[gmw]

Thanks for your thoughts VydorScope. I'd seen that some use Verdana, but that's sans-serif, and not something I want. Book Antiqua is a copy of Palatino, according to Zapf, who created Palatino (ref: Wikipedia).

I'm going to see how hard it is to use Lightning Source (because I can get things printed here in Australia as well as U.S. and U.K.), which means I (or whoever I pay, if it comes to that) gets to produce our own PDF with embedded fonts. So my options are wide open at this point ... except, of course, some choices I'd have to buy first.

I tend to agree with you about wanting something clean and boring - though many of the comments I've read around the 'net have been people looking for something that was specifically not the same as what everyone else uses - which strikes me as odd, the font is not something I particularly want to stand-out, I'd rather the reader didn't notice it (as far as I can tell, most don't unless it's something bad).

I'm currently thinking that I'll use Georgia (because I have that one of the system), at 11pt. I think it comes out clearer than Times New Roman at the same font size. I've tried Palatino Linotype, and I do like how open it makes the text appear on the page (Times and Georgia both have a very dense appearance), but I'm thinking that the Georgia may be easier to read. Also, Palatino blows my page count out another 40-odd pages - to over 500 - which would have a cost impact.

If I was younger I'd probably have chosen a smaller font size, but these days I find don't particularly like books with a very small font - even with my reading glasses on.