Day: October 4, 2024

Photoshop offers many amazing tools for creating visual effects. For example, Photoshop actions let you transform your photos into paintings or cartoon drawings with just a single mouse click.

While these effects are fun to play with, they are also quite useful in creating attractive graphics for various designs like posters and flyers. That’s why it’s always a good idea to keep a few Photoshop actions and effects in your library to help create such graphics in an instant.

In this collection, we showcase different types of Photoshop cartoon actions, effects, and filters you can use to turn photos into cartoons as well as create unique designs. Have a look and add them all to your personal collection.

Retro Comic Photo Effect for Photoshop

This is a uniquely crafted Photoshop template that adds a comic cartoon effect to your images. This easy-to-use template, equipped with meticulous details, allows you to transform your images and graphics with a cartoon effect instantly. It’s fully editable, compatible with 300DPI projects, perfect for print, and features well-organized layers.

Comic Photo Effect PSD Template

A dynamic Photoshop template designed to apply a comic or caricature-inspired transformation to your images. Ideal for pictures with resolutions between 1000px to 3000px, this template applies a vibrant, energetic, and oily effect for a variety of visuals, whether fashion-focused, lifestyle-themed, or product-based.

Cartoonize Photo Effect PSD

This is a dynamic Photoshop template designed to convert your images into lively cartoon effects. It’s ideal for a range of pictures, like fashion, lifestyle, and even product shots. The template is most effective on photos with a resolution between 1000px to 3000px.

Cartoon Painting Photoshop Action

This is a professional-grade Photoshop action, ideal for photographers and designers looking to cartoonize their images. It provides striking effects that work beautifully on a wide range of images, even transforming them with just a single click. Adjustments can be made to suit individual photos.

Cartoonize Photo Effect for Photoshop

Another dynamic Photoshop template designed to convert your regular images into vibrant and energetic caricature-style pictures. This versatile asset offers various effects including, but not limited to, oily paint, glamour oil, portrait oil, oil retouch, and cartoon effects.

Retro Cartoon Photoshop Action

The Retro Cartoon Photoshop action is a fun and creative preset designed for photographers and graphic designers. This easy-to-use PS action can be used to instantly transform your photos into cartoon graphics and illustrations. The action is compatible with newer versions of Photoshop, from CS5 and above.

Cartoon Effect Converter PS Action

This PS Action is a quick, easy-to-use tool that can easily convert your photos into stunning painted artwork. It requires no specific skill set and offers customizable features to meet your unique requirements. Suitable for all versions of Photoshop CS4 and beyond.

Cartoon Artistic Photoshop Action

With easy setup, this Photoshop action quickly transforms images into cartoony artwork and it’s most suitable for graphic designs. The package includes a detailed help file and a YouTube tutorial to assist with language settings, making it accessible for anyone desiring fun and unique image edits.

Cartoon Painting Photoshop Action

This PS Action provides an array of striking effects, including the Portrait Oil Painting Effect, dramatic oil, oily, painting oil, glamour oil, portrait oil and oil retouch. The package includes one-click actions, an ATN file, and a helpful guide to facilitate easy installations.

Cartoon Oil Paint Photoshop Action

This PS action features a creative cartoon-style oil painting effect. It works with various Photoshop versions, from CS5 to CC. This action set stands out for its simplicity – you just load actions, choose your action, and then hit play.

Colorized Cartoon Effect Photoshop Action

This is a quick and simple PS Action that transforms your images into vibrant paintings within seconds, with a simple click. It’s user-friendly, doesn’t require any extensive Photoshop skills and provides room for personal customization to suit your needs. Compatible with Photoshop CS4 and higher.

Paint Beast Photoshop FX PS Action

Offering intense customization possibilities, this PS action works seamlessly with Photoshop CS4 and all advanced versions. It’s ideal for professional graphic designers to add a unique touch to your various projects.

Futuristic Cartoon Effect Photoshop Action

This is a fantastic tool that transforms your images into stunning paintings in seconds with just one click. Very easy to use, all it requires is to load and play the actions. You can heavily customize the end results to suit your needs. It’s compatible with all versions of Photoshop CS4 and higher.

Cartoon Effect FX Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action also offers extensive customization options and it comes with a creative cartoon-style effect, ideal for portrait photos. Compatible with Photoshop CS4 and all later versions.

Soft Oil Cartoon Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action is ideal for photographers and graphic designers. The final result offers a soft, oil-cartoon aesthetic. The asset includes an ATN file and helpful instructions. It’s especially perfect for generating art for posters and flyers.

4 in 1 Cartoon & Vector Art Photoshop Actions

This is a bundle of Photoshop actions that includes 4 different cartoon effects. It has effects for converting photos into cartoon drawings, vector art, and paintings. Each action creates effects with organized layers so you can easily adjust the effect to your preference. You can apply them with just one click as well.

Cartoonish – Modern Cartoon Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action will allow you to transform portrait photos into cartoon drawings without effort. It features 10 different colorful effects that add a modern cartoon look to photos. The actions work with Photoshop CS4 and higher.

Cartoon Painting Photoshop Actions

If you’re an Instagram influencer or a blogger, this Photoshop cartoon action will definitely come in handy. It allows you to add a unique cartoon effect to your photos to make them look like a scene out of a cartoon film. It’s great for making your Instagram photos stand out from the crowd.

Balaclava – Photoshop Cartoon Plugin

If you want to create more complex and advanced cartoon effects, you’ll need a Photoshop plugin. This Photoshop plugin allows you to create more realistic cartoon effects using some of the built-in features of Photoshop CC. It will completely transform your portraits with face styles, backgrounds, and color effects.

