Colors & Typography

Proper Proportions

In all applications using the University colors, blue should always be dominant.

The color red should be no more than 30 percent of the color scheme.

One-Color Options

When printing in one color, the icon may only be:

• all black,
• all white reversed out or
• all PMS 2965.

Four-Color Options

When printing in four color, the official Pantone Matching System (PMS) colors should be replaced with the four-color process builds.

Special Techniques

The use of blue, silver, and gold metallic inks, embossing, debossing, use of foil, etc. may be allowed; each case will be judged individually. 

Please contact the Graphics and Printing Department at (202) 806-1200 for consultation.

Typography

Howard Fonts

Two typefaces have been selected for use in the design vocabulary:

• Serif12 Beta and
• Eau Sans.

These typefaces:

• complement each other and may be used together in application. 
• are preferred for professionally produced print or digital products.

Serif12 Beta font weights include:

• Serif12 Beta Regular
• Serif12 Beta Bold
• Serif12 Beta Italic
• Serif12 Beta Bold Italic

Eau Sans font weights include:

• Eau Sans Regular
• Eau Sans Oblique
• Eau Sans Bold
• Eau Sans Bold Oblique

Web Fonts

For digital applications, it’s recommended that Serif12 Beta and Open Sans are the predominant web fonts used.

Open Sans will replace Eau Sans for legibility purposes as well as for the variety of weights it offers. Open Sans is a humanist san serif font designed with open forms and a neutral, yet friendly appearance. It is optimized for print, web, and mobile interfaces, and has excellent legibility characteristics in its letterforms. 

Open Sans font weights include:

• Open Sans Light
• Open Sans Light Italic
• Open Sans Regular
• Open Sans Regular Italic
• Open Sans Semibold
• Open Sans Semibold Italic
• Open Sans Bold
• Open Sans Bold Italic
• Open Sans Extrabold
• Open Sans Extrabold Italic

Fallback Fonts

It is best practice when using web fonts to designate appropriate “fallback” fonts in your site’s CSS. To ensure maximum compatibility between operating systems and browsers, the font-family property should reference several font names as a “fallback” system. If the browser does not support the first font in the list, it tries the next font. 

Start with the font you want, and end with a generic family to let the browser pick a similar font in the generic family if no other fonts are available.

Recommended Fallbacks

Serif12 Beta (Primarily used for headlines)

• font-family: ‘Serif12beta’, ‘Playfair Display’, ‘Times New Roman’, Georgia, serif;

Open Sans (Primarily used for body copy)

• font-family: ‘Open Sans’, ‘Gill Sans’, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;