Sci-Fi, fantasy and speculative Indie Authors Review discussion

Hello, Goodreads friends! I need to pick at your brains and get a few opinions... even if it's just to rationalize my own thoughts on the topic.
(I looked around the threads, but did not see this topic yet, so hopefully this is a fresh issue.)

It is about, of course, the age old question: Sans Serif or Serif font for printed books?

I'll start off by saying that I happen to be a huge fan of sans serif fonts. All of them. I usually can't get enough. I think that serif fonts are far too frilly (especially for my purposes). I like the clean contrast and very contemporary look of sans serif fonts. So, as I'm sure you've guessed, I'd very much like to use sans serif fonts for my book interior.

But my research into the matter has led me to two places.

One side says "serif for print, sans serif for web work." Many people have said that serif fonts are easier to read in print, whereas sans serif fonts should be limited to online works, since they are easier to read at varying resolution. It seems to me that this opinion may have risen out of habit and tradition, though, and I'm skeptical of it actually being true.

According to a lot of the research, the other side is that there isn't much difference in readability or legibility of either font in printed works. They are pretty much the same in all regards. So why the bias?

I guess my biggest question is: Will it be some horrible taboo if I use sans serif font anyway? Will I be damning my book by doing this?

Thanks for any thoughts and help on the matter!!

I've read serif fonts give headaches to many readers. That means many readers will be happy about your choice.

As for me, I prefer serif font because of my vision problems. Usually serif fonts are darker and more defined so even if parts of the letter disappear on me, there will be enough left for me to see while I can't always say the same for sans serif. However, I have never turned down reading a book because of its fonts.

I suspect that readers wouldn't really notice the difference, or at least they wouldn't be able to put their finger on the difference.

That being said, I just looked at a bunch of print books both new and old and absolutely none of them use sans serif.

I assume you're doing self-publishing since you're talking about chosing the font yourself. One of the big things with self-publishing is that if your work appears homespun in any way, it'll look unprofessional. Book cover, book format, font choice, blurb, back cover material...it all matters.

If you're like most self-published authors, your sales are going to suck anyway, but the best advice is to not give potential customers ANY reason to reject your work out of hand.

It's sad, but I think the purchasing process isn't so much about finding something you WANT to buy, but rather of finding something you WANT to reject. Your aim as an author/publisher is to eliminate all the non-story reasons for someone to reject your book. In that case, conforming to even subliminally expected norms, such as font choice, is probably a prudent idea.

Make 'em READ the text. If they don't like what they find there, well, it's a legitimate non-sale!

So I went through my bookshelf and yep, all serif. I have to wonder how much of this is a holdover from the days of the printing press? I imagine that in some circles, yes, using a san serif font in print is likely a taboo. In this respect, you fall into a damned if you do damned if you don't situation: Do you want to conform to tradition or be groundbreaking and put up with the possibility that someone is going to call your work unprofessional?

There is also an issue with clarity in some sans serif fonts.

For example, any word beginning in "ill" such as "illustrations" when they appear at the beginning of a sentence. A serif font will clearly differentiate the capital "I" from the lower case "l"...whereas SOME sans serif fonts will make the word look like "|||". (I had to use pipes for that because this web site uses serif!)

There is a middle way. Some fonts have fairly subtle serifs, gaining some of the elegance without losing the distinction in letterforms. Lucida is one, and I there another that starts with 'o.' Pure sans serif fonts like Helvetica and Ariel are harder to read at small sizes. If you use any but the most basic fonts, though, you'll have to include them in any pdf you send out (or upload to the printers). On a related issue, indie authors don't sell paperbacks. Unless you have a publishing deal, you should consider how the book looks online as your primary target. Even the rare reader who is willing to pay twice as much to get a book in their hands will first see the book online. That is where they make the buying decision.

I use Times New Roman for both print and ebook. With ebook it doesn't matter, because the ebook readers put it in their own fonts. My Kindle converts to Georgia, but it has other choices. Furthermore, the conversion to ebook is easier is you use a standard font, or at least that's what they say. For paperbacks I may experiment, but I always use serif. Sometimes breaking new ground isn't always better, especially when they had it right in the first place--like the Apollo Program versus the Space Shuttle.

Thanks for the comments, suggestions, and opinions so far! It had all been very helpful, and hopefully people will continue expressing their views and experiences on this topic!