Cartoon Style Photoshop Text Effects

Want to create titles and headings with cartoon designs? Then you’ll need this Photoshop text effects bundle. It includes editable PSD files with ASL files you can easily customize to create fun and quirky titles with cartoon designs.

Toon Artist – Free Photoshop Cartoon Plugin

A high-quality Photoshop effect crafted by a professional designer. This action allows you to create an amazing cartoon effect with your photos with just a few clicks. The action is free to download and use.

Comic Vintage Vector Tracing Cartoon PS Action

This is a must-have Photoshop action for graphic designs. With this action, you can create a vintage vector design look using photos. The textured cartoon look will turn your photos into a page from a comic book.

Cartoonica – Creative Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action also creates very creative cartoon-like designs from photos. It works well with portraits and photos with objects. The end result will look a lot like a cartoon drawing.

Cartoon Painting Photoshop Action

Another creative cartoon Photoshop action for transforming portrait photos. This action is very easy to use and customize. And it seems to work perfectly for selfies and portrait photos. It’s especially great for Instagram.

Realistic Vector Cartoon Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action allows you to easily change the look of your photos with a vector cartoon effect. It’s great for graphic designs, posters, flyers, and even website designs. The action works with Photoshop CS4 and higher.

Anime Speed Lines Photoshop Action

You can use this Photoshop action to quickly generate cool anime-style backgrounds for your graphic designs. There are 15 different actions in this bundle featuring all kinds of anime speed lines background effects.

Free Oil Painting Cartoon Photoshop Actions

A free Photoshop action featuring an oil painting effect. This action will instantly turn your portrait photos into cartoon-like designs. You can apply the effect with just one click. And it works with Photoshop CS3.

Cartoonizer – Photoshop Cartoon Action

Convert your photo to cartoon in Photoshop with the help of Cartoonizer, a high-quality action that will help you achieve the desired results with minimal effort. It’s a versatile Photoshop cartoon filter that can be used for a range of professional and creative applications.

Cartoon Effects Photoshop Text Plugin

Here we have a Halloween-themed Photoshop cartoon plugin that gives your text a cartoonish touch in just a few easy clicks. It’s a great choice for kids’ projects, Halloween party posters, flyers, and invitation cards.

Realistic Photoshop Cartoon Effect

Give your pictures a realistic cartoon look with the help of this amazing Photoshop action that works well with almost any sort of photography. You also get a video tutorial that helps you make the most of this cartoon effect Photoshop plugin.

Netta – Free Photoshop Cartoon Plugin

Searching for the easiest way to transform your pictures into anime scenes? Look no further than Netta, a free Photoshop cartoon filter that will put all your worries about how to make cartoon in Photoshop to rest.

Free Cartoon Painting Photoshop Action

This free Photoshop action lets you add a realistic painting effect to your portrait photos. It will also make photos look like a still from a cartoon film.

Zombie Grime Art Photoshop Cartoon Effect

A very unique Photoshop action that creates a different style of a cartoon effect by combining cartoon style with real-life images, also known as Grime art. Using the PS action, you can make yourself look like a cartoon zombie in portrait photos. The effect requires a few additional steps to apply but the included video tutorial will help you learn how it’s done.

Cartoonize – Photoshop Cartoon Action

With this Photoshop action, you can create a realistic cartoon effect mixed with an oil painting look and feel. It creates a non-destructive effect that you can easily adjust to your preference. And it’s compatible with Photoshop CS3 and higher.

Cartoon Vector Painting Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action is perfect for giving a cartoon drawing look to your portrait photos. It’s especially perfect for making your selfies look more creative for Instagram and Facebook. The best part is this PS action even works with older versions of Photoshop, starting with CS3.

Free Photoshop Cartoon Action

Take your everyday pictures to a whole new level with this Photoshop cartoon plugin that’s not just easy to install, but also fun to play around with all the customization options. Drop everything, and grab it right now.

Vector Converter – Cartoon Avatar Photoshop Plugin

Another advanced Photoshop plugins you can use to create cartoon avatars using portrait photos. It will basically turn your ordinary photos into vector cartoon drawings. The plugin requires the Oil Paint filter to function so it’s only compatible with Photoshop CC 2015 and higher.

Photo To Cartoon Photoshop Actions

Use this simple one-click Photoshop action to instantly turn your photos into cartoon drawings. It’s ideal for Instagram selfies and social media graphics. The effect can also be easily customized to your preference to change its strength.

Free Cartoon Art Photoshop Action

Another free Photoshop action you can use to apply a cartoon effect with just a few clicks. This action works well with portrait photos and lets you create a non-destructive cartoon filter.

Free Comic Poster Photoshop Actions

Use this free Photoshop action to add a comic book-like cartoon effect to your photos. This action works with Photoshop CS3 and higher. The effect is fully customizable to your preference.

Smudge Painting Photoshop Action

With this Photoshop action, you can create a cartoon painting-like effect in just a few clicks. It’s a high-quality action that will allow you to create professional results. And, of course, you’ll be able to customize the effect to match different portrait photos as well.

Anime Style Cartoon Photoshop Action

After featuring so many cartoon effects for portraits, we finally have one for outdoor photos. This Photoshop action allows you to apply a subtle anime cartoon effect to your outdoor and nature photos. It creates a fully editable effect with layers and elements.

Photo to Vector Cartoon Photoshop Action

Create vector paintings and cartoons with your photos using this advanced Photoshop action. It creates a non-destructive cartoon effect with your portraits to turn them into cartoon drawings. The effect is compatible with Photoshop CS6 and higher.

Kartoon Painting Photoshop Action

Another simple yet effective effect for adding a cartoon look to your selfies, portrait photos, and even pet photos. The PS action works with just a few clicks and allows you to customize the effect afterward. It works with Photoshop CS6.

