If you’ve asked yourself this question (which I assume you have), I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you to relax. There’s no need to agonize over your book font choice.
That’s not a free pass to ignore the font for your novel though. There’s a sweet spot; you need to look for the best font to print a book in without becoming overwhelmed or petrified with all the choices out there.
The typography you use for your book is important. But what’s more important is not precisely the font you choose. Rather, you need to select a book font that complements your graphic design and page layout while meeting your reader’s expectations. All while going unnoticed by those same readers.
Here’s the thing: if you pick fonts for your novel well, no one will notice. But if you pick your fonts poorly, everyone will notice. Selecting the best, standard book font for your book will directly impact the reading experience for your customers.
Understanding Fonts
Font (or typeface) is one of those writing and publishing-related terms you’ll hear often used to describe a few disparate things. I don’t want to get into long and technical explanations of everything that goes into fonts, so let’s just do a few quick bullets with the most important info for our post today.
- Font – the combination of the family, weight, and size of a letter.
- Typeface – synonymous with the font.
- Font Family – the subset the font is based on; Times is a font family and fonts like Times New Roman or Times Bold 18 point are examples of fonts in the Times family.
- Serif Font – a ‘serif’ extends the letter to add style and help your eye track the text.
- Sans Serif Font – plain lettering without a serif.
- Font Size – the size of your letting based on the points sizing scale.
- Weight – the line thickness of the letters, and elements like bold and italics.
The font is just one of many page design considerations you must balance when creating your book interior. The line length, height, page size, page margins, and letter spacing are just a few elements that are affected by your font choices. And that’s just the interior. Your book cover fonts are important too—for all the same reasons.
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Why Fonts Matter
If you go pick up any book off your bookshelf, you’ll likely be able to find five or six different fonts in use. For example, you might use a block-style font for the title (like Gotham) and a serif font for the subtitle and other cover text (like Caslon). Then you’ll have your primary font for the body text (like Baskerville) and another stylized font for your chapter titles (like Bigshot One). Alongside those, you could use unique fonts for your front matter, header/footer content, and loads of other kinds of text—section titles, footnotes, the dedication, etc..
There’s no one answer to how many fonts you should use in a book, but if you’re putting your book together and you’ve got more than six different fonts for the interior and cover; tone it down. Too many fonts can be jarring for your reader.
The best fonts for books will be invisible. The text on your page must convey your words, meet your reader’s expectations, and be easy to read.
Compare these samples of the same copy with differing fonts:
Calibri is Word’s default and looks just fine on the screen. Thick lines, no serifs, ample white space between the lines. Then we have Baskerville, a very common fiction font. Can you see why? It might be a touch hazy on your screen since I’ve screen captured from Word, but the lines are thinner and the serifs create horizontal consistency that leads the eye from word to word.
If I was laying out a novel for printing, I would never use Calibri while Baskerville is my go-to.
Choosing the Right Book Font
This is what it’s all about, right? Creating your custom book so it looks amazing. And making sure every line of text is a pleasure to read.
Putting all those expectations into perspective, how do we ever decide on a font for your body text? When there are literally thousands to choose from, the right answer is to just keep it simple. Why use a font that looks like Baskerville when you can just use Baskerville?
The most important of your font’s many jobs is to go unnoticed. Using a common font, one you can reasonably assume your readers are familiar with means they’ll likely never think about your choice.
Compare these passages and the fonts:
Each of these three fonts are great for printing—but each has a specific kind of printing they’re used for. Baskerville is among the best print fonts for fiction novels. Then we have Interface; a great web font that is also used for magazines and textbook printing. And last we have Courier, a classic ‘typewriter’ font, that you wouldn’t expect to see in a book but is great for newspapers.
Each of these three has a specific purpose in mind, by design and historical use. In context, the right font goes unnoticed. But could you imagine reading Lord of the Rings in Courier? I doubt anyone would get past the first chapter.