I've seen books printed in both serif and sans serif fonts. The biggest difference was that the sans serif printed books were all larger and all non-fiction (including some text books), which is a curious distinction, I think.

It still seems that the consensus is that serif fonts are "better" for print- if only in the "it's tradition" sort of way. It still seems that both have pros and cons to readability.

My typical opinion on the matter is if someone is going to judge my book based on how "different" a font type is (and strictly that) from the usual, when the there is no difference in its readability, then he's not the type of person I'm writing the book for in the first place. That said, if there IS a difference in readability, and it's not just a bunch of outdated opinions of people who are more interested in keeping a tradition going from a time when printers sucked and they HAD to print in serif or it would be unreadable, then I'll reconsider using serif fonts more seriously. It'll have transfered from a conceptual issue to a technical issue.

Thanks again to the input so far! I'll keep doing research on the topic. It might just come down to how rebellious I'm feeling that day....

like the Apollo Program versus the Space Shuttle.

I do like to see that point being made from time to time.

I can't quote chapter and verse, but I'm sure I saw research that serif fonts are more readable in small (paperback-sized) print. It was so long ago, this would not have been any kind of digital media. I was an ergonomics undergrad, so... there were dinosaurs.

Haha, yeah. That's where my research initially took me, but then there are a lot of articles that vote for sans serif font as well. Which is why this discussion is so helpful!

I think I might just use a hybrid font, like Lucidia or one similar, as you suggested, Richard. it might be worth it for me to take the time to find a good middle-ground font that isn't too off the wall.

all my books i print use Georgia 11 as a base, then other fonts depending on chapters headers and page numbers (for flavor). since kindle also uses Georgia yay for less conversion work! im a traditionalist so my point is to make my psperbacks as professional looking as possible

Tammy wrote: "...if someone is going to judge my book based on how "different" a font type is (and strictly that) from the usual, when the there is no difference in its readability, then he's not the type of person I'm writing the book for in the first place."

Here's another question to consider, though: Do you really want to draw people's attention away from the actual story simply because you used an unfamiliar font?

It might not make the book less readable, it might not lose you a lot of sales, but it really could be distracting to some. To me a book should pull you into the STORY, not toward the PRINTED text (unless of course it's an art book and that's part of the art).

then its better to have that fancy font for chapter headers yeah?

For print I like Garamond 11.

Realistically, nobody is going to be flipping through your print book, looking at the font before buying unless they're face to face with you/know about you already.

BUT, sans serif would to at least some segment of the population be less readable, and to others, look strange or even unprofessional.

Jamie wrote: "For print I like Garamond 11.

Realistically, nobody is going to be flipping through your print book, looking at the font before buying unless they're face to face with you/know about you already...."

I agree with everything except Garamond--mainly because it isn't on my computer. I'll probably use Georgia on my upcoming book.

Yeah! Interesting collection of responses!

K.P. wrote: "then its better to have that fancy font for chapter headers yeah?"

Yeah, who really looks at chapter headers anyway? (Unless the chapter actually has a title, which most don't anymore.)

I'm all for using both, though at this point, I can't say if I'd like the look of sans serif while reading. It'd probably take a little gettin use to though and then I'd hardly notice again. I say try it out. The worst thing is it turns a few people off. I really can't imagine a lot of people noticing though.

I'm with Micah—if you're self-publishing, you (probably) want your book to not stand out as self published. Things like sans serif fonts for body text in fiction, internet paragraph formatting (using line spaces between paragraphs instead of indenting the first line of each), etc., stand out as "not professionally typeset."

For even more savvy readers, things like indenting the first paragraph of chapters and sections, using two dashes instead of an em dash, having no finesse with dropcaps, etc., is going to be noticed. (I'm not fun to be near when I open a print book. I'm either gleeful or aghast. "WHAT ON EARTH???? OH GOD. I NEED IBUPROFEN. NO, THE WHOLE BOTTLE. STAT.")

Like Richard said, you can find a readable sans serif font that's verging on serif, and then you'll look like you knew what you were doing and intended to go for a modern, almost techy look without breaking with the tradition of serif for body text print.

Z. wrote: "(using line spaces between paragraphs instead of indenting the first line of each), etc., stand out as "not professionally typeset."

Interestingly enough, I just started reading the first story in Hugh "self-publishing's darling" Howey's Wool and it uses a space between paragraphs instead of indenting paragraphs. Now...this is the Kindle version, but it still looks very odd.

