A guide to choosing the right engraving fonts for your personalized gifts

A personalized gift is such a great way to show someone that they are special to you and that you cared enough about them to add a personal touch to their present. When you add a name or initials or a significant date to an item, it becomes a keepsake and a memento of an occasion. Often, it is passed down from generation to generation.

There are different type of personalization, depending on the material. There is embroidering for fabrics. This is basically when lettering is sewn into something like a shirt or a hat. Being a child of the 80's, my favorite examples of this are the initials that Laverne and Shirley wore on every article of clothing that they owned. A script font often works terrifically well with embroidery. As with all personalization methods, the type of lettering that you are employing really helps determine the font you'll choose.

Embossing or debossing is another personalization method that uses an imprint of lettering to convey a message. An example of embossing would be a raised seal into a piece of paper. This really won't apply to gift too often so we'll continued onto debossing. We're more interested in debossing, particularly on leather, because debossed leather goods make for great gifts. When you deboss a leather gift like a wallet or a briefcase, you imprint a hot stamp directly into it. This creates an impression into the leather with the lettering of your choice. This is an elegant way to personalize a high end gift. Debossing is almost exclusively done in a block font, like new times roman or century block. Due to the nature of leather goods being high end gifts, you'll tend to keep the personalization short and to the point. Initials or a name work great for these type of goods.

Engraving is by far the most popular way to personalize gifts. It lends itself to a variety of items and materials. Due to the sheer volume of items that can be engraved, we'll instead focus on the engraving methods themselves. If you are getting initials done, you'll usually want to stick with a block or old English style font. A script style font doesn't lend itself particularly well to initials because the spacing often gets out of line. If you're looking for a name or message like "Happy Birthday", a script font is great. Script letters are made to connect, which is another reason to avoid using them when having initials done. You can't go wrong with block lettering for words as well. You'll usually want to avoid an Old English font for words as it is very intricate and is often tough to decipher. Old English works best for initials. So basically, you can't go wrong with block style fonts for any type of personalization, stick with initials for Old English style fonts and stick with words for a script style font.

One final area that people often get fouled up over is whether or not to make their engraving of initials a traditional monogram or a contemporary monogram. For those not aware, a traditional monogram features the initial of the person's last name in the middle and enlargened. An example for the name Mary Ann Smith would be: MSA. A contemporary monogram for the same name would be MAS. Both are appropriate these days. The important thing to make sure is that everyone is aware of what is being done. If you want a traditional monogram, make sure you let whoever is doing it know so that they do it appropriately. With everything being done online these days, you don't want to assume that a traditional monogram is being done, enter the last initial in the middle and have all the letters in the monogram be done the same size.

While personalized gift buying is more popular than ever with the explosion of online shopping, people know so little about the different font styles and engraving methods available to them. This article attempts to delve into that a little bit.

Simon Brady is a freelance writer and the head of content for Executive Gift Shoppe. They specialize in personalized gifts including money clips, cufflinks, pocket watches and business card holders. They offer a variety of personalization options for today’s consumer.

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