Fonts and Your Book
I like to write in Trebuchet. My Google Docs default to Trebuchet. I just think it’s a nice, clean font that looks good on my screen. Yet I would never print a book in Trebuchet. In fact, avoid web-based and Google fonts; they’re not designed for print.
So what is the best font for printing?
Okay, I won’t leave you hanging. We’ll end today with my top fonts for fiction and nonfiction works. When you’re making your own choices, be sure to keep in mind common fonts for your genre and your own book layout.
Choosing Fonts Wisely for Print
Your Book, Your Way
You’ll hear me and many other publishing industry experts point out that independent publishing and print-on-demand mean you own the entire process of bookmaking. That includes decisions about the typeface you pick for your book font. If you really want to use a script font like Comic Sans for the content, you can (but please don’t).
Much like the cover advice I’ve given in the past, you need to find a balance between creativity and meeting expectations. If you write romance novels, your audience has some expectations (some of it even unconscious) about the way the book should look. The art styles on the cover do not differ from the font in this way—it should serve your book and your readers in equal measure.
Take some time while planning your book’s design to pick fonts with your audience in mind. It might seem tedious, but you’ll be pleased when your book is indistinguishable from a traditionally published book. And once you’ve established the fonts that work for your books and your audience, you’ll be ready to keep delivering consistent designs for each new book you publish.
Paul is the Content Marketing Manager at Lulu. When he's not entrenched in the publishing and print-on-demand world, he likes to hike the scenic North Carolina landscape, read, sample the fanciest micro-brewed beer, and collect fountain pens. Paul is a dog person but considers himself cat tolerant.
I write poems lulu has published my first three books but one my book Que No Muera la poesía has some problems because I put the poems name and page numbers but some page numbers apear in the middle of the books how I can go back and fixed
Hi Antonio,
File formatting can be complex and depends on the software you’re using. I would have a look at our video tutorials for tips on exporting your PDF from some common options like InDesign and Word. If those don’t cover it, you may want to refer to the help documents for your specific formatting software.
Hi! Thank you for this article!
I’m working on a young adult fiction novel about a young woman who’s navigating life after college around the world while learning a lot about herself and her family. I’m wondering what font (and size) for body, headings, and page numbers you would recommend for a novel that fits the description that I just mentioned. Also, the main character has a few poems throughout the novel; what font and size do you recommend those be written in to set themselves apart from the “main” story/text (for lack of better words) but also not be too distracting and still deliver a powerful punch?
All the best,
Shay
Hi Shay,
Totally my opinion, but I think 12 point font is best for YA fiction. A lot of adult or longer novels will go 10 or 11 point, so you can always play around in that range to see what makes the right file for your book.
For the body, I like Bembo or Sabon. Both classic fonts for YA books. Headings are a little trickier; I think you’ll do best to think about what will look good with you chapter titles or other headings. This is the part of your book that can get away with the most leeway in terms of font, so I say experiment!
Finally, for elements like the headers/page numbering I would use a very simple font. Times or Arial most likely. This text is purely utilitarian, so no need to be flashy.
Edit: Forgot to respond to the question about poetry. I don’t know much about formatting poetry, but I think using italics and spacing (indented with line breaks) would be the simplest way. You might want to do some research about common fonts for poetry though.
HI I am writing a book on my family tree. There is a 90 page section with names only, so I used (not your favorite I see) Calibri because of the clear view of each letter. What would you recommend for the rest of the book. It contains lots of pictures and of course identifications under some of them. Bold or Not? Tks for your help.
Hi Ginette,
Calibri is a great font for clarity, especially if you went with some smaller sized lettering.
For the rest of the book, I like using a simple font like Times New Roman or Arial for image captions. Calibri would work here too. Body text is a little different, I’d lean toward maybe Bookman (serifs) or Helvetica (sans-serifs) since that type will likely be a little larger and will stand out.
Hope this helps!
I am printing a 9 x 6″ US trade paperback, and I had assumed that Baskerville 12 point would be a good choice for my novel. But when I test print it seems small. Smaller than the 12 point size on an A4 page. I’m wondering if something is going wrong with how I’m printing, or whether I just need to up the point size to 14pt for it to look like a good readable point size. Any advice?