Caricature – Fun Cartoon Photoshop Action

Want to give a fun and quirky cartoon look to your photos? Then this Photoshop action is perfect for you. It comes with a weird cartoon effect that gives a funny distorted look to your portrait photos. Perfect for making people laugh.

MicroPro – Cartoon Oil Photoshop Action

Another cartoon Photoshop action for outdoor landscape photos. This action lets you apply a cartoon oil painting look to your outdoor photos. It also works quite well with cityscape, nature, and food photos as well. The action is compatible with Photoshop CS1 and higher.

Free Modern Art Cartoon Photoshop Action

While this free Photoshop action is made for giving a modern art look to your photos, it can also be used to create a cartoon look with just a few tweaks and adjustments. There’s a tutorial on how to use the action as well.

80 Free Smart Easy PSD Text Effects

This is a big bundle of text effects for Photoshop. All text effects are available as PSD files that you can customize to paste your own text. You’ll find a few text effects with cartoon designs in the bundle.

Toon-Me – Photoshop Cartoon Action

With this Photoshop action, you can give a truly cartoonish look to your photos. It adds several effects to portrait photos to make them fun and more cartoon-like. The effect is compatible with Photoshop CS3 and higher.

Cartoon Filter Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action is designed to make photos look like paintings. And it adds a subtle cartoon effect to photos at the same time. It’s perfect for giving an artistic look to your portraits.

GTA Style Cartoon Photoshop Action

Gamers will surely find this Photoshop action useful as it allows you to make your photos look like the loading screen art from Grand Theft Auto games. This bundle comes with Photoshop actions, 5 frame templates, 5 collage templates, and more.

Cartoon Oil Action – 10 Effects

You can use this collection of Photoshop actions to add a creative cartoon oil painting look to your portrait photos. It includes 10 variations of the effect that can be customized to your preference.

Cartoon Photoshop Photo Effect

If you want to add a subtle cartoon look to your photos, this action is the best choice for you. It features a simple effect that only adds a light cartoon effect to portrait photos.

Paint Cartoon Photoshop Action

For another ultra-realistic and modern-looking paint effect that will help you cartoonize any photo, this fun cartoon filter for Photoshop promises high-quality results using versions CS3 and higher and includes full supporting documentation to get you editing straight away.

Smudge Cartoon Photoshop Action

The Smudge Photoshop cartoon plugin will help you cartoonize a photo with a sleek and realistic painted effect that features sharp edges and vibrant colors and is compatible with Photoshop versions CS3 and above. It’s a great choice if you’re after a fun and professional cartoon painting look.

Retro Comic Book Photoshop Cartoon Action Kit

Next, we have a retro-inspired action kit that allows you to cartoonize a photo in an authentic, hand-drawn comic book style. It works best with images that offer a resolution between 72 and 300 DPI, and all comic elements are vector graphics which enables you to scale and tweak the effects as much as you want.

Oil Vector Art Photoshop Cartoon Action

This cartoon filter for Photoshop adds a vector art look to your images that’s inspired by the texture and color profile of a real-life oil painting, and can be applied with amazing results in just a few clicks. You can create up to 40 different color effects, and adjust each layer to your preference.

Balaclava – Photoshop Cartoon Plugin

Balaclava is a Photoshop cartoon plugin containing tools and techniques that help you achieve the most modern, professional, and eye-catching cartoon effects in just a few clicks. The cartoon effect Photoshop Action offers 4 editable Photoshop cartooning styles, 5 face styles, 8 backgrounds, and more than 20 color variations.

Looking for more? Then be sure to check out our best Photoshop actions collection.

Want to give your design a quick facelift? Using new and interesting typography trends might be the answer. Designers are using bold colors, cutouts, gradients, and even customizations to create lettering that stands out.

Changing typefaces or recreating an image or header in a trending style can give a design a fresh look without a full-scale overhaul. Not sure where to start? This list features typography trends with examples to use as inspiration for how to use them.

Here’s a look at the top typography trends this year.

1. Brutalism Typography

Brutalism design is one of the few and rare design trends that survived many decades. This trend dates back to the 1950s. It started out as a design trend in architecture and later inspired many print and digital designs, including graphic design, web design, and even typography.

Brutalist typography is simple and straightforward. There are no fancy typography elements or decorative shapes necessary to convey the idea. It’s simply text with clean, clear-cut letterforms and it gets the job done.

More designers are adopting this design trend to create striking typography for various designs ranging from posters to website headers. It especially works well for bold, raw, and Monochromatic-style designs.

2. Liquid Text

Giving a melting or liquid look to your typography is nothing new. You’ve probably seen it used by food and drink brands. However, there’s a new variant of this trend sweeping across the digital design world.

This new variant of liquid text design only liquefies parts of the letters to create a unique hybrid look. Designers are using this trend in various ways by combining it with other design trends like outline text and retro fonts.

The unique look this trend creates fits perfectly for trendy brands and timely marketing campaigns, especially for fashion and lifestyle branding designs.

3. Ink Traps

Ink trap is a popular technique used in print design when printing in small sizes where corners get removed from letters to trap the ink. So when it gets printed, the ink spreads to those removed areas, preventing the ink from spreading outward.

Ironically, this inspired a new trend in modern digital typography. We are now seeing new fonts being created inspired by ink traps featuring letterforms with deep corners, mimicking the ink trap-style design.

It certainly adds a very unique look to typography and gives a distinctive vibe to titles and headings.

4. Bubbly Text

Bubble fonts and typography are making a comeback. Inspired by typography designs from the groovy 1970s, this bubble text trend can now be seen everywhere.

The fun, creative, and playful look it adds to the text is unmatched. It’s one of the many reasons why designers choose this style to create titles and text for brands with playful vibes.

