Fishing for Answers: What Font For Print Do You Like?

E.E. Rawls 40 Comments
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Sometimes an author has questions to ask, and the best people to answer those questions are You! Fishing for Answers is where a question is asked and then we debate about the answer in the comments below. We look forward to hearing your advice, tips or thoughts!

Question: For the body text of a printed Fantasy or YA book, what is your favorite font?

There are so many fonts out there, but only a handful are beautiful, clean, and easy to read on the printed page. We want to know, what is your favorite font to read in? What are most traditional publishers using for their books?

Give us your opinion in the comments. Let’s discuss!

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40 thoughts on “Fishing for Answers: What Font For Print Do You Like?”

  3. When I researched sending my first manuscript to an agent for traditional publishing in the UK, it was to be printed in Times New Roman. 🙂 This is what I use for the main body of the text in my self-published work as well.

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          • Just read the article and shared on Twitter. I’ve only ever looked at Garamond as an alternative, but it’s nice to know there are others out there. It wasn’t on the list, but I’ve also played around with New Courier, but wasn’t overly fond.

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            • I wish the others on that list came free with Word, you know? At least we have Garamond though. Thanks for sharing the list! Hm, I don’t think I’ve tried New Courier before. I’ve tried High Tower and Century Gothic, but that was for poetry; not sure how they’d do for body text.

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                  • In my novella I just used Times New Roman, but larger than the main text and with a basic underline border. This time, I’ve been playing around with Harrington for the chapter headings as I feel it’s in keeping with the theme of my current novel. I think, it’s a good idea to have a little fun and use whatever font you like for the headings, so long as it looks good in the finished article and especially in a paperback format. 🙂

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                    • I like the idea of fun with headings. (as long as it looks good in the end, like you said. 😉 ). I’d like to know how people add an image or decoration around their headings? It looks so pretty in paperbacks.

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                    • 😀 This may sound strange, but I’m adding an image to the top of my chapter heading at the moment. I’ve got some artwork and on Word go on Insert and Picture and choose from my Docs, then add, resize etc. I’m hoping it will be up to Createspace’s standards for paperback. 🙂

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                    • That’s interesting. I’ve heard that images should be sized in programs like photoshop before placed in a document, but I’ve never actually tried it. Let me know how it turns out! Do you have to add the image to each chapter heading yourself, or does it automatically duplicate the image and put it on each heading? (like how you can format the style of your heading and it affects every heading in the doc. Does it place the image with every heading in the doc?)

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                    • 🙂 I normally resize in photoshop, but right now, I’m just playing around and seeing what the image looks like and how to format that into the document. Once I figure out all the details, I’ll probably do a post about how I did it and certainly let you know how it all turned out! I’m still working on fine tuning my headings and working a few ideas. It’s an ongoing process because with my next two novels I want them to be the best they can be! 😉

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                    • Sweet, I look forward to reading that post! I know I’ll need help figuring out images, headings, etc later this year, so I’d love to read about your experience and what you learn.
                      I’m glad you’re putting so much time and effort into your novels. All that hard work will pay off!
                      Do you think you’ll have a book tour for your next novel?

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                    • No worries, I’ll make sure to post all the details 😉
                      Actually, yeah, I’m thinking of doing a blog tour this time around. I didn’t with my novella because it was my first time out and still had a lot to learn. This time, I’m doing a cover reveal as well for Oath of God and Wolf Born, once it’s finished. I’m hoping to get two books out this year. 🙂

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                    • Two books? That’s awesome!
                      btw, some of my comments have been ending up in people’s “WP spam.” I think that may have happened to some of the comments I posted on your blog posts. You might see them under dashboard–comments–spam. I don’t know why WP is doing this to me lately. :/

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  4. Hmmmmm. I don’t think I’ve ever paid attention to the font type in printed books. Though I do agree that serif fonts (Times New Roman, Palatino, Georgia, Garamond) suit fantasy better than sans serif fonts (Calibri, Arial).

    I typed TKC in Times New Roman, but for Draft #3 I’m planning to print it out with a different font. So I’ll have to keep Palatino, Georgia, and Garamond in mind.

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    • I never used to pay attention either, until I realized I had to figure it out for myself if I wanted to self-publish, lol. 😉 I’m hoping this post will help give us all some nice options, whether we choose to self-publish or traditional-publish. 🙂
      My WIP is currently in Palatino, but I’m not sure if I’ll actually print the finished piece in it. I’ll have to do some more font research, I think.

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  6. I second the serif fonts thing – they are way easier to read. I tend to stick to TNR as well, but I sometimes dress up the chapter headings with fancier capitals. I like Garamond a lot too – especially for chapter titles. It has such a clean, elegant look to it, and it’s a little nicer than basic TNR. I’d say that Palatino was the halfway point between TNR and Garamond, nice and unobtrusive.

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