Fonts

[Coco82]

If this has already been discussed I apologize, but what font should you write in Times New Roman or Courier New? I've read both.
Thanks.

Francisco

[ElizabethJames]

We hope neither is required.

Garamond is the only font we can stand to look at all day. Sure hope there's no law against it.

:)

[macalicious731]

Courier new is the preferred font for ms text.

[maestrowork]

Write in any fonts you want. But when you format the ms, do it in either Times or Courier; or better, ask the agent or editor or consult their submission guidelines.

[anatole ghio]

I'm all about Arial!

I have yet to find another font that I like as much. I can't stand either Times New Roman or Courier.

- Anatole

[Greenwolf103]

I have bad eyesight so I use whatever font I can read clearly. (I normally sit at the computer without my glasses; the glare of computer light AND daylight is just too much on the lens.) Use whatever old font you want but, when submitting, then unless otherwise stated in guidelines, 12-point Courier is the way to go. (Interestingly enough, I don't like Arial font but I use it in my blog because I can see it better. Oh wait, am I rambling now?)

[Writing Again]

Greenwolf has it.

[ChunkyC]

I too agree with Greenwolf. Write in whatever font you want, then change it to Courier 12 when submitting. Nobody but the people at the agency or publisher are ever going to see it in that format anyway. And put yourself in their shoes: they read dozens of submissions a day, if they're all in the same font, it has to be easier on them than a wild hodge-podge of different ones. Could you imagine reading one sub in Garamond 8 point and the next is in Bauhaus Heavy 14pt? You'd go cross-eyed in a matter of hours.

[Jamesaritchie]

Write in whatever you wish, but use Courier 12 when submitting to print publications, and Times New Roman when submitting to electronic publications.

[sc211]

A while ago I read up on a bunch of ms formatting articles on the web, and the consensus was Courier 12.

It's a monotype font (where an “m” is the same width as an “i”), and so it helps editors figure how much space the text will need and is easier to read.

[ElizabethJames]

This is so helpful to read.

We've never really understood the rationale for this typeface or that, but the idea that 'endurance' matters for professional readers makes sense. We just sifted through a bunch of typefaces and found Courier Final Draft to be most readable by far.

So now we can give up our antiauthoritarian rantings and get with the dingdong program.

Very much appreciate the wisdom of the sages.

[Jamesaritchie]

We just sifted through a bunch of typefaces and found Courier Final Draft to be most readable by far.

There are several Courier 12 fonts that are good. What matters most is how well they print, and for this I like Dark Courier. But Courier Final Draft is fine, and so is Courier10BT.

Courier New is perfectly sized, of course, but it just doesn't print as dark as the other Courier fonts.

[Velleity]

Irritatingly, how any given Courier-style font prints out depends on your computer and printer. Try some out and use one that works for you.

Plain old Courier works fine for me. But for many people, it prints out thin and spindly. There's an explanation, but I can't remember it at the moment...

[Jamesaritchie]

Irritatingly, how any given Courier-style font prints out depends on your computer and printer.

It's also a matter of the font itself. Dark Courier will print darker than Courier New on any computer and any printer. It works the same way that telling your computer to print in bold works.

Dark Courier is designed to print darker on both inkjet and laser printers.

The font tells the printer how dark it should be printed, and assuming your printer is working as it should, any of the other Courier fonts will print darker than Courier New.

[katdad]

My agent says 12pt. Times New Roman is the new standard.

Times New Roman is a proportional font and a serif font.

However a non-proportional serif font like Courier is acceptable. I don't think that san-serif fonts are acceptable but I could be wrong.

[SRHowen]

The idea that Times was the "new" standard, went out some time ago. A lot of old how to books said to use it when computers first became standard. A lighter font like Courier New didn't print as well on the old dot matrix printers, but Times did.

You use a mono spaced font, not a proportional font for the reason that it lets the publisher know just how much space a given work will take up.

I haven't seen a single big name publisher ask for Times--and I think we hashed this to death on the Uncle Jim thread somewhere.

