What's your favorite writing font?

librarianj

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Gotta say - mine is definitely Courier New. I've gotten a lot of feedback from my beta readers that they don't like it though so I've switched to Times New Roman recently.

I've been writing in Courier New as well. It has that "work in progress" feel. TNR just reminds me of school :e2shrug:
 

librarianj

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I use a different font for every manuscript. It helps me develop tonally, which is odd, probably. I have one in Dante, one in Centuar, one in Verdana, and a few others. I use serifs if they go well with voice, more whimsical fonts for more whimsical stories, etc. And then I change back to Calibri or TNR before sending to my agent :)

Glad to know I'm not the only one that thinks font has a bit of influence on the feeling of the story!
 

Jason

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Helvetica (yes it’s a great font, but the movie documentary was very interesting and educational - I think only like an hour long
 

Jason

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Just to follow up here - I threw out the IMBD link for the Helvetica movie in the previous post, but it apparently is not available to stream through normal venues like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. without renting it so doubt anyone took the time...

Well, after referencing it above, I wanted to watch the documentary again, and found a YouTube version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKdCoq5KZG4

Spanish subtitles are embedded in the video, but it's not really all that distracting...it's 80 minutes long
 

s_nov

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I love Centaur with all of my heart. Especially when I'm writing something mystical or spooky.
 

iszevthere

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It's been Times New Roman size eleven, single spaced, for more than five years. I don't even remember how or why I started using size eleven or single spaced. But it looks clean, it helps me read my things easier, it works and I am sticking to it. I used to experiment with fonts all the time as a tween when I was writing dual-perspective stories. It did help me write back then. I'm enjoying reading everyone's answers on here!
 

insolentlad

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For the writing of the first few drafts, I much prefer a monospaced typeface. I think it helps me see mistakes more readily. However, the Courier New that is most commonly used is not really very readable, at least for me, so I use either Courier Prime or Century Schoolbook Mono. I really prefer the latter but both are good, and Courier Prime is free to download. Either one will be big, like 13 point.

For note-taking outside of the actual writing of a narrative, I'm rather fond of Charter, but I use Courier Prime too. I don't switch to a font that might be used for a book (or a manuscript submission) until fairly late in editing.
 

call-of-the-mind

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I write in calibri 11pt font, but when I do edits I change the colour, and I find it gives me new ideas or help sort things out.
 

mselephant2015

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For first drafts I use Calibri - it has a sort of informal feel about it. Then when I'm doing edits and need to spot errors, I swap to something more formal, like Times New Roman.
 

thereeness

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Times New Roman, size 12, 1.5 spaced foreeeeever. I know it's old school, but I always felt rebellious when I did that 1.5 space rather than single or double space XD
 

athetland

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I really like Garamond. When I worked as an estate planning paralegal, we used that font for the trusts and other estate planning documents. It's so pretty and simple.

I change to Times New Roman when submitting though, ha.
 

DanielSTJ

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So many to choose from. I don't like it to appear like there's any space between words (I find some of the fonts do that.) Bahnschrift Light Condensed is really good though, but I variate my fonts as if I'm wearing them as clothes.
 

Anna Spargo-Ryan

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Mostly Century Schoolbook (11pt, 1.5 spacing), but I've recently got a bit excited about writing in Charter. I totally think it has an effect on the way the story comes out.

For nonfiction, Calibri. It really helps to be able to visually shift gears from fiction to non.
 

Jason

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So many to choose from. I don't like it to appear like there's any space between words (I find some of the fonts do that.) Bahnschrift Light Condensed is really good though, but I variate [vary?] my fonts as if I'm wearing them as clothes.

Spacing between letters and words is often referred to as tracking and kerning, and is often standardized as part of the font development process. Fun to play around with in programs like Photoshop and others :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerning
https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/2606/difference-between-kerning-vs-letter-spacing
 

ChibiUsagi

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Verdana, 10 point.

But I usually write in TNR because it helps me get a more accurate universal page count.
 

starrystorm

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But I usually write in TNR because it helps me get a more accurate universal page count.

I never thought about it in a universal page count way. It makes sense. But I usually write in TNR size 12 anyway.
 

Dragonshark X

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I don't think it's a question. Raw and Real, Baby, Courier! Any type! Courier! That's it. Anything else is just a game. game. game. game.
 

insolentlad

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I love Centaur with all of my heart. Especially when I'm writing something mystical or spooky.
One of my poetry collections was printed in Centaur. I love that Venetian renaissance style too, but I don't think I could write in it --- though I did write in Palatino, from the same general family, for some time.
 
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spork

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Times New Roman, size 12, 1.5 spaced foreeeeever. I know it's old school, but I always felt rebellious when I did that 1.5 space rather than single or double space XD

Oh, good, I'm not alone! I also write in Times New Roman, size 12, with the 1.5 spacing. I don't know why, but single always seems too crowded and double-spaced texts is hard for me to follow.
 

insolentlad

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Something I could add to the reasons I use the typeface(s) I do is that I do NOT want them to be too quick and easy to read. I want something that will slow the eye down when I go back to edit or rewrite or just look at what might need attention. If I wanted it to be a quick, pleasant read, I would probably use a Garamond. I also want a font that lets me clearly see the punctuation marks---I find that in some I can't even tell whether an apostrophe is 'open quotes' or 'close quotes.'
 

Chris P

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Times New Roman, Calibri, or Arial. I do the double space thing, and indent new paragraphs. I turn Word's default "insert space at end of paragraph" THE F* OFF. I hate that feature and I'm annoyed Microsoft thinks it can re-write the rules of grammar just because someone in charge thinks it looks pretty. (I still haven't forgiven them for doing the ellipsis wrong, or the N dash).

For editing, I will change it to a different font, like Courier New or anything still readable but different. It really helps to spot errors.
 

Manuel Royal

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I've been experimenting with this recently, after a decade of stolidly using Courier 12 point. I'll continue to put documents for submission in Courier (unless submission guidelines specify otherwise), but lately I've found that sometimes a different font -- even if used only during the first draft -- helps me get a feel for the right narrative voice.

The novel I'm working on was all in Courier, but I wanted to see if a change of font to something more like the appearance of a finished book would help. I changed it all to Times New Roman (which is what some publishers prefer for submissions anyway), but just now changed it to Georgia. That seems to "feel" right. I think I'll keep composing in that font; when I've got a submission draft I can change it to whatever is appropriate or requested.

Was just working on a creepy first-person short story, and impulsively put it in a font called Sergoe Script. It's remarkable how much that influenced the voice I hear in my mind.
 

Snitchcat

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Love Garamond for print output, but for screens, it has to be Calibri, 11pt. Easier to read – I need a font that's quick and easy on the eyes and find Calibri fits my requirements. Of course, when submitting, it gets changed to whatever the publisher specified (if any), otherwise, I default to Courier New 12pt.
 

sandree

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I write in 14 pt. Palatino. I used to be a typesetter and I always liked the elegance and readability of Palatino. And I’m older and I need that bigger type size now.

On my last edit, though, I switched to Verdana, just to bring a fresh look to it.

Thanks for the link to the documentary - I’ll have to check that out. I was a typesetter from the time of pink paper punch tape up through doing manual coding on a very expensive dedicated Lionotype machine, then Quark Express and desktop publishing. It was such a time of rapid change. Now everyone’s a typesetter.