The bubbly text trend also comes in many different styles and variations, including ones with balloon-style letterforms as well as urban graffiti-style letters.

5. Big, Chunky Titles

When it comes to creating titles that instantly grab attention, nothing beats a good old-fashioned big, chunky letter design. That’s part of why this typography trend has survived many decades and is still relevant today.

Designing titles and headings with big, chunky letterforms is the most effective way to craft typography that stands out. This trend also has diverse use cases across various genres. With a slightly playful font, you can make it fit in with a lifestyle brand. Or with a clean-cut letter design, you can use it for a luxury brand.

6. Art Deco Typography

The beautiful symmetrical lines and sharp edges of the Art Deco style completely transform the look and feel of typography. The blend of elegance and sophistication it brings is unmatched by any other design trend. It’s no wonder why this typography trend has survived longer than a century.

Over the past few months, we saw many brands and marketers use the Art Deco trend to their advantage to create typography that evokes a sense of nostalgia and takes people back to a time when things were simpler.

Art Deco typography is also often used in visual storytelling, especially on websites, posters, and packaging designs. Clearly, it’s a trend that will evolve and stay relevant for many more years ahead.

7. Psychedelic Fonts

The psychedelic design trend has been a popular choice among designers who seek to break free from the traditional and common ways. And it has now made its way over to typography as well.

The bold shapes, curves, and distorted letters of the psychedelic fonts give logos, titles, and badges a unique look inspired by the aesthetics of the 1960s and the hippy culture. The psychedelic typography trend does a great job of bringing out a chill and relaxing feeling while also mixing a sense of a rebellious vibe.

8. Urban Graffiti Titles

Lately, we’ve been seeing less and less graffiti art out on the streets. Graffiti art is one the purest forms of creative expression, especially the graffiti typography is something that always catches your eye. So we’re glad to see this art form transform into the digital world.

Designers have been using graffiti-style typography with various types of graphic designs over the past few years and it seems to be growing in demand. The main reason for the popularity of this typography trend is its ability to create a bold, urban vibe with a gritty aesthetic. The raw, real-world look of the graffiti typography is quite unmatched.

9. Retro Disco Text

The disco era is a time period that everyone longs for regardless of age. The current revival and popularity of disco-style music among modern musicians prove that even the younger generations are enjoying this trend.

As a result of this newfound desire for the disco era, disco-style retro typography is also making a comeback. Nothing beats this typography trend when it comes to creating titles and text that exude fun and energetic vibes.

The blend of retro rainbow colors, sparking elements, and classic weathered textures make this trend one of the best for designing typography for everything from posters to brand logos and much more.

10. Elegant Royal Fonts

This growing typography trend is the go-to choice among many luxury and high-end brands that seek to convey a sense of authority and class. The way it creates a sophisticated and regal look often adds a Royalty-like vibe to any logo, badge, label, or packaging design.

Often used in combination with gold colors, royal-like ornaments, and stylishly curved letterforms, the royal typography trend often succeeds in enhancing the luxurious feel of various types of designs.

Elegant royal-style fonts are also a great choice for adding an authentic and traditional look to create a timeless feel for any digital and print design.

11. Neo-Futuristic Techno Vibes

When talking about futuristic techno-style designs your mind often goes to neon colors and Cyberpunk-style designs. But that’s not what this new trend is all about. Neo-futuristic techno typography offers a much more gritty and bold vibe for creating a strong futuristic industrial look.

This trend is often seen on modern websites and poster designs as it helps create better visibility for your text and titles. The fonts designed in this style often have sharp letterforms with monospaced characters. It also uses strong contrasting colors to make your text pop with a clean, minimal, and stylish look.

12. 3D Text

The 3D typography trend is evolving beyond just blocky, extruded text into more creative styles with perspective views and unique letterform designs.

With easier access to 3D modeling tools like Blender and new 3D tools in Adobe Illustrator, crafting these unique 3D typography designs is now much easier than ever.

Especially when designing with a retro-futuristic style, the 3D text and typography fit perfectly for creating a more immersive look and feel. This trend will likely evolve beyond this year and last for many more years ahead.

13. Variable Fonts

Variable fonts are slowly gaining in popularity as more designers are choosing the new format for their design projects. There are many benefits to using a variable font in your designs and having flexibility is one of them.

When using variable fonts, you have the flexibility to create unique typography with different styles of letterforms, weights, and features without having to use multiple fonts. Variable fonts come with multiple styles packed into one font.

Designers are now finding unique ways to take advantage of this technology to create incredible typefaces with inventive designs.

14. Rounded Typography

The rounded typography trend has been around for several years. However, designers are now taking this trend to new heights by leveraging the new tools available in design software such as Photoshop and Illustrator.

These new rounded typography designs feature more geometric-style rounded letterforms with a soft and aesthetically pleasing look for big titles and headings. Today, the trend is often used in branding designs and packaging designs.

15. Vertical Text

Usually, we don’t recommend throwing readability out the window but it appears to be the latest trend to take over the design world, especially website designs. This trend will have you tilting your head sideways, literally.

Actually, it’s a clever way to grab attention and engage with the website visitors. It arouses your curiosity and makes you tilt your to read the text.

Designing text and titles sideways in a vertical alignment will also work for banners and posters. You should use large and bold fonts with a clean letter design for this strategy to work more effectively.

16. Unaligned Text

Oftentimes, when designers defy the rules and guidelines, things don’t go well. This new trend is a rare exception where we can disregard the guidelines to make unique typography creations.

Keeping text aligned is an important part of designing typography. This guideline is quite important when designing websites as well as other mediums of digital and print designs. However, breaking this rule seems to be one of the most popular typography trends these days.

