Re: [NTG-context] What are the best fonts to use

Hi, I recently started to dabble in typography. There's a lot to learn there. The proposed book sure is a good start, but there are also lots of online resources (e.g. www.typophile.com - their forum is filled with interesting discussions about your question). What I've learned in the last months is that there are no hard rules - only guidelines. When it comes to choosing a font for a book, it depends (like already mentioned) on the kind of book. A dragon-fantasy book may take a different font than a childrens book or a futuristic novel. Compare for example Monotype Centaur to ITC Stone Serif. Then again, the font should not distract from the contents of the book, but it can help adding a little "soul" to it. You also have to consider the features you need. Do you need greek or russian characters? Do you need small caps? How is the ligature support? Maybe oldstyle numbers would be nice? Do the italics please you or are they too fancy and somehow don't fit in? How many cuts (italic, semibold, bold) do you need? Another tip would be: go to the library or check the books you own for a pleasing design and adopt it (I think in this case, copying/ "stealing" is a good thing ;). Sometimes the typeface used is mentioned on the publishing information on the first couple of pages. If not, use www.whatthefont.com and a scan/photo to identify or use www.identifont.com with the Q&A system. And theres always the list of more or less safe fonts (no claim to be complete): Arnhem Bembo Caslon Dante Fournier Garamond Goudy (Old Style) Hoefler Text Janson Text Minion Palatino Sabon Stone And finally: Your budget. Are you willing to buy fonts? That would probably come in at 30-60 bucks (but that's nothing if you are serious aboutt your book). If not, some of the above can be obtained for free (still being commercial fonts, e.g. Minion with Adobe Reader, Hoefler Text is on Mac OSX...) but only a few are really free. Apart from the TeX-fonts I can thing of Linux Libertine (not resticted to Linux, despite the name), Vollkorn or some from "The League of moveable type". As a final inspiration, this beauty: http://fontsinuse.com/moby-dick-the-arion-press-edition/ Take care, Christian Am 20:59, schrieb Curiouslearn:

Cecil, thanks for asking this question. Even though the answers may/will be subjective, it is quite likely that there are people here who have given some thought to font choice. I agree with previous responses that reading a book on typography would certainly be helpful. Nevertheless, I am interested in hearing what fonts people like (if they do not mind sharing). I, and perhaps some others, may learn about a few fonts.

Bharat

On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 8:31 PM, David Rogers wrote:

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* Cecil Westerhof [2011-03-14 12:44]:

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At the moment I use for my ebook: \usetypescript[palatino][texnansi] \setupbodyfont[palatino,rm,12pt]

Does not look to bad, but layout is not my forte. So if people have tips about the fonts to use, I like to hear them.

Do you use other fonts when using a printed book?

I don't think this question can have one answer. There are many good answers, depending on the kind of book (or other printed material).

1. I think the layout of the page itself can have a great deal to do with whether a certain font looks good (e.g. amount of white space, length of lines, etc). Paying proper attention to the "gross" aspects of your layout, such as margins and line heights, goes a long way to improving the appearance of the whole work, and brings out the best in whichever font you choose.

2. To some extent, different fonts can suit different material (e.g. a book of poems vs a financial report, or a textbook vs a novel). For extended reading, the conventional wisdom is to choose a "normal-looking" font that doesn't call attention to itself too much, but obviously you also want one that is at least somewhat attractive to look at.

3. Frankly, giving people what they are already used to is often the best plan - probably more often than typographers would care to admit. In my opinion, variation for its own sake is over-rated and over-used.

-- David ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

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