Font selection strategy is brand strategy
Mary Catherine Pflug leads global inventory and type design partnerships at Monotype. She’s passionate about making great fonts discoverable, scalable and meaningful, enabling brands and creators to tell their stories with authenticity and impact.
Fonts are no longer the quiet backdrop of communication. Before a single word is read, font choice has the power to influence trust, signal values and convey personality.
Fonts help tell our stories
For younger generations especially, typography is critical for communication. In Monotype’s 2025 Fonts, Feels, & Reels study, 69% of respondents said font choice is important for creating posts on social media. That number rises to 79% for Gen Z and 78% for Millennials.
This study has implications far beyond social media. When I think about the fonts available to brands and creators, I think about possibility. About the stories that become available to tell when the right font options are easy to find, and the wrong fonts don’t stand in the way.
Expanding what’s possible
Most people probably don’t think about why and how different fonts become available to brands or creators. But what’s available influences what’s possible, and who feels empowered to create.
At Monotype, I lead our inventory and type design partnership network. Our mission is to expand our global font library, build scalable infrastructure and grow a partner ecosystem where independent type designers are paid fairly for their work.
The work is simultaneously deeply operational and strategic; by expanding our font library, we're creating the foundation that enables our customers to make smart, impactful font choices and tell stories in ways that resonate with their audiences.
Because font inventory is no longer only a back-end concern. It’s a brand statement.
Growing global font options, expanding partnerships
Monotype’s inventory has grown significantly over the past few years, with over 250,000 fonts now available in our SaaS offering, Monotype Fonts. That growth was guided by a simple belief: selection strategy is brand strategy.
Our inventory had to evolve to match the expectations of a digital generation that sees type as an extension of voice. The perfect font is the one a brand needs at that exact moment in time, and it’s our responsibility to make those fonts available and easily discoverable.
We scaled with intention. That meant expanding our global partner network by 38%, and prioritising regional diversity in Latin America and Asia to ensure our inventory reflected not just breadth but depth, reflecting a multi-lingual, global customer. We designed our segmentation strategies to align with customer behavior and business needs.
We are continuing to create new frameworks for everything from technical aspects, like our distribution agreements, data and systems, to user experiences, like new benefits and tools to keep our type design partners thriving, helping ensure a future stream of fantastic new fonts.
Fonts drive impact
And consumers know good font choices make a difference — they see it on their social media feeds. In our Fonts, Feels, & Reels study, 78% of respondents report that using distinctive, well-selected fonts boosts likes, shares and comments on their social posts. Again, for younger generations the number is even higher: 87% for Gen Z and 86% for Millennials. That insight isn’t just for creators, it’s for every brand that wants to show up with clarity and credibility in a crowded, fast-moving world.
That’s why font inventory decisions carry real weight. What’s available (and what’s missing) drives user behaviour. Over half of Gen Z and Millennials say they aren’t satisfied with the limited font options in their favourite social media apps. They’re leaving these apps and using design tools to access more fonts and personalisation.
The apps, brands and creators who will thrive are the ones who treat type as a strategic asset, not an afterthought. I think about how my team can approach inventory growth and access with the same mindset. When we scale with intention, we don’t just grow a library. We aim to enable more streamlined workflows, create a better user experience and meet the very real needs of marketers and brands globally.
Because in this new era, inventory isn’t just infrastructure, it’s identity.
