[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Hitch

May I ask-what's the name of this book with all the various personae appearing in different fonts????

Yes, I'd also be interested in seeing this unicorn. Perhaps it is THE ONE rare case where millions of fonts may be applicable and "acceptable".

Originally Posted by Hitch

I'll try to remember what I can, but...dudes. It's been a while. Tex might remember, b/c I think I regaled him with the story at the time and he's still got that steel-trap brain.

I definitely remember that book was discussed, but don't remember where (maybe an email?). But in the famous thread:

• 2019: "Font Best Practices"

you responded with a different tale:

Originally Posted by Hitch

I know that client. Been there, done that--and he had 40--FORTY--characters. Forty different fonts--forty-one with the main narrative font. I cannot tell you what I went through during that quote, trying to explain to him that what he wanted to do was a freaking nightmare.

All the same exact stuff we discussed back then, still applies today.

Side Note: If you want even more fun, type this into your favorite search engine:

• different fonts Tex2002ans Hitch site:mobileread.com
• "embedded fonts" Tex2002ans Hitch site:mobileread.com

There's hundreds of topics where we both covered all the details on this embedded font stuff!

* * *

Earlier this year, I also ran across a document where the author had:

• ~10 different fonts
• ~6 different highlight colors
  
  • Including different colors for Acronyms, depending on "category".
• Multiple font colors.
• Different style lines/boxes drawn around "notes"
• [...]

I wrote in-depth responses to him, and also summarized a lot of good book design info:

For more info, I'd highly recommend reading the quintessential book:

• "The Elements of Typographic Style" by Robert Bringhurst

Great book design uses:

• 3 or less fonts
  
  • MAYBE 4 max, but that's really pushing it.

Also, instead of:

• 50 colors/highlights
• + lines/boxes
• + images up/down/everywhere
• + all this "visual clutter"

you can instead make heavy use of:

• simple whitepsace + alignment

See the fantastic:

• /r/GIFs: "How to make your tables less terrible"

and my recent comments here:

• /r/LibreOffice: "Remove gaps between Borders"

where I took someone's fully-colored/muddled "table-like graphics", and turned it into an actually usable spreadsheet.

Remember:

• Less is More

[...]

Number+Usage of Fonts in Documents

Covers + Title Pages don't count. Those are fine, because they're usually done in a different visual style compared to the actual text of the book.

But within the books/documents themselves, it's better to stick with a small set of fonts.

You can then have a huge combination of variants just by using:

• Bold
• Italics
• Font Size
• Spacing + Alignment

For example:

• Chapters = 18pt + bold + center
• Subchapter = 16pt + bold
• Subsubchapter = 14pt + italics
• Normal text = 12pt

Need more?

• blockquotes = 1" on left/right
• code block = 1" on left/right + monospace font
• poetry = 1" on left/right + italics

All you need is 1 (or 2) fonts, and a dozen different looks can be created throughout the entire book.

(I have more than 13 years of experience in professional ebook creation! I have yet to see a book that can't fit in this few-fonts-needed mold.)

See:

• /r/LibreOffice: "Automatic page number in header forced highlight?"
  
  • and my other answers/explanations in the same topic.
    

Also, in the same topic, I wrote "Why 50 Different Fonts In Your Documents Is Awful"... which seems applicable to this thread:

* * *

Why 50 Different Fonts In Your Documents Is Awful

That said, you don't actually try to explain the ISSUE of different fonts.

• It's sloppy.
• It doesn't accomplish what you intend.
  
  • (It actually muddles and confuses.)
• It introduces a much higher chance for errors/inconsistencies.

For example, if you're trying to mark up every single acronym with special smallcaps/coloring/highlighting:

• You may miss some.
• If/when users override or don't use or have your fonts (like in ebooks)... your crutch disappears.

I discussed this all in heavy detail 3 months ago in:

• MobileRead.com: "CSS to Approximate a Telegram?"

Best way to handle acronyms?

• Type them in ALL CAPS
• 1st use = typed-out + simple parentheses after.
  
  • This is an Example Acronym (EA) in a sentence. Now you can freely use EA throughout.

There's no need to:

• write EA
• OR write "ea" in rainbow colors + underlined
• OR use some alternate font.

Instead of reading your text, the second a reader come across an oddly/inconsistently formatted thing, they're going to constantly be wondering:

• Why the heck are you doing such odd formatting?
  
  • Does this actually mean something? Or was this a mistake/typo?
• Why wasn't this one colored/formatted like the others?
• Why did you accidentally highlight EA #2 instead of EA #1?
• Why in the X did you miss X, Y, Z?
• What about edge-case 1, 2, and 3?

- - -

Note: Over the years, I've seen quite a few authors trying to have a different font for every single character in their Fiction book.

I can guarantee you:

• they would make a major mistake formatting that book.
• + readers would throw such an abomination into the trash.

But how would readers KNOW which character is speaking if they didn't have 10 different fonts to show them?

They can't just rely on dialogue tags—the tried and true method—they must get FONT differences too!