We’ve been seeing this unaligned text trend everywhere from websites to posters, album covers, social media posts, and everything in between. Without a doubt, we’ll be seeing it throughout this year too.

17. Mixed Typefaces

Surely, you must’ve thought about this once or twice while designing fun title designs for projects. Mixing multiple typefaces to design a title sounds fun but we are often afraid to go there. Well, now you have permission to try it out thanks to this new trend.

The BMW Motorrad website uses clever animation to infuse this mixed typeface design in a subtle way. However, you don’t have to go to such extreme levels. You can start by blending a few outline and condensed fonts with your regular typography designs.

Admittedly, we haven’t seen this trend a lot but we hope it will catch on this year.

18. Stretched-Out Titles

We’ve seen ultra-condensed title designs, tall and narrow typography designs, but this new trend combines them together to spawn a new way to craft titles by simply stretching them out as much as you can.

It doesn’t matter which way you stretch it. You can stretch it vertically or horizontally. You could also stretch just a couple of letters while the rest of the letters stay the same. The result will always be something pretty wild.

The good news is you don’t always have to go into free transform mode to stretch your text. There are now fonts out there with stretched-out letter designs made for this new trend.

19. Fullscreen Titles

The title is arguably the most important element of most graphic and web designs. You often try different trends and strategies to try and bring more attention to it. So, why not make it as big as the entire canvas and be done with it?

Well, that’s exactly what this new trend is all about. Basically, you just make the title as big as the screen or the design canvas. You can use tall and bold fonts to grab extra attention as well.

It’s a very simple and easy way to make your typography designs stand out, especially for making bold statements.

20. Pixelated Fonts

Pixelated style of text and typography designs is quite popular among tech brands and startups. It adds a subtle tech-savvy look to any design that’s also relatable and familiar to many people who grew up playing pixel-art video games.

Intentionally adding a pixelated look to text is now much easier with many pixelated fonts to choose from. These fonts come in various styles ranging from the classic 8-bit style to modern pixel art designs.

Whether it’s to add a bit of nostalgia to your designs or to make titles look more playful, this is a typography trend that’s worth keeping an eye out for this year.

21. Neon Outline

This isn’t exactly a new trend but it is something that we are likely to see growing this year. Inspired by the bright neon signs from the 80s and the 90s, this typography design gives a classic retro look to your titles with neon glowing outline letters.

Adopting this trend is also much easier than most other trends on our list. All you have to do is find an outline font and apply a neon glowing effect.

You can add more style and appeal to it with animations. In the above example, the website uses a subtle flickering effect to make the text look more like a glitching neon sign.

22. Thin and Condensed

The next two trends have a very yin and yang feel to them. Here, thin and condensed lettering is gaining popularity. Once taboo, a predominance of high-resolution screens has made this style of typography more readable and easier to work with.

Again, this trend needs just the right words and typeface to be effective and works best when you aren’t delving into exceptionally long blocks of text.

In the example above, thin and condensed lettering perfectly fits the style of the overall design and is complemented on the scroll with a monospaced, highly readable option.

23. Slabs

On the other end of the spectrum from thin typefaces is the use of slabs.

While bold headline options have always been rather popular, many designers have shied away from going all-in with slabs because, like caps, they can seem to scream at users. The trick is to combine spacing, short phrasing, and readable typefaces so that usage is an asset, not a challenge.

What we love about the example above is the use of a smaller slab headline at the bottom of the homepage, with super friendly and soft imagery to balance the weight of the font itself. It highlights the importance of the words in an approachable way.

24. Outline Fonts

Outline fonts are a big deal.

You’ll find this trend mostly in the hero area of web pages for the main copy. While uses vary somewhat there are a few elements that you’ll find almost every time:

• Sans serif typeface
• All caps text for outline letters
• Paired with filled lettering
• Oversized text elements

Outline font options can be a lot of fun to use. You just have to be cautious when it comes to readability. Letters can get lost in background images and videos quickly. So take care with color, contrast, and placement.

And don’t overdo it. An outline font works best for a point of emphasis, not to create your entire message.

25. “Unreadable” Layers

The next two typography trends and somewhat similar and both break an unexpected rule: They are a bit unreadable. But that’s ok because the rest of the design fills in the blanks and keeps the site interactive.

In this example of the trend, oversized text elements are in a layer behind a foreground element. Every other type element on the screen is highly readable to provide plenty of support for the element that isn’t.

The foreground object also, in the example above, fades in and out over the text so that you can read it back and forth.

The final element that helps pull it all together is the idea that the word isn’t vital to the design. It’s the brand name, which you might know from the logotype, but is less important than what the company/website does.

26. Text That Goes Off the Screen

Following the trend of “unreadable” layers are text elements that lose readability because they animate on and off the screen. This typography effect is all over the place and often paired with an oversized font and just a couple of words that scroll toward the left side of the screen.

This typography trend works best when there’s not a lot of other motion on the screen and the words are readable with just a few seconds of watching. If the text is too complicated, you risk users never figuring out what the words say.

As with the previous example, make sure the supporting text elements provide plenty of information so that people know exactly what the design is about.

27. Experimental Typefaces

Experimental typefaces are all the rage with expressive and interesting styles that add plenty of personality to design projects. Experimental typefaces come in a lot of different forms – they may include funky shapes or strokes, color, or animation.

The best part about these type-styles is that they can inject a unique, and very specific, vibe into a project.

You can find experimental typefaces from several different foundries or independent type designers. If you want to take a peek at some new experimental options, head over to Typelab.

28. Short, Fat Fonts (Low X-Heights)

Another type style that is trending in a major way is typefaces that have short stature and wide stance. Many of these typefaces feature all-caps character sets, but when they feature lowercase letters, can be identified by a low x-height.

