What's your favorite fonts for writing?

[Ub1476]

Hi, just wonder what your favorite font to use in OpenOffice/Abiword? I'm thinking of writing such as for an essay, fonts which is pleasing for the eye to look at while reading long texts:).

[Phil Airtime]

I quite like Bitstream Charter and Liberation Serif as subtle alternatives to the tired Times New Roman.

[blithen]

Comic Sans MS

[50words]

For full-width text, only book fonts will do. Times New Roman is a newspaper font made for two-inch columns, not full width. (Further proof that editors are designed by programmers, not writers.)

I use Georgia, which is, alas, a