Hi Kiya,
You’ll need to match the page size for your file to the page size of the book you’re making. If you create in A4 but want to print a 6×9, we’d have to reduce the page size, resulting in the shrinkage.
Hi Paul,
I am writing a self-help book. What fonts combination of Serif and Sans-Serif do you recommend to use for the best printing quality?
Thanks a lot!
Hi Reem,
I fall back on Caslon for a self-help book. I think this is a good choice because Caslon has an ‘academic’ feel already and helps convey that sense to readers. I would consider using a more impactful font for headings though, maybe Minion or Bembo to grab attention.
Best of luck with your writing!
I would love to have a preview of the font in the font list, rather than having to select the font to see what it looks like. Or a pdf/png guide that shows what your fonts look like.
Hi Rose,
Great idea! I’ll add that to our running list of improvements for our platform updates.
Bob Robertson
November 11, 2019 at 5:54 pm
i’m writing a kind of technical text with personal history as flavor. My target is the airport passenger who might pick up the book to get into the detail during flight. It’s called Expat Secrets, containing specific experiences in my 60 year history as an expatriate, how I’ve found success in U.S., Russian and Indonesian cultures, with specific technical tips and tricks that have worked, yet trying to keep the dialog at high-school level technology. Aro 380 words per page. Any tips appreciated.
Bob
Occasionally I come across ‘special’ fonts like BEBAS Kai which is the specified font by Manchester Histories for highlights and promotions commemorating the Manchester Massacre, Peterloo of 1819. See Peterloo People published by SWit’CH – ISBN 978-0-244-18472-8
i’m writing a kind of technical text with personal history as flavor. My target is the airport passenger who might pick up the book to get into the detail during flight. It’s called Expat Secrets, containing specific experiences in my 60 year history as an expatriate, how I’ve found success in U.S., Russian and Indonesian cultures, with specific technical tips and tricks that have worked, yet trying to keep the dialog at high-school level technology. Aro 380 words per page. Any tips appreciated.
Bob
Is it possible to use multiple fonts In one book
Hi Ronald,
Absolutely! Just be careful to think about how they will complement each other. I wouldn’t change fonts without a good reason – like perhaps your story has a sentient robot and you use a font like Courier to represent the robot’s speech. The font change will signal to the reader the character difference.
Always be intentional about any font choices and most importantly of all; ask someone else for their opinion!
What about using Times New Roman 14? Bold for headers and non-bold for text. It looks nice in print. Times New Roman aligns nicely on the right side of the page. No matter which font I use, for some lines, since they are justified, there is some extra spacing. How can I avoid that when justifying the text? Or can I can avoid it with different fonts?
Satisfactory justification requires a lot of fiddling around with hyphens at ends of lines and other fiddling such as adjusting of “kerning” or adding extra words just for the spacing.
Hi Sherry,
Times 14 is a great font for print.
With the text justification, you can control the space between words and characters using ‘Kerning’ and ‘Tracking’ to make adjustments. In MS Word, those controls are under Format > Font > Advanced. Adjusting the Kerning will change the space between individual characters while tracking uniformly changes the space between characters and words. Both are powerful tools to adjust the white space on your page.
question: is there a font that aligns at the right side of the page?
That is a property of the paragraph rather than of the font.
Hi Nancy,
If you’re asking about a font designed to work best when aligned right, I’m not aware of any. Just about all word processors will have the option to align right, it’s just a matter of looking at font options until you find the one you like best.
I like to stick to simple fonts, not using too many. For my books, I stick with Garamond for text and Tahoma (bold, larger) for chapter headings. I will definitely try Baskerville!
For my newspaper publishing I use Cheltenham or Domine (they are virtually the same) I’ll use some flashier things for the covers if appropriate. Georgia for text on back covers. For a book about Ouija Boards, I did the title in Captain Howdy which approximates the font used on Ouija Boards.