Font Using Fontself, offered by The Futur Academy on YouTube.

This short free course will teach you how to make your own custom font using Fontself, an easy-to-use font-making app. But that’s not all. On your way, you’ll learn the basics of typography such as terminology and anatomy, letter types, editing your design in Photoshop and Illustrator, and then finally use Fontself to create the font.

What You’ll Learn

In this course, you’ll learn about challenges to making a typeface, why you should consider designing your own font, historical and present day masters of typeface design, design firms that have used custom typefaces, designers who make an income selling fonts, and terminology and anatomy of typefaces.

Next, you’ll take a look at the unity of design, groups of letter types, different types of typefaces, writing the font, editing the picture of the font in Photoshop, taking the font into Illustrator, using Fontself to make your font, converting a vector drawing into a font, changing Futura to Futur Futura, and Fontself.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 21 videos. Each video involves about 1 to 2 minutes of work. Concepts are taught through video lectures only.

Fun Facts

• The Futur Academy has nearly 400K subscribers to their YouTube channel where they share free content on typography, web design, illustration, and much more.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

4. Diseño de una Tipografía digital de la A a la Z (Domestika)

My fourth pick for the best Typography online course is Diseño de una Tipografía digital de la A a la Z on Domestika.

From drawing to using in a design, this course will cover every step in the process of creating a digital typography. In this course, you’ll create your own font using Glyphs, a font-making app for Mac. As you move through the process, you’ll learn some general concepts of typography and also use Python to automate tasks.

What You’ll Learn

In this course, you’ll learn about formats and programs, glyphs, the character set, basic concepts and useful tips, the Bézier curves, Illustrator and Glyphs, the vertical metric, drawing tools, and the components.

You’ll also explore drawing and testing letters, general concepts, spacing, kerning, anchors, OpenType features, basic Python scripts for creating fonts, interpolation, and designing a digital typography from A to Z.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 34 lessons. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos, additional resources and practice exercises. There is also a final project at the end of the course.

Fun Facts

• López is a freelance designer and passionate about popular graphics and typography.
• He likes to call himself Juanjez.
• You can explore his work on Huy! Fonts.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

5. UI Design Bootcamp. Master Typography, Colour & Grids (Udemy)

My fifth pick for the best Typography online course is UI Design Bootcamp. Master Typography, Colour & Grids on Udemy.

If you’ve designed websites or applications before and know how to use some design software like Figma (preferably), Adobe XD, Invision Studio or Sketch, then this course is for you. Typography is 95% of what we see on a web application, and this course will teach you exactly how you can use that to create great user experience (UX). 

What You’ll Learn

In this course, you’ll cover the following topics:

• Composition: Placing elements on a page
• Typography: History and background of different type classifications
• Selecting and pairing: Choosing a typeface and selecting complimentary typefaces
• Readability: Making it easier for people to read with typographic choices
• Styling and formatting: Adding extra style to typography and improving visual hierarchy
• Grid systems: Types of grids used in design and technical limitations
• Building the grid: Setting up grids in design software to work
• Color interactions: Improving intuitive use of color when used in different contexts
• How color works: The physics behind how light works and how it creates color
• Color attributes: Making changes to a color to make it more useful
• Create the pallet: Creating a color pallet that works specifically for UI
• Visual language: Choosing photos, icons, illustrations and other visuals to support the design

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 13 sections. Each section involves about 30 minutes to 1.5 hours of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos and quizzes. Downloadable resources are also provided.

Fun Facts

• Sutcliffe is a UI designer and developer, teaching for over 15 years.
• He had dyslexia but still he overcame that and managed to find ways to teach himself.
• He first built a website 20 years ago.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

6. How To Master The Fundamentals Of Typography Design With Chris Do (Design Cuts)

My sixth pick for the best Typography online course is the free course How To Master The Fundamentals Of Typography Design With Chris Do, offered by Design Cuts on YouTube.

This short free tutorial session will show you how you can master the fundamentals of typography design within a matter of an hour. This session will be valuable to any beginner designer  looking to learn about typography. By the end of this session, you’ll have the fundamental knowledge of typography such as contrast, scale, repetition and composition.

What You’ll Learn

In this course, you’ll learn about quote, balance, spacing, alignment, western culture, interline spacing, type units, weight width, font weaknesses, center type, upper and lower case, and header and footer type.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 14 videos. Each video involves about 15 to 50 minutes of work. Concepts are taught through video lectures only.

Fun Facts

• Chris is CEO and Founder of The Futur, an online education platform.
• Design Cuts is a marketplace for creatives.
• In their YouTube channel, you can find free content about design, drawing, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and other great tutorials for creatives.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

7. Customizing Type with Draplin: Creating Wordmarks That Work (Skillshare)

My seventh pick for the best Typography online course is Customizing Type with Draplin: Creating Wordmarks That Work on Skillshare.