KatDad, not to start a he said she said thing, but sometimes the things that you say your agent said, just don't make sense. (I'm trying to word this to not sound snotty, I am really just curious and alarm bells go off in my head each time I hear my agent said and what he/she said does not fit with industry standard) I wonder why what your agent said is so different from industry standard, or what other agents and publishers say. One other I noted was the double space between paragraphs. I've always seen that as a big no no. I'm more than curious who your agent is.


Shawn

[Velleity]

Dark Courier will print darker than Courier New on any computer and any printer.

Dark Courier and generic Courier print exactly the same for me. If anything, generic Courier may be slightly darker (but that may be paper/toner differences).

Courier New, on the other hand, is completely spindly and ghost-like. The very thought of reading a manuscript in that font hurts my eyes.

[cwfgal]

In defense of Katdad, I, too, have been told by at least two agents and one publisher (HarperCollins) that Times New Roman is their preferred font. It's what all of my sold mss were written in.

The need for mono spacing went away for most publishers some time ago with the advent of more sophisticated publishing software that allows book formatting and layouts to be done with ease. That's why a lot of publishers now ask writers to submit a disk copy as well as a hard copy of their work.

Beth

[sc211]

This is interesting.

A few months ago I read up on ms formatting and found these on the web...

“Manuscript Format,” by Apryl Duncan
“Manuscript Formatting” by Lee Masterson
“Proper Manuscript Format,” by William Shunn
“The Obligatory Manuscript Format Article” by John Gregory Betancourt
“Manuscript Preparation,” by Vonda N. McIntyre
“Manuscript Preparaton Guidelines,” by Marion Zimmer Bradley
“How to Format a Manuscript for Publication,” by Mary Nicole Silvester
“Manuscript Formatting for Beginners,” by Kent Brewster
“Novel Format,” by Eire Fury

For what font to use, five said Courier, another said go with serif types like Courier or Times (but that now some are accepting Arial), another said Arial or Times, and Vonda McIntyre said “under no circumstances use Times New Roman.”

As always, it depends on the publisher, so check there first, but it would be nice to have them decide once and for all which... Scratch that. We're human. We can't even agree on which way to hang our toilet paper.

[ChunkyC]

There's more than one way? :b

To be truthful, I once submitted to a small publisher who expressed a liking for Verdana. I used it to no avail, alas.

Regardless, I do think the majority express a preference for Courier, and I can't see any publisher or agent being annoyed at receiving such a submission. I'd call Courier the safest of bets.

[arkady]

I can perfectly understand the requirement for Courier 12 in a manuscript or sample chapters. But what about a synopsis? No copy editor will ever see it, nor any publisher, and Courier 12 uses way more page space than Times New Roman. Is there a consensus on what font to use for a synopsis?

[maestrowork]

Synopsis, bio, query, etc.: Times New Roman, 10 or 12 pt (preferrably 12), single-spaced, left justified.

[arkady]

Thanks, maestro. I've seen advice elsewhere that synopses (multi-page, not single-page) should be double-spaced, but it never made sense to me.

[James D Macdonald]

Some people like <a href="http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/darkcourier.zip" target="_new">Dark Courier</a> as a submission font.

It doesn't matter what you compose your manuscript in. Just reformat it to Courier and double space for your final printout.

(And yes, multiple page synopses are indeed single spaced, and in Times Roman.)

The reason you use double-spaced courier with wide margins and a lot of room at the top of the chapter is because a manuscript will have a lot of hand-work done on it in pencil by the editor, line editor, and copyeditor. The reason you want to underline rather than use italics is because italics are hard to see when the manuscript comes to typesetting.

If you use italics rather than underlining, all it means is that at some stage of manuscript preparation someone will go through and underline those words by hand.

[Medievalist]

James D. Macdonald wrote:

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>If you use italics rather than underlining, all it means is that at some stage of manuscript preparation someone will go through and underline those words by hand.<hr></blockquote>

You can do a search and replace for italics as part of your final formatting. It's a real pain to do the underlining as a correction. Sometimes it means hand inserting codes and that's just ugly.

[tjosban]

Thank you Uncle J! I couldn't find that link for the dark Courier, though I remember seeing it. I now have it.