This type style tends to work best when there’s not a lot competing with it on the canvas. It’s also best suited for shorter words or phrases, due to readability.

These short, fat fonts also work best for designs that have a super-modern feel. They are almost futuristic in scope and design in many instances.

29. Handwriting Styles

The Sharpie marker style is quite popular among website designers when it comes to display typefaces. And there are plenty of handwriting typefaces to choose from so that you get just the right look and feel.

Much of the current handwriting typeface trend is focused on printed letters with upper and lowercase characters with thicker strokes and a bit of roughness to them.

Typefaces might also include little extra embellishments that make certain characters feel even more special. When it comes to handwriting styles with more cursive or script-type designs, you are likely to find long tails and elaborate swashes.

30. Subtle Gradients

Designers just can’t seem to get enough of gradients. (I’ll admit to being one of them!)

Subtle gradients as an accent in typography are the next evolution of this trend.

What’s nice about the trend is that gradients are so subtle that you might not even see them at first. There’s just a slight variance in the color that helps pull the eye across the lettering.

Gradients are best used with thicker typefaces and to accent specific words or phrases.

Be careful not to overdo it too much. A good text gradient maintains consistent contrast across the word so that it’s not jarring to read and so that it stands apart from the background.

31. Animated Typography

One of the biggest overall trends in design is animation. And there’s no reason this can’t apply to typography as well.

More designs are using lettering that moves, shifts, or is impacted by a hover state (such as the example above). All of these techniques can lead to a more interactive, richer user experience.

When animating text, it’s important to consider how and where users will be reading the information (some animated elements such as video don’t work well on all mobile devices yet). Make accommodations so that even if the animation doesn’t work properly, there’s still a worthwhile user experience where messaging is clear.

In that regard, the best text animations often start with lettering that is clear and easy to see. Animation comes into play after a delay or as part of user interaction. This can delight and surprise users (maybe even resulting in more time on-site).

Consider speed carefully with typography animations – if the text moves too fast, users will miss the message completely; if the text moves too slowly, users might click away before reading all of the content. It must be just right. (User testing can help you find an ideal speed.)

32. Stacked Text Blocks

While typography is trending toward being somewhat smaller in size, it still carries just as much weight. Designers are stacking multiple lines of text, particularly in hero headers, for a weighted message with more words.

The trend is important to note because it shows a shift in trying to communicate a little more fully with users and less of an expectation that one word will be enough to entice someone to engage with a design. More information presented in a visually engaging way can be a better solution that leads to more user engagement.

The key considerations when it comes to stacking multiple lines of text are to find a typeface that is readable when used with more letters (or even when used in all caps, which is a popular option), has adequate linespacing so that lines are easy to distinguish and that breaks in the copy are logical. When stacking text, there should be a distinct flow from line to line that’s both obvious in how to read the words and that users should move to the next line of copy before any other part of the design.

Because of challenges with line breaks and ease of reading, text stacks are often on one side of the screen so that the designer has more control. This structure can also create harmony between a text element and another visual on the screen for an asymmetrical balance that’s appealing to look at.

33. Color Fonts and Type

Color fonts are a class of type of their own and have popped up all over the place. They’re more popular than many originally expected and have fun applications in design projects.

You can read all about color fonts here in our beginner’s guide. The concept of color fonts has opened up more projects to color in typography overall as well.

While there was a lot of black and white text in more minimalist styles, colors are roaring back. Many designers are using bright color typography with minimal styles, such as the Tilted Chair, above. Color can add extra visual interest and emphasis on the words in color.

Bright options, such as the red in the example, help draw the eye and serve as a great springboard for messaging, building brand identity, and drawing users into the design.

34. Cutouts and Overlays

 

 

Layered effects are a great way to make a design look a lot less flat. Doing it with typography can be a nice option.

Cutouts and overlays refer to text elements that have no color fill. A cutout allows whatever is in the background layer to show through the type design, such as the animated sports imagery in the example above. An overlay is often transparent lettering over a background so that you can see the background through letters while still reading them.

Both of these techniques have a lot of visual interest and can be fun to create. They work best with large lettering, not many words, and a display typeface.

Overlays work great with photos, textures, or even video backgrounds. Just make sure to avoid a lot of other design effects when using this technique. (You don’t want to overwhelm the user.)

35. Layering with Other Elements

 

 

In most projects, text elements and other elements are kept fairly separate. But that idea has changed quite a bit and designers aren’t shying away from allowing text and other elements to overlap. The end result can be pretty cool and actually help users focus on the words on the screen a little more.

While the most common uses of the typography trend in practice are text elements that overlap boxed images or color, MJND kicks it up a notch. This design merges the person in the image with typography so that it is cut out around him (like the person is walking into the words).

This is a technique that comes from print design where it is more popular – and quite honestly easier to execute – and can create a stunning display. The trick is having the right image and maintaining the readability of every single letter. (Be careful not to create unintended words because of missing character strokes or parts.)

36. “Overdone” Effects

It’s not often that “overdone” is used favorably when talking about any design technique. But when it comes to the overdone typography trend, it can work.

This type trend has a retro feel and is characterized by text and text effects that are so over the top that you must read the words. There are outlines and shadows and bevels and fades and crazy colors. No effect is off the table.

And the more effects you pile on, the more users might look. This style works best with a simple design scheme, such as Schnitzel Love, above.

Conclusion

When using these trends in your designs, remember to carefully analyze your brand style and target audience to ensure they match the message your designs are conveying.

Be sure to bookmark and follow our Trends category to stay on top of all kinds of design trends.

