Best Fonts for Books?
Tuesday August 31, 2004
Alex writes, "I would like to know what are the prefered fonts (name and size ) for a book of short stories and short theater?" While there's no specific fonts by name that are "preferred" there are certainly some fonts better suited for the job. A script face, for example, wouldn't make the list. Make your font recommendations
Comments
Hi I’m from Brazil.. and I use Sabon 11/15
Sabon 11/15 is excellent, though I don’t like Sabon Next, which is weird and does not print well on cheap printers. My favourite right now is Utopia (used by Apress). Also, Atma Serif is a very exotic but excellent font, especially at small sizes. It prints magnificently and has enough exclusivity about it to indicate that the author has made a careful choice of typeface.
Hey! I’m from Brazil too!! Isn’t that weird? OK! I’m working on Chapter Books and I use size 12 with Times New Roman. (It also works well with Bookmen which is a font that is MADE for writing books although not many computers have it which is why I use New Times Roman)
From what I have heard and been taught in college (graphic design in publicity), the best fonts for something that is a long piece to read, are the ones in the category of ’san serif’ such as arial, veranda, etc. and not times new roman and other fonts that have little decorative things; although this isn’t popular everywhere…
Actually matagalpa, “sans serif” fonts are better for ONLINE readability. For books and printed matter, “sans serif” fonts (arial, helvetica, verdana) are good for headlines, but “serif” fonts (sabon, bookman, times) are better for the bulky text. The serifs (the little nubs at the ends of the letters) were designed by typesetters to ease the reader’s eye through the words. Doesn’t work very well on SMALL type, but works much better at normal readability sizes.
Visit a bookstore (or Amazon) and look at the typesetting of any current popular fiction book. They’re designed for maximum readability, and they’re all serifs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif