Fonts - 21 ScreenShots

[Japes]

Ummm...Not sure what Cantoni is, and I didn't include any Sans fonts in this.

By far the easiest on my eyes, I believe, is the Caecilia in the bold (which is really a semi bold and is almost certainly the version in use on the Kindle...their heavy version is the TRUE bold). Easy to read at small sizes, for long stretches with little to no fatigue.

[Japes]

I don't love Charis at all. There is very poor spacing and this leads to eye fatigue after a while. Not the best font to read with on an ereader for long stretches at small font sizes.

And Charis doesn't have any semi-bold version, which I've concluded works best on ereaders, because of the slightly higher contrast. Easier on the eyes.

[Japes]

Oh, I see the one you meant. Cantoria. And, I think it's a Serif.

[Analogus]

Have had a look on the screenshots. Most of them look very readable in the first glance. I would have to use them for several days to decide between go or no go on my reader.

Baskerville:
Tried it and decided not to use it. Cannot explain why.

Cantoria:
Looks too less "serif" to me. More like a sans serif font. Thus not on my list.

Droid:
Tried it and decided not to use it. Looks too thin cheerful and on my PRS350.

Caecilia (Caecilia_LT_65_Medium; Kindle version):
Still my favorite. Reason: it's simple very readable even under bad light.

NimbusMod:
Very readable. This font is on a test run since a view days on my reader.

Lots of fonts look very reasonable on the paper. But rendering on a screen with square pixels is another thing. Stright and not too thin lines could be displayed with lesser compromises (for example clear type). Caecilia renderes with very little compromises.


A.

[Japes]

9 new screenshots posted above.

I feel that, for purposes of e-reading, people get too caught up in fancy, pretty fonts, when what is important (because of the very los res nature of e-ink displays, as opposed to printed text), is readability and how long you can read without fatigue setting in.

For these purposes, Caecilia (Bold), and a couple of the new fonts I posted above (just now), seem to be the best, in my humble opinion.

[charleski]

Several fonts (especially ones from Adobe) are offered in a range of variants to suit different sizes, typically 'Caption' (for small sizes), 'Regular' (for 11-18pt) and 'Display' (for larger sizes). The Caption variant is often well-suited to use in an ereader, offering a slightly bolder font, reduced stroke contrast and slightly more open apertures (aperture refers to things like the gap between the crossbar and lower stroke on the right of an 'e' and is important for letter recognition). I think these are generally a better choice than the semibold weight, which is often too heavy.

Caecilia may be a very readable font, but I would find its abysmal ugliness far too distracting. You need to strike a balance between the elegance of the letterforms and the screen's ability to display them properly.

[Japes]

I haven't found any Adobe fonts (including Adobe Caslon, which has a screenshot above), remotely better suited to e-reading than Caecilia. If you have any specific suggestions, let me know and I will gladly test and post screenshots. What fonts are you particular to?

And, while some might be too bold, others clearly are not. Caecilia's Bold version, for example, is not nearly too bold and is, in fact, what is in use on the Kindle. They use the Heavy version as their bold variant. In fact, in the screenshots, it looks alot "bolder" than what it looks like on the reader. I can read at VERY small sizes (I use 0.8em font size in my stylesheet), for VERY long periods of time, with no fatigue. It's the only font I've tested thus far that I can say that about.

I don't read on my ereader to look at the pretty fonts. I read on my ereader for purposes of the literature itself. If it allows me to read for long periods, I could care less what the font looks like.

[duncann]

Just a suggestion for the screenshots. Included should be a sample of all four variants of the font. For example, I always use Minion Pro Condensed Medium but at one point I tried the semi-bold. Now while this looked great on the screen by itself, it was very much more difficult to distinguish from text that was supposed to be bold. Another example is the italic variant of Charis SIL Compact. I like this font and might actually use it. But the italic doesn't stand out enough and sometimes I actually have to expend energy thinking if something is supposed to be italic or not. May sound a little strange, but there it is.

[charleski]

They're all a little too bold and loud, though the Bembo is acceptable. I use Minion Pro Caption for most of my reading and find it superb at small sizes.

Slab serifs are OK for display uses, but not for body copy, unless you want your text to be mechanical and shouty. There is no 'one size fits all' ideal font - the font used needs to reflect and enhance the content that it is presenting, and ePub's ability to contain custom fonts makes it ideal for that purpose. This has nothing to do with 'pretty fonts'.

You seem to be advocating that ebooks should be treated as typographically inferior to their paper counterparts, which is something I can't agree with. The limitations of current screen res need to be taken into account - I wouldn't advocate using a Didot or blackletter face - but there are a lot of options better than Caecilia.

Here's a comparison of Minion in Regular, Caption and Semi-bold weights. As you'll see, the weight increase in the Caption variant is quite subtle and enhances the distinctive features of each character while retaining the overall colour, while the semi-bold is noticeably fatter and louder.

[Japes]

I suppose that we will just have to agree to disagree. I've tested every single font for which I posted screen shots with AT LEAST an hour or two of reading each (something that I doubt anyone else on this forum or most others can claim), with the exception of the ones I posted last night, and, again, Caecilia Bold is the one that allows me to read the longest without noticeable fatigue.

I also don't agree that the semi bold varieties are too bold. Keep in mind the screenshots use a white background, and the reader itself has a grey background. I have not tried Minion Pro Caption, so, before dismissing it, I will certainly give it a shot, but, I can't see, given how summarily it's semi-bold variety was dismissed (by me), that the Caption version will be much different.

To say that there are "alot better options than Caecilia" is clearly an opinion. One not shared by Amazon, which presumably invested a fair amount of money in their research and development, before deciding on this very font (Caecilia Bold) as their font of choice.

And, in your screen shots, yes, the semi-bold is fat and loud, but, nobody reads at the size that you posted your screen shots. Furthermore, nobody reads on a white background, which is, once again, why screenshots are deceiving. Caecilia Bold, at the size that I read (0.8em) doesn't look the least bit bold on my reader. LexiaDaMa-Bold, for example, is significantly bolder, than Caecilia-Bold.

[Japes]

A quick thing that stands out at me with regards to MinionPro is the stroke contrast. Simply too high to be optimal for long reading sessions on an e-reader.

[Japes]

Originally Posted by charleski

They're all a little too bold and loud, though the Bembo is acceptable. I use Minion Pro Caption for most of my reading and find it superb at small sizes.

Slab serifs are OK for display uses, but not for body copy, unless you want your text to be mechanical and shouty. There is no 'one size fits all' ideal font - the font used needs to reflect and enhance the content that it is presenting, and ePub's ability to contain custom fonts makes it ideal for that purpose. This has nothing to do with 'pretty fonts'.

You seem to be advocating that ebooks should be treated as typographically inferior to their paper counterparts, which is something I can't agree with. The limitations of current screen res need to be taken into account - I wouldn't advocate using a Didot or blackletter face - but there are a lot of options better than Caecilia.

Here's a comparison of Minion in Regular, Caption and Semi-bold weights. As you'll see, the weight increase in the Caption variant is quite subtle and enhances the distinctive features of each character while retaining the overall colour, while the semi-bold is noticeably fatter and louder.

Were you aware that there is also a Minion Pro Medium? And, for that matter, a Minion Pro Medium Caption? Might be a nice compromise between Semi-Bold, which you feel is too loud, and the regular font (or the Caption), which in my opinion is not quite strong enough (on an ereader).

[JSWolf]

Give a look at Fontin. It's a rather nice font. I was able to make a quick and dirty bold/italic font to go with Fontin. It comes in normal, bold, and italic. It's a good font for a reader screen. There is also a full sans-serif family as well and even a smallcaps to go with it.

[Japes]

JSWolf, Fontin is, in fact, one of the many screenshots which I've posted above. Did you miss it?

[charleski]

Originally Posted by Japes

I suppose that we will just have to agree to disagree. I've tested every single font for which I posted screen shots with AT LEAST an hour or two of reading each (something that I doubt anyone else on this forum or most others can claim), with the exception of the ones I posted last night, and, again, Caecilia Bold is the one that allows me to read the longest without noticeable fatigue.

There are lots of variables that affect this, every person will differ in terms of acuity, differences in lighting, reading distance, etc. What ultimately matters, though, is the the distinctiveness of the shapes and patterns of the words rather than the individual letters. If you find Caecilia works for you, then you might want to investigate Courier as well (another slab-serif face), which has been shown to offer benefits in situations of critical legibility. I generally read at a logMAR print size of around 0.5 (x-height 1.6mm, reading distance ~350mm), which is well above the critical threshold for legibility.

Amazon chose Caecilia because it relieved them from having to worry too much about anti-aliasing initially, but that didn't prevent them messing it up when the Kindle 2 was first released. I don't think they spent too much time agonising over the decision.

The Medium version may well be suitable for those who want a slightly heavier font without going overboard, but as you can see from the shots I posted, the value of the Caption variants lies in the way they beef-up the more fragile parts of the letterforms (such as the serifs on the 'L') compared to the rest of the character.