The Font Effect.

[Nexutix]

I have an opinion and a question.

I think fonts play a very important role in giving a reader a sense of attachment. It adds emotion, style and attachment in a book.

Question:


I have this image of a scanned copy of a book (The Tipping Point) taken from "Look Inside" preview of the book at Amazon. It seems like pretty standard font, but the "Oldness" in it makes it pleasurable.

Also, what are your favourite fonts and why do you like them?

[JSWolf]

I don't like that font used in that scanned image. The capitols are too big compared to the lowercase and look at ho the uppercase J descends below the lowercase. IT just doesn't work and will end up giving a somewhat large line height.

The font I do rather like is Charis SIL. From it, I generated a proper smallcap version. The default line-height is fairly small and the uppercase/lowercase ratio is rather good. The caps are not too big and the lowercase not too small. Plus, I was easily able to modify the font to increase the weight a little to make it look even better with an eink screen.

[teh603]

Bookman- Its noticeably larger than Times New Roman and a hair juicier than original Times, when rendered at 12 points. The result is a wonderful easy-reading text font. I used to use Bookman years ago when I got a LaserWriter Plus at a church rummage sale for $10, and I've always loved it. I'm extra- happy that I can get a FOSS lookalike called TexGyre Bonum. I just wish I could embed it into an ePub or KF8.

Kingthings' fonts- These are all FOSS display fonts with a very liberal license. I use some of them for making covers, and I'm thinking about trying to make title graphics as well. There's a little for everyone there.

Now for one going the other way... I freaking *hate* Times New Roman, going back to the first PC I had it on in 2002 or so. It renders small and light, and makes everything feel horribly crowded. Give me Palatino or New Century Schoolbook, or even the old New York font from classic MacOS, before giving me Times New Roman.

[Catlady]

I don't care too much about the specific font, as long as it's not sans-serif.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I don't care too much about the specific font, as long as it's not sans-serif.

I totally agree that sans-serif is not good for the main font when reading.

[Namekuseijin]

I don't care for fonts, media or cover, just the stream of characters.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by teh603

Bookman- Its noticeably larger than Times New Roman and a hair juicier than original Times, when rendered at 12 points. The result is a wonderful easy-reading text font. I used to use Bookman years ago when I got a LaserWriter Plus at a church rummage sale for $10, and I've always loved it. I'm extra- happy that I can get a FOSS lookalike called TexGyre Bonum. I just wish I could embed it into an ePub or KF8.

Why can't you embed them into an ePub or KF8? The license say you just need to change the names. That's quite simple to do.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I don't care too much about the specific font, as long as it's not sans-serif.

I'm with you: I know people who love Arial - I think it should be killed with fire.

[FizzyWater]

I prefer San-Serif, and convert my epubs to it (for those that will allow me to change the font).

I'm not sure I have a favorite font - I prefer Verdana and Tahoma to Arial, and I like Calibri. I prefer the weight to be "medium" (not too heavy or too light) and the letters to be rounder rather than tall and skinny. The last is probably because my glasses have always been high-prescription, but now as I get older, it's only worse. I'm becoming Mr. Magoo (can't see shite without them!)

[teh603]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why can't you embed them into an ePub or KF8? The license say you just need to change the names. That's quite simple to do.

Its more a case of difficulty in finding tools to automate that process and making sure everything works right. Not all of us are up to coding their own ePubs from scratch. My major was Creative Writing, after all, not Computer Science or Web Design.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I don't care too much about the specific font, as long as it's not sans-serif.

Pretty much how I feel as well.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by teh603

Its more a case of difficulty in finding tools to automate that process and making sure everything works right. Not all of us are up to coding their own ePubs from scratch. My major was Creative Writing, after all, not Computer Science or Web Design.

Do what I do. I have a text file with the code for the fonts and the body as well as code needed to put into the OPF file. All I have to do is copy and past and I know I have it correct. But there are some cases where I might need to change the path and that's not hard to do.

Want me to post the code for the paths as defined by Sigil?

I prefer fonts which are small, condensed, serif and heavy - but I don't have a favourite font.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I don't care too much about the specific font, as long as it's not sans-serif.

Pretty much how I feel, especially for long works -- for shorter works, especially if they're broken up with illustrations, I'm more forgiving of sans-serif.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by Nexutix

I have an opinion and a question.

I think fonts play a very important role in giving a reader a sense of attachment. It adds emotion, style and attachment in a book.

Question:


I have this image of a scanned copy of a book (The Tipping Point) taken from "Look Inside" preview of the book at Amazon. It seems like pretty standard font, but the "Oldness" in it makes it pleasurable.

Also, what are your favourite fonts and why do you like them?

I'm not an expert, but I *think* that font is a version of Palatino. It was created in 1948 and is probably the most common font used in German books (although I don't think that there is usually quite that much spacing between the letters). Whenever I see that font, I feel like I'm reading something in German.

I like fonts with serifs and tend not to like fonts without (for reading). I like a lot of different fonts, for different reasons. I've always liked how high the vertical strokes are in this particular font. Whatever that means...