# Interior fonts



## Ralph Rotten (Mar 14, 2018)

I had always considered Times Roman to be the only interior body font for a print book.  Being old-school I was taught that it was the law, books should be in Times New Roman or they will reek of vanity press-amateur layout, etc.  

But at the book fair I ran into someone who was trying to convince me that there are other similar fonts that are also acceptable in the modern publishing world, and actually help the book look more modern.

So to you indie authors (and the conventionally published ones as well) have you ever used any other font besides Times NR for your main body font in a book?  What impressions do you get when you see a book printed in garabond or some such alternate font?


----------



## Ralph Rotten (Mar 15, 2018)




----------



## Jack of all trades (Mar 16, 2018)

For ebooks, it doesn't really matter, as the reader can change the font.  

I use TNR, except for notes, typed or handwritten, which I usually put in a different font to set it apart.

I have edited manuscripts that use a different font, and I hate reading them! I usually change the font to TNR or Arial. I don't like reading a lot in other fonts. A little bit, like a note, is OK, but nothing lengthy.

If I opened a print book with an unusual font, I doubt I would read it. Or buy it.


----------



## qwertyman (Mar 16, 2018)

I was weened on Times new Roman, but now I've dropped it. It's too fussy for me, the same goes for Garamond. I think the world is ready to drop the serif typefaces. 

I use Tahoma or Gill sans.  I'm also happy to read Microsoft sans.

 Irritating fact: the font is the size of the typeface not the typeface itself (snigger).​*[SUB][SUP]
[/SUP][/SUB]*


----------



## Ralph Rotten (Mar 16, 2018)

weaned

Sorry, my OCD made me do it.


----------



## Jack of all trades (Mar 17, 2018)

qwertyman said:


> Irritating fact: the font is the size of the typeface not the typeface itself (snigger).​*[SUB][SUP]
> [/SUP][/SUB]*



Are you sure?



> font 1 /fänt/
> 
> noun
> 
> ...



Besides, language is fluid. "Font" is clearly changing to mean typeface.


----------



## TKent (Mar 20, 2018)

Minion pro is a good one for print. It has gorgeous italics and is efficient with space, which helps keep page count down. I also have used Garamond for fantasy novels. TheBookDesigner.com has some great information about book design, fonts, font pairings, and other things that are useful if you are laying out print books.


----------



## Anita M Shaw (Jun 8, 2018)

> Minion pro is a good one for print. It has gorgeous italics and is  efficient with space, which helps keep page count down. I also have used  Garamond for fantasy novels. TheBookDesigner.com has some great  information about book design, fonts, font pairings, and other things  that are useful if you are laying out print books.



I know this is an older post, but it's always one people have questions about. 

I had always used TNR myself, then began seeing posts on websites saying that it's a font for newspapers and shouldn't be used for anything else. My exploration into the font issue began, and I've tried out Goudy OldStyle BT, Bookman OldStyle, Century Schoolbook, Garamond, Apple Garamond, Baskerville Old Face, Book Antigua, Georgia and now Ghandi Serif.

This past April, I bought a book layout template from TheBookDesigner.com. Their Fling version for romance--although I've used it for my middle grade and my young adult novels as well. I just delete the swirly heart design from the headers and there I went. Since they include the Ghandi Serif font with the package, plus another font for Chapter headings, I used it, but because I distribute my work though Draft2Digital, all that gets converted to Garamond anyway. There's really no point in using a different font for chapter headings for that reason. I hope some day they'll fix it so we can have a different font for chapter headings or a choice of fonts for both, but as the finished file looks better than anything I've been able to do without a lot of headache work, I decided it's fine as it is. And as is stated, people are going to change it in their e-readers anyway. I do.

I went for the template for a couple of reasons. I was having trouble figuring out how to layout the book and I didn't want to have to pay for fonts each time I wanted to publish a book. None of the fonts I wanted to use were free ones.

Ghandi is a free for all uses font so that alleviated that headache, and I've learned some valuable lessons on how to layout a book, so it's not as scary to me as it was at first.  I will at some point do print version, but since only the short stories are generating any interest, I'm holding off for a while longer.


----------