I have Calibre reformat ebooks when they come formatted like that. It has options in the conversion settings that will remove spaces between the paragraphs and set an indent for the first line of each paragraph. So awesome. Saved my sanity a few times when I had a book I really wanted to read that had huge spaces between the lines and even huger spaces between the paragraphs. (My thumb would have been tapping the next-page button every three seconds if Calibre hadn't fixed it for me.)

Really annoying (to me) when print books come like that. It feels like a bunch of disconnected blocks of text instead of something that flows smoothly from one to the next.

In print, certainly. eBooks it's still kind of an open question. In fact, IIRC, amazon's default is to insert spces after paragraphs (just like it defaults to justified text...which oddly does not show up in their Look Inside function, so what you see is not always exactly what you get!) and if you want to remove that you've got to use CSS style sheets to reset that to no spaces, which is kind of a pain.

I've seen all kinds of formatting in eBooks.

Micah wrote: "In print, certainly. eBooks it's still kind of an open question. In fact, IIRC, amazon's default is to insert spces after paragraphs (just like it defaults to justified text...which oddly does not ..."

Interesting. I just checked my Look Inside feature and you are correct, my books do not appear justified, even though the actual ebook is. That's a bit annoying, given that justifying the text prior to uploading the file to kdp tends to lead to formatting issues with the finished product. However, I have never had any of my books come back with spaces between the paragraphs unless they were put there deliberately by me to break the action. Perhaps there are more of these books because that is the default in most word processing programs.

I don't use the CSS style sheet for my paperbacks. I was told to simply format a paragraph spacing of .01 to eliminate extra spacing. It seems to work for me. As I recall, Smashwords says not to do that for their ebooks, but I noticed a paragraph spacing problem when I didn't, and it was fixed by uploading a corrected file with .01 spacing. I set paragraph indentation at .30.

Christina wrote: " I have never had any of my books come back with spaces between the paragraphs unless they were put there deliberately by me to break the action."

I'm curious, did you upload directly from Word? Because that may end up being different than when uploading in ebook format. I do all my formatting in HTML and then use the Kindle Previewer/KindleGen to convert it directly to Kindle format. If you're uploading from Word, the Word formatting may automatically take care of the issue I had.

I create in Word and convert to an html file to upload. Though I once skipped this step just to see what would happen and had no issue with the straight .docx file converting to a properly formatted book.

By "convert to an html" I assume you mean you're having Word do the conversion. If so, then the formatting in Word may have taken care of the issue.

I mean, I "create" in Word, but I nuke the file of all formatting, import to NotePad++ and build the HTML used in the book from there. Handcrafting the .ncx and .opf files and all that.

I use justified margins and have had no problems with the books formatting correctly from print to ebook edition.

This thread has been quiet for a while...

I've been a bit too busy lately to work on anything concerning books. Luckily, I have caught a bit of a break, and picked up research and edits!

After a bit more research and considering all of the comments posted here, I think I've decided on Palatino font for the body of my book. It looks clean and organized well on the page, and it's serif. However, I think this is a nice subtle serif font-- it has clean lines that aren't too distracting (in the way that I find most serif fonts distracting).
And for chapter heads, etc., I've used a simple san serif font to contrast and sort of add the modern feel I was looking for in the first place.

It seems to be a good combination, that I like, and I think it fills in the gaps that were mentioned here concerning font choice.
Thoughts?

Sounds good to me. You should check downloads on the various e-book programs - Palatino is not a built-in font so it may render with something different.

Richard 2060 wrote: "Sounds good to me. You should check downloads on the various e-book programs - Palatino is not a built-in font so it may render with something different."

Ah, thanks, Richard, that's an excellent suggestion! I'll look into it to see if it will cause issues.

Wow, this thread is awesome. I am really invested in this right now, as I just got my proof back from Amazon and the font turned out horrible. I use Scrivener, and I could have sworn I did all in Helvettica, but I discovered it was Arial. Anyway, you all would be gems if I could get some advice on this. I even used a 15pt font in the program, and I can barely see it in print. Thanks my friends! :)

Hmm, sounds like your problem may be in Scrivener, Charles. As per the advice earlier I wouldn't recommend any sans font for body text. Ariel is primarily a Microsoft font, present on Windows but maybe not elsewhere, so perhaps there's a substitution somewhere.