Choosing a font for your book can be a difficult task for any author. Keep in mind that as a self-publishing author, you are likely to be in charge of choosing a font for both your cover and the body text of your book. Authors are encouraged to choose different fonts for different aspects of their book to achieve certain effects. This blog is here to help guide you through the font-selection process.
We’ll start off by discussing some general rules of thumb for font selection, whereafter we’re going to discuss the to main font types (serif and sans serif) more in detail.
Font Selection: The Basics
You’re probably aware that there are two main font-types: serif and sans serif. We’ll discuss exactly what sets them apart from each other later on in this article. To start off however, just know that serif fonts have little feet at the ends of the letters, and sans serif fonts do not.
Generally speaking, you want to use at most two fonts when designing your book. Using more fonts can result in a messy, confused end product. If you decide to use two fonts, then one is going to make up the body of your text, whereas the other will most likely adorn your front cover and perhaps make up your chapter titles. Whatever font you end up choosing, the former should always be a serif font, as these tend to offer better legibility on paper.
Furthermore, it’s important to keep in mind that people tend to have something of a collective memory. We associate certain sensory cues with certain ideas, concepts, or events. Fonts are no exception to this rule.
Generally, Serif fonts are considered the best for long-form texts like books. Serif fonts are known for having a little edge or “foot” at the beginning and end of each letter. This creates an imaginary line, making it easier for the reader to follow sentences and stay concentrated. It’s generally accepted that serif fonts tend to be easier to read on paper. Fonts that don’t have serifs (sans serif) are more commonly used on websites, where they are considered the more reader-friendly alternative.
If you look closely, all newspapers, books and most magazines use Serif fonts, if you don’t believe it, go and find out for yourself! It’s also important to remember that Serif is a general category; there are hundreds of fonts that can be considered Serif. For example, the most commonly used fonts in newspapers are Times New Roman and Poynter, which are both Serif fonts.
Keeping in mind that books are like newspapers in terms of being long-form texts, we recommend you stick to a Serif font for the inside of your book. The cover, blurb and spine allow for more creative freedom, and we’ll cover them later in the article.
Which Serif Fonts to Use for Your Book?
At Mybestseller we strongly advise against using fancy or exotic fonts for you body text. While they may capture the mood of your story, they are distracting and hard to read when used at length:
These stylistic types of fonts may work for your cover, assuming it’s short enough. Make sure (and be honest to yourself) that the font adds something to your cover, should you choose to use a gimmicky font. Also, whatever you do – never use Comic Sans, Papyrus, or Jokerman. Nothing will dissuade people from picking up your book more than these three fonts.
As far as body text is concerned, we’d also advise against using Times New Roman, as it is a font typically used in newspapers, where there is less space to write. Generally speaking, there are two main font recommendations for the body text of your book:
Garamond is one of the most popular serif fonts to use for books. It was created in the 16th century by Claude Garamond. Since then the font has expanded and includes several variations, but in essence it remains the same easy-to-read Serif font:
A free alternative to the Caslon font, created in 1757 by John Baskerville.
Apart from Garamond and Baskerville there are several other serif fonts appropriate for books:
As you can see, these fonts are quite similar to each other. Each font has a distinct personality however, which is something you should keep in mind when choosing what to use for your body text.
The classic and timeless Baskerville, Garamond and Palatino give off the kind of gravitas you might want in a book of literary fiction, a thriller, or another “serious” genre. On the other hand, the softer and slightly more whimsical Sabon and Utopia fonts lend themselves to genres like romance, YA, or perhaps fantasy. Lastly, the more rigid Caslon and Georgia fonts seem quite at home in non-fiction and academic texts.
These font and genre combinations are by no means set in stone – you should simply view them as our personal recommendations. The important thing to keep in mind however, is that they all share the common characteristic of excellent legibility. Additionally, they look good when used for long-form texts. As such, they can be used across all genres.
Which Sans Serif Fonts to Use for Your Book
Now that we’ve discussed serif fonts, it’s time to take a look at sans serif. As mentioned, sans serif fonts differ from serif ones in that their letters do not have any embellishments (serifs) – hence the “sans”. This gives sans serif fonts a modern, minimalist look which lends itself particularly well to screens, compared to serif fonts.
As mentioned, you don’t want to use sans serif fonts in your body text. However, they can be very well-suited for your cover, should you find one that complements the look and feel you’re going for. Furthermore, if you have your heart set on a gimmicky font which (as mentioned above) might be suitable for a cover, you’ll notice that most of them are sans serif. As such, the question is not so much “which sans serif font should I use for my book?” as “should I use a sans serif font for my cover, and if so, which one?”.
This is a tougher question than you’d think. In the end, it’s probably going to come down to personal feeling more than anything else. The most important thing is that the font you choose for your cover contributes to the emotional response you want to impart. As mentioned in our article on how to design a book cover, you want to hint at the general mood of your book using the cover. The title font is a very important part of this.
Assessing every custom-made, stylized typeface out there would go far beyond the scope of this article. You can browse all kinds of quirky, artistic fonts at sites like fontsquirrel.com, but for now, we’re going to review some of the more standard options. Below are three examples of title-friendly sans serif fonts:
Created by the German Institute for Standardization in 1931, the bold, assertive Bahnschrift is a solid choice for something like a thriller. The weight of this typeface imparts a sense of seriousness, while its simplicity and legibility alludes to the modern time period in which most thrillers take place.
Gill Sans MT
Gill Sans is probably as close to a timeless sans serif font as you can get. Its classy, which is probably what made Penguin Books decide to use it for their reissued classics series. It does the job extremely well, presumably because of its ability to look good on most backgrounds without being too imposing. As such, it’s an excellent all-round choice for when you don’t want the title to grab too much of a passer-by’s attention, or when you want an overall minimalist effect.
Montserrat’s airy spacing and light, carefree strokes brings our minds back to romantic summers and other rose-tinted memories from years gone by. It’s ideal for minimalist romance titles or nostalgic, sentimental period dramas. Montserrat is an open source font, so you can download and use it for free.
While these are three of our favourite sans serif fonts, there are of course hundreds more out there. Not to mention all the serif typefaces that also make for excellent title fonts. In fact, all the serif fonts discussed above would be equally appropriate to use on your front cover.
In addition, there are a number of more stylized fonts that are free to download and use. A quick Google search should yield plenty of results. If used sparingly, such fonts can enhance the aesthetic of a cover without being too distracting. Take one of our example covers for instance, where we used the War is Over font:
This particular example is meant to represent a mystery/thriller novel, though it is a bit of a caricature. Since the font is reminiscent of a classic Hollywood “Top Secret” stamp, the genre is underscored effectively. You’ll also notice that we stuck to our previous recommendation of using a maximum of two different fonts.
Get to it!
That’s it for our recommendations! We hope that the discussion in this article has helped kickstart your creative process. Keep in mind that the suggestions put forward aren’t set in stone by any means though! Context is king, and it’s difficult to make any sweeping stylistic statements regarding typefaces. There is one exception though: never use comic sans!
If you have any questions regarding the fonts you should use, or would like to make some suggestions of your own, sound off in the comments!