Accessibility is key in modern web design. A site that doesn’t consider how its user experience may differ for various audiences — especially those with disabilities — will fail to engage and serve everyone equally. One of the best ways to prevent this is to approach your site from a bottom-up perspective.

Understanding Bottom-Up Design

Conventional, top-down design approaches start with the big picture before breaking these goals and concepts into smaller details. Bottom-up philosophies, by contrast, consider the minute details first, eventually achieving the broader goal piece by piece.

This alternative way of thinking is important for accessibility in general because it reflects how neurodivergent people commonly think. While non-autistic people tend to think from a top-down perspective, those with autism often employ a bottom-up way of thinking.

Of course, there is considerable variation, and researchers have identified at least three specialist thinking types within the autism spectrum:

• Visual thinkers who think in images;
• Pattern thinkers who think of concepts in terms of patterns and relationships;
• Verbal thinkers who think only in word detail.

Still, research shows that people with autism and ADHD show a bias toward bottom-up thinking rather than the top-down approach you often see in neurotypical users. Consequently, a top-down strategy means you may miss details your audience may notice, and your site may not feel easily usable for all users.

As a real-world example, consider the task of writing an essay. Many students are instructed to start an essay assignment by thinking about the main point they want to convey and then create an outline with points that support the main argument. This is top-down thinking — starting with the big picture of the topic and then gradually breaking down the topic into points and then later into words that articulate these points.

In contrast, someone who uses a bottom-up thinking approach might start an essay with no outline but rather just by freely jotting down every idea that comes to mind as it comes to mind — perhaps starting with one particular idea or example that the writer finds interesting and wants to explore further and branching off from there. Then, once all the ideas have been written out, the writer goes back to group related ideas together and arrange them into a logical outline. This writer starts with the small details of the essay and then works these details into the big picture of the final form.

In web design, in particular, a bottom-up approach means starting with the specifics of the user experience instead of the desired effect. You may determine a readable layout for a single blog post, then ask how that page relates to others and slowly build on these decisions until you have several well-organized website categories.

You may even get more granular. Say you start your site design by placing a menu at the bottom of a mobile site to make it easier to tap with one hand, improving ease of use. Then, you build a drop-down menu around that choice — placing the most popular or needed options at the bottom instead of the top for easy tapping. From there, you may have to rethink larger-scale layouts to work around those interactive elements being lower on the screen, slowly addressing larger categories until you have a finished site design.

In either case, the idea of bottom-up design is to begin with the most specific problems someone might have. You then address them in sequence instead of determining the big picture first.

Benefits Of A Bottom-Up Approach For Accessible Design

While neither bottom-up nor top-down approaches dominate the industry, some web engineers prefer the bottom-up approach due to the various accessibility benefits this process provides. This strategy has several accessibility benefits.

Putting User Needs First

The biggest benefit of bottom-up methods is that they prioritize the user’s needs.

Top-down approaches seem organized, but they often result in a site that reflects the designer’s choices and beliefs more than it serves your audience.

Consider some of the complaints that social media users have made over the years related to usability and accessibility for the everyday user. For example, many users complain that their Facebook feed will randomly refresh as they scroll for the sake of providing users with the most up-to-date content. However, the feature makes it virtually impossible to get back to a post a user viewed that they didn’t think to save. Likewise, TikTok’s watch history feature has come and gone over the years and still today is difficult for many users to find without viewing an outside tutorial on the subject.

This is a common problem: 95.9% of the largest one million homepages have Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) errors. While a bottom-up alternative doesn’t mean you won’t make any mistakes, it may make them less likely, as bottom-up thinking often improves your awareness of new stimuli so you can catch things you’d otherwise overlook. It’s easier to meet user’s needs when you build your entire site around their experience instead of looking at UX as an afterthought.

Consider this example from Berkshire Hathaway, a multi-billion-dollar holding company. The overall design philosophy is understandable: It’s simple and direct, choosing to focus on information instead of fancy aesthetics that may not suit the company image. However, you could argue it loses itself in this big picture.

While it is simple, the lack of menus or color contrast and the small font make it harder to read and a little overwhelming. This confusion can counteract any accessibility benefits of its simplicity.

Alternatively, even a simple website redesign could include intuitive menus, additional contrast, and accessible font for easy navigation across the site.

The homepage for U.K. charity Scope offers a better example of web design centered around users’ needs. Concise, clear menus line the top of the page to aid quicker, easier navigation. The color scheme is simple enough to avoid confusion but provides enough contrast to make everything easy to read — something the sans-serif font further helps.

Ensuring Accessibility From The Start

A top-down method also makes catering to a diverse audience difficult because you may need to shoehorn features into an existing design.

For example, say, a local government agency creates a website focused on providing information and services to a general audience of residents. The site originally featured high-resolution images, bright colors, and interactive charts.

However, they realize the images are not accessible to people navigating the site with screen readers, while multiple layers of submenus are difficult for keyboard-only users. Further, the bright colors make it hard for visually impaired users to read the site’s information.

The agency, realizing these accessibility concerns, adds captions to each image. However, the captions disrupt the originally intended visual aesthetics and user flow. Further, adjusting the bright colors would involve completely rethinking the site’s entire color palette. If these considerations had been made before the site was built, the site build could have specifically accommodated these elements while still creating an aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly result.

Alternatively, a site initially built with high contrast, a calm color scheme, clear typography, simple menus, and reduced imagery would make this site much more accessible to a wide user base from the get-go.

As a real-world example, consider the Awwwards website. There are plenty of menus to condense information and ease navigation without overloading the screen — a solid accessibility choice. However, there does not seem to be consistent thought in these menus’ placement or organization.

