Choosing a font for a bib isn't the same as picking one for a Word doc or PDF. Fancy or uncommon fonts might look nice but can confuse photo recognition systems. OCR readers often rotate images in all directions to find the number, and poor font choices can lead to mistakes—like reading 6006 as 9009.

Following the guidelines below for font size, weight, spacing, and style can help reduce errors and make sure your bibs are easily read by both humans and machines quickly.

While not every font may look flashy or trendy, choosing the right one makes a big difference in readability and scan accuracy. The fonts below are carefully selected to balance style and function—they’re clear, easy to read at a distance, and OCR-friendly. Using any of these options will help ensure your bibs look professional and perform well in photo tagging systems.

Prioritize clarity over decoration for better photo tagging and participant satisfaction.

We all love bold colors, eye-catching graphics, and creative bib designs—they’re a big part of your event’s visual identity. But when it comes to bib number visibility, especially in larger races that use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to tag participant photos, clarity must take priority over flair.

Busy designs—like vibrant logos, sponsor graphics, QR codes, or beer tags—placed too close to the bib number can overwhelm the system and reduce readability. This can delay photo delivery and even worse, prevent runners from appearing in event photo searches.

To ensure fast, accurate photo tagging, here are some best practices:

✅ Bib Design Do’s and Don’ts

• Keep space around the number
  Avoid placing logos, QR codes, or graphics near the bib number.

• Use a solid, background behind numbers
  Even if the rest of the bib is colorful, the number area should be either white text on a dark background or visa-versa.

• Avoid stylizing the numbers
  Do not italicize, skew, outline (stroke), or distort the number text.

• Use Letters for Corral Groups
  If using numbers for corrals, move the number away from the bib number to avoid mis-reads.

• Avoid other numbers on the bib
  If you must include a year (e.g., “2025”), make sure that bib number is excluded from being assigned to a participant

• Avoid single-digits (1–9)
  Automated systems often miss these. Use a numbering scheme that avoids assigning single digit bibs.

• Text should be black or dark blue
  Using pastel or light-colored fonts can make the numbers appear invisible to an automated system and hard to read by human eyes.

• Avoid Zero based numbers [01234]
  Don't start a bib number with a zero, automated tagging apps can skip it thinking its missing digits and will ignore it.

🎨 Color Contrast Matters

High-contrast, simple color pairings significantly improve readability. Not every combination will be flashy, but clean design leads to better results. Tools like a WCAG 2.1-AA compliant contrast checker or the Venngage color palette generator can help you choose accessible, on-brand text combination that still scan well. 

Below are some common bib number color combination pairings to help you get an idea of what can work well.

Avoid:

• Red text on white or vice versa (low contrast in sunlight).

• Dark backgrounds with dark or medium text (low OCR performance).

• Gradients or patterns behind the bib numbers.

In multi-distance races, participants often start together in waves but follow different routes and turn-around points depending on their race distance. Most events bring all runners back to a common finish area, but along the course, runners split off in various directions. This is where clear bib identification becomes a powerful tool.

Course monitors need to make quick decisions to route runners correctly and to spot top finishers by category at the finish line. You can make this much easier by assigning bib numbers and colors by distances.

1. Assigning Number Ranges by Distance

Using number blocks based on distance helps volunteers and course monitors route participants correctly at key decision points. Here are some suggestions we have seen at many events:

• 1-Mile: 1000–4999

• 5K: 5000–9999

• Half Marathon: 13,000–25,999

• Full Marathon: 26,000–99,999

These number blocks give spotters a quick visual cue without needing to stop a runner or ask questions. For larger events, these blocks may not work, but color coding (next section) may be the best route:

2. Use Background Colors for Quick Visual ID

Pairing the number blocks with background colors makes distance identification even easier, especially if the bib numbers are unreadable. Here’s some color ideas that could be used on your events. Here you can be creative!

• Fun Run / Untimed: Light Gray

• 5K: Neon Green

• 10K: Light Yellow

• Half Marathon: Navy Blue

• Full Marathon: Bright Orange

• (Avoid using reds, as they can be hard to read in sunlight)