Anybody have any recommendations for fonts for the body text (not headings)? I need something that's free to use for commercial use. I'm asking because I'm been using Palatino Linotype, which comes preinstalled on Windows, but I'm not sure if I'm licensed to use that in a print book or e-book. Thanks!
It doesn't really matter - although for unpublished manuscripts the industry standard would be Courier (the reason being that Courier has all of the letters the same width, and therefore one page is always roughly same number of character spaces). But if you're looking for something to distribute yourself, anything can work as long as it's readable.
I'm mainly worried I'll have to purchase a license if I put out a book or e-book. Is Courier licensed for that? Can I assume any font that comes preinstalled on Windows is ok for commercial use?
From what I can see, if you have a legitimate copy of Word, you can use the fonts therein for commercial purposes. You can't sell the font itself.
Awesome. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Thanks! Anybody else have any contradictory information...or is Stacy C on the dot on this one?
I'd use a font like Times New Roman for the body of the text, as this is easy to read. The line length should be about one and a half alphabets. Use a font like Arial for titles as this is clearer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif
Yeah, generally speaking, serif fonts are used for the body of text. If you have Word, the default serif font is Cambria, which I like better than Times New Roman. I'm really not a fan of the way Times New Roman looks, to be honest. My go-to for body text is usually Georgia. But depending on the story, a font like Garamond or Baskerville could add something nice. All of these are easy to read. I used a font called Iowan Old Style for my master's thesis and I just couldn't get over how nice it made everything look. (unfortunately, that's not a default windows font, though it does come with Mac OSX) As for sans-serif fonts, Arial is a pretty solid choice if you're on a Windows computer. But the Word default is Calibri, which is also good. Calibri also has a "light" version that can look nice. If you're on a Mac, you have a few more options, most notably Helvetica (of which Arial is really just a poor copy). You can get Helvetica on Windows, but it doesn't come with the OS. Helvetica has lots of different weights to fit whatever you're doing. I'm also a fan of Avenir. Oh, on Windows, I do like the Segoe UI font. It's used by Microsoft as a user interface font (hence the name) but it looks good for other stuff, too.
Right now I have Palatino Linotype on as the main font. It's serif and seems to be getting some good reactions from people.
I use Bookman Old Style at size 10. I like that, although I think it has something to do with my mum telling me to use that font when I was younger.
I second the use of Bookman Old Style - it has a certain "warmth" to it, if that makes sense. I've used this font in my Createspace published paperback.
I guess this is an older thread, but I'll go ahead and post anyway since I read it and maybe others will too. I got font (typeface) info from a guide by a publisher I am considering for a self publication project. They indicate that Times New Roman is no longer considered the better choice. It was originally designed for the narrow columns of newspapers and is considered less readable than many other typefaces. Their recommendations are these: Minion, Arno Pro, Garamond, Sabon. Hope this is helpful.