There are far too many menus; some are at the top while others are at the bottom, and a scrolling top bar adds further distractions. It seems like Awwwards may have added additional menus as an afterthought to improve navigation. This leads to inconsistencies and crowding because they did not begin with this thought.

In contrast,

Bottom-up alternatives address usability issues from the beginning, which results in a more functional, accessible website.

Redesigning a system to address a usability issue it didn’t originally make room for is challenging. It can lead to errors like broken links and other unintended consequences that may hinder access for other visitors. Some sites have even claimed to lose 90% of their traffic after a redesign. While bottom-up approaches won’t eliminate those possibilities, they make them less likely by centering everything around usage from the start.

The website for the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, showcases a more cohesive approach to ensuring accessibility. Like Awwwards, it uses menus to aid navigation and organization, but there seems to be more forethought into these features. All menus are at the top, and there are fewer of them, resulting in less clutter and a faster way to find what you’re looking for. The overall design complements this by keeping things simple and neat so that the menus stand out.

Increasing Awareness

Similarly, bottom-up design ensures you don’t miss as many accessibility concerns. When you start at the top, before determining what details fit within it, you may not consider all the factors that influence it. Beginning with the specifics instead makes it easier to spot and address problems you would’ve missed otherwise.

This awareness is particularly important for serving a diverse population. An estimated 16% of the global population — 1.6 billion people — have a significant disability. That means there’s a huge range of varying needs to account for, but most people lack firsthand experience living with these conditions. Consequently, it’s easy to miss things impacting others’ UX. You can overcome that knowledge gap by asking how everyone can use your site first.

Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down: Which Is Best for You?

As these benefits show, a bottom-up design philosophy can be helpful when building an accessible site. Still, top-down methods can be advantageous at times, too. Which is best depends on your situation.

Top-down approaches are a good way to ensure a consistent brand image, as you start with the overall idea and base future decisions on this concept. It also makes it easier to create a design hierarchy to facilitate decision-making within your team. When anyone has a question, they can turn to whoever is above them or refer to the broader goals. Such organization can also mean faster design processes.

Bottom-up methods, by contrast, are better when accessibility for a diverse audience is your main concern. It may be harder to keep everyone on the same overall design philosophy page, but it usually produces a more functional website. You can catch and solve problems early and pay great attention to detail. However, this can mean longer design cycles, which can incur extra costs.

It may come down to what your team is most comfortable with. People think and work differently, with some preferring a top-down approach while others find bottom-up more natural. Combining the two — starting with a top-down model before tackling updates from a bottom-up perspective — can be beneficial, too.

Strategies For Implementing A Bottom-Up Design Model

Should you decide a bottom-up design method is best for your goals, here are some ways you can embrace this philosophy.

Talk To Your Existing User Base

One of the most important factors in bottom-up web design is to center everything around your users. As a result, your existing user base — whether from a separate part of your business or another site you run — is the perfect place to start.

Survey customers and web visitors about their experience on your sites and others. Ask what pain points they have and what features they’d appreciate. Any commonalities between responses deserve attention. You can also turn to WCAG standards for inspiration on accessible functionality, but first-hand user feedback should form the core of your mission.

Look To Past Projects For Accessibility Gaps

Past sites and business projects can also reveal what specifics you should start with. Look for any accessibility gaps by combing through old customer feedback and update histories and using these sites yourself to find issues. Take note of any barriers or usability concerns to address in your next website.

Remember to document everything you find as you go. Up to 90% of organizations’ data is unstructured, making it difficult to analyze later. Reversing that trend by organizing your findings and recording your accessible design process will streamline future accessibility optimization efforts.

Divide Tasks But Communicate Often

Keep in mind that a bottom-up strategy can be time-consuming. One of the reasons why top-down alternatives are popular is because they’re efficient. You can overcome this gap by splitting tasks between smaller teams. However, these groups must communicate frequently to ensure separate design considerations work as a cohesive whole.

A DevOps approach is helpful here. DevOps has helped 49% of its adopters achieve a faster time to market, and 61% report higher-quality deliverables. It also includes space for both detailed work and team-wide meetings to keep everyone on track. Such benefits ensure you can remain productive in a bottom-up strategy.

Accessible Websites Need A Bottom-Up Design Approach

You can’t overstate the importance of accessible website design. By the same token, bottom-up philosophies are crucial in modern site-building. A detail-oriented approach makes it easier to serve a more diverse audience along several fronts. Making the most of this opportunity will both extend your reach to new niches and make the web a more equitable place.

The Web Accessibility Initiative’s WCAG standards are a good place to start. While these guidelines don’t necessarily describe how to apply a bottom-up approach, they do outline critical user needs and accessibility concerns your design should consider. The site also offers a free and comprehensive Digital Accessibility Foundations course for designers and developers.

Familiarizing yourself with these standards and best practices will make it easier to understand your audience before you begin designing your site. You can then build a more accessible platform from the ground up.

Additionally, the following are some valuable related reads that can act as inspiration in accessibility-centered and user-centric design.

• Inclusive Design for a Digital World: Designing with Accessibility in Mind by Regine M. Gilbert
• Practical Web Inclusion and Accessibility: A Comprehensive Guide to Access Needs by Ashley Firth
• Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug

By employing bottom-up thinking as well as resources like these in your design approach, you can create websites that not only meet current accessibility standards but actively encourage site use among users of all backgrounds and abilities.

Further Reading On SmashingMag

• “Getting To The Bottom Of Minimum WCAG-Conformant Interactive Element Size,” Eric Bailey
• “How To Make A Strong Case For Accessibility,” Vitaly Friedman
• “A Guide To Accessible Form Validation,” Sandrina Pereira
• “Creating A High-Contrast Design System With CSS Custom Properties,” Brecht De Ruyte

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