This short, intermediate-level typography course will show you how you can take ownership of your typography design by customizing type. You’ll follow along as the instructor creates several type treatments of his own to design merchandise by managing forms, in-between spaces and relationships of the letters.

What You’ll Learn

In this course, you’ll learn about junking for references, kerning and tracking, playing with shapes, chopping and extending letterforms, custom type sketching, digitizing sketches, preparing for print, adding texture to type, and rebuilding script.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 14 lessons. Each lesson involves about 5 to 10 minutes of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos and projects. Additional resources are also provided.

Fun Facts

• Draplin’s career started with a snowboard graphic for Solid snowboards.
• He has a design degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
• His business, Draplin Design Co. finally took off in 2004.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

8. 3D Typography: Playing with Color and Volume (Domestika)

My eighth pick for the best Typography online course is 3D Typography: Playing with Color and Volume on Domestika.

Learn to create hyper-realistic 3D typographic animations using Illustrator, Photoshop, Cinema 4D and Redshift. You’ll learn the essentials of each software and create inflatable 3D types that you can apply to your future design and illustration projects.

What You’ll Learn

First, you’ll get an overview of the software workflow, and learn about initial concepts and gathering inspiration, sketching out a layout in AI and exporting vector paths, setting up the Cinema 4D document, creating a 3D sketch in C4D, and adding basic lighting/textures and a camera with redshift.

Then, you’ll learn about modeling the letters, the U, the ball pool, the cushions, the mats, the castle, adding cloth dynamics to the curtains, saving the final image as a Photoshop file, editing/refining the final image using AOV files, and preparing Photoshop files for editing.

Finally, you’ll understand using redshift AOV manager, adjusting lighting/refining the render settings, redshift, inflating an individual letter, and playing with color and volume in 3D typography.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 28 lessons. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos, additional resources and practice exercises. There is also a final project at the end of the course.

Fun Facts

• Burden is a 3D illustrator, best known for his unique visual style blending 3D type and contraptions.
• He studied Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts in London
• His clients include McDonald’s, Netflix, Nickelodeon, Playstation, SC Johnson, Bloomingdale’s, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Harpers Collins, and more.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

9. Building a Custom Typeface With Just Enough Personality (Skillshare)

My ninth pick for the best Typography online course is Building a Custom Typeface With Just Enough Personality on Skillshare.

This short intermediate-level course will show you the workflow of creating your own custom font step by step. By the end of this course, you’ll be able to write a quote you love in your own custom-designed font.

What You’ll Learn

In this course, you’ll learn about type anatomy, guides, type and personality, choosing a quote, opening Glyphs Mini, building your first letter, the straight glyphs, letter spacing, and shoulder glyphs.

You’ll also explore round capital glyphs, round lowercase glyphs, glyphs with arms, angled capital glyphs, angled lowercase glyphs, the oddball glyphs, fit and finish, and setting the quote.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 20 lessons. Each lesson involves about 2 to 10 minutes of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos and projects. Downloadable resources are also provided.

Fun Facts

• Bickmore has been studying and working as a graphic designer for 10 years.
• He has worked in production design, branding and freelance.
• He is currently pursuing a master’s degree from SVA in New York.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

10. Graphic Design Theory – Typography (Udemy)

My tenth pick for the best Typography online course is Graphic Design Theory – Typography on Udemy.

Want to learn all about the theory behind typography? Then this course is for you. You’ll cover critical principles and governing rules of typography, establish subtle hierarchy within your composition, and avoid typographic mistakes that disrupt your composition.

What You’ll Learn

In this course, you’ll learn the process of effective type picking and pairing, key type anatomy terms and the classification of typefaces, the difference between typefaces and fonts, calligraphy and lettering, and text alignment, grids, text and image positioning

You’ll also explore professional font customization, best practices for creating visual interest and control perception, common typography mistakes and ways to avoid them, the golden rules of choosing text color, and useful keyboard shortcuts in Adobe design applications.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 3 sections. The main section involves about 2.5 hours of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos, readings and quizzes. Downloadable resources are also provided.

Fun Facts

• Perhiniak is an Adobe Certified Instructor and was recently voted one of the top 10 Adobe instructors in the world!
• He has worked for companies like Pixar, BBC, Mattel and taught teams at Google, Ben & Jerry’s, House of Lords and Oxford University Press.
• His website, Yes, I’m a Designer,has tons of free content such as podcasts, blog posts, and tutorials.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.