Fonts - 21 ScreenShots

[Japes]

I tried the medium caption version last night and it's not as bold as the semi-bold version (I'm talking of Minion Pro, of course). Have you tried it?

[Japes]

As if we didn't know already, opinions about fonts vary wildly. Check out this person's post, in another thread.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...4&postcount=27

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Japes

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

I did miss the third set of screen shots. Sorry, my fault.

[OrcaBlue]

I am currently using "ITC Offincina". It's very clean and easy to read on my PRS-650.

[brewt]

Let's see, I spun this up a few months back, if it helps.
I'm finding that I'm having to think about font selection/design more along the lines what would look good on paper, rather than on lcd screen, at least, to accommodate the epaper readers, since machine-specific-conditional-formatting doesn't seem to be there for epub, much as we would want it to be.
When we're talking about printing books on paper, Minion has been the most popular choice for the last lots-of-years running, so it makes a degree of sense that overall readability quotients for epaper should have some parallel to that - I saw some post of what the epaper display looks like under a microscope, and it looked a lot like what ink on paper looked like, albeit at a lower resolution than what the best typographically-wrought pages come in at.
I'm finding that different books have different characteristics as to how I feel reading them, i.e., horror is different than poetry which is different to science etc., and different font combinations change how some of those impressions work, just like on paper.
Even if it's more work than I really care to throw at it at times, I can't really say "oh yes, this is the font for me for all possible circumstances no matter what", 'cause I keep changing my mind as to what looks good. The experience of reading is more complex than word-flow and using the same font set no matter what.
-b

[Japes]

I don't find Minion Pro to be remotely readable on an e-ink screen (at least at the small font size that I'm used to). It's one of my least favorite fonts that I've tested.

[brewt]

Originally Posted by Japes

I don't find Minion Pro to be remotely readable on an e-ink screen (at least at the small font size that I'm used to). It's one of my least favorite fonts that I've tested.

And I have no trouble with it whatsoever. I'm leaning more toward Adobe Garamond Pro these days, because I like how it works with Goudy. Myriad is what is commonly paired with Minion, and I find that a bit dull. A lot of appeal has to do with the exact size of the type, which, I don't think there are enough gradations available on any device. (only 6 available on my sony, most of which are unusable.) I'm sure there's some device-specific rendering features that can't be compensated for on the fly in the epub2 spec.

[Japes]

I use custom CSS (I have PRS+ installed) so I can achieve pretty much any font size I want and don't rely on the built in font sizing options. And, Minion Pro simply doesn't work for me, and, it works even worse on my PocketBook360+, which is really an inferior machine to the Sonys (hardware wise).

I don't think Minion Pro is well suited to e-readers. I just don't. And, I've tested ALOT of fonts. It's one of my least favorite. I really don't look for how pretty a font. I look for readability at relatively small sizes for long periods of time.

The NimbusMod that someone on here modified for ereading is actually an EXCELLENT font for ereading. But, by far, my favorite is Caecilia Bold (which is not a true bold, but rather, a semi-bold). I can read at a 0.8em for LONG periods of time with no fatigue.

[LDBoblo]

I don't think you're going to find fonts that draw ideally on current screens. Since stepping up to the newer generation of E-Ink Vizplex (Pearl) a while ago, I found that a lot of middling or even mediocre fonts could be decent to look at, assuming a willingness to sacrifice some of the subtler details. Sadly, the resolution just isn't there for my ideal font sizes to be properly displayed, but I've since learned to play nice with sizes between 10pt and 11pt without too much issue.

Many of the slabs and semibolds are a bit too dense for me to enjoy looking at for a long time, though they are admittedly more visible in poor viewing conditions. I think Caecilia works alright, but my preferred wedge/slab is still Chaparral Pro Caption. When I do my own PDFs these days, my go-to fonts are still Arno Pro (SmText, slightly prefer it to Caption), Garamond Premier Pro (Caption), and Chaparral Pro (Caption). Those three fonts cover most of the stylistic bases for the kinds of books I read. I also use Scala on occasion for certain kinds of text, and I think it can be pulled off with the newest E-Ink. I'm hoping the next generation opens up even more opportunities.

Many fonts look just fine, but sometimes certain letters like "a" and "g" look really out of place, and sometimes the subtle angles and tapers in beautiful fonts just don't play well on-screen.

I'm afraid I'm probably not going to be able to contribute too much, but here are some quick screenshots to show a few of my preferred fonts...I don't think the gif screens are that great a reference, but they're convenient to make.