10 Best Fonts to Make Your Book Look Like a Bestseller
Subject matter, target audience, price, and how you anticipate readers will use them are all factors to consider when selecting fonts for your book; I’ll even give you a list of my favorite free-to-use Google fonts to get you started.
Style of Font
Modern decorative fonts, while more stylish, are often more difficult to read; if the font you choose is so decorative that the letter forms are not immediately clear, it will take the brain longer to figure out what each letter is.
Font Readability & Perceived Task Difficulty
The more difficult a passage is to read, the more difficult the action described will appear to the reader; researchers have found a link between readability and perceived task difficulty in tests of how difficult a task appears to the eye.
Font Size
The larger the font, the more pages your book will have and the more expensive it will be to print; according to research, the minimum print size for readability is 9pt. Choosing the right fonts for your book is an important decision that can have a direct impact on how readers interpret and perceive your book.
My List of the Best Fonts for Books
I’m going to concentrate on body copy because it makes up 99% of your book.
Serif
So, your first font choice is Serif; these are fonts with small bits added to individual letters, and they’re the most common choice for book body copy because they give your book a more traditional feel.
Merriweather
Merriweather is by far my favorite serif font available on the Google Fonts platform; it has a generous ‘x’ height, making text very legible without the need for larger font sizes, and the letters are slightly condensed, making it a very space efficient font.
EB Garamond
EB Garamond is a modern revival of Claude Garamont’s famous 16th-century typeface ‘Garamond,’ designed by Georg Duffner and Octavio Pardo. It has a large character set, including Greek, and is therefore ideal for scientific or mathematical subjects.
Lora
Lora is a well-balanced contemporary serif with calligraphic roots designed by font foundry Cyreal, and its calligraphic background gives the little finials a much softer feel than some of the more traditional serif fonts.
Playfair Display
Playfair was created by Claus Eggers Su00f8rensen as a modern take on Art Deco fonts. It has a generous ‘x’ height, similar to Merriweather, which ensures that text set in Playfair is legible at common body copy sizes.
Crimson Text
Crimson Text is a beautiful, elegant oldstyle font designed specifically for book production by Sebastian Kosch. It is very easy to read and comes as a font set with a number of little extras like oldstyle numerals, small caps, and mathematical symbols.
San Serif
Sans serif fonts were created because early computer screens lacked the pixel density to render minute detail; these are the fonts without the little bits added to individual letters. For books with a more contemporary subject matter, I will use a sans serif font.
Monsterrat
Montserrat, inspired by turn-of-the-century urban typography posters in Buenos Aires, is one of the more elegant sans serif fonts in my opinion. It comes in a wide range of weights and styles and lends itself to a wide range of uses.
Raleway
Raleway is an elegant sans serif original designed by Matt McInerney as a single thin weight that was expanded into a 9-weight family. Because of its large ‘x’ height, it can also be used for body copy as long as generous line spacing is used.
Roboto
Roboto is a great sans serif font for portraying strength and masculinity. It was designed by Christian Robertson and comes in a variety of weights and styles, as well as sister fonts Condensed and Slab, which make font pairing a breeze.
Oswald
Oswald was created to fit the pixel grid of standard digital screens. It doesn’t have italic styles, so it’s not suitable for large amounts of body copy. It comes in six weights, making it very versatile for books with complex heading hierarchies. The condensed structure makes it ideal for main titles and headings.
What is the best font for printed books?
Serif fonts are easier on the reader’s eye than sans-serif fonts; the stroke leads the reader’s eye from one letter to the next, making them preferable in the body of a book. The “serif” is the decorative stroke that finishes each end of a letter (think Times Roman). Serif fonts are easier on the reader’s eye than sans-serif fonts; the stroke leads the reader’s eye from one letter to the next.
What font size are most books printed in?
Though some agents and editors may prefer other serif or sans serif fonts such as Arial or Courier New, Times New Roman with a 12 point font size is the industry standard.
What is the most popular font for books?
The Only 5 Fonts You’ll Ever Need are the Best Fonts for Books.
- If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
- Baskerville for Literary Fiction
- Sabon for Romantic Fiction
- Garamond for Thrillers and Airport Page-Turners
- Caslon for Academic Non-Fiction
- Utopia for General Interest.
What is the most readable font in print?
Helvetica, Garamond, Times, and Lucida are some of the most readable fonts for printed documents, with a light weight, small-serif, open-counter design that has been used in printed documents for decades.
What font size is best for a book?
A font size of 9 to 11 point is a good reading size for the body text of a common A5 trimmed book (depending on font choice), but a larger book may require a larger font and increased line spacing.
What font and size are most books printed in?
The most common font size for fiction and non-fiction printed books is between 10 and 12. Basic font selection recommendations: Fiction, memoirs, and (auto)biographies: A classic serif font that is easy to read is the safest choice.
What font size is most readable?
Size. Use a font size of at least 16 pixels, or 12 points, or 19 pixels, or 14 points, if many of your users are older adults. Small font sizes are more difficult to read, especially for users with limited literacy skills and older adults.
What font is most pleasing to the eye?
According to The Next Web, Helvetica, along with Georgia, is one of the most easily read fonts. It is a sans-serif font and one of the world’s most popular typefaces u2014 a modern classic.
What font are the Harry Potter books written in?
In the Harry Potter books, Adobe Garamond is a font, not a character.
Is Baskerville a good font?
Baskerville is an elegant font that, like Garamond, looks both serious and interesting. While fonts like Garamond and Helvetica are more commonly used in branding, one good example of Baskerville’s use is in contemporary fashion brand Kate Spade.
What are the 4 major font types?
What are the four main font types?
- Fonts with serifs. Fonts with sans serifs. Fonts with scripts. Fonts with display fonts.
What is the hardest font to read?
What Google Docs font is the most difficult to read?
- Papyrus.
- Comic Sans.
- Calibri.
- Brush Script.
- Verdana. You know how I know Verdana is terrible?
- Lucida Calligraphy. u201cOh yeah, THAT font.u201d Lucida Calligraphy is under-the-radar terrible.
What is a good readable font?
Sans-serif fonts (e.g. Arial, Verdana) are generally considered more legible for online reading than serif fonts (e.g. Times New Roman), narrow fonts, or decorative fonts; decorative and narrow fonts, in particular, should be reserved for headlines and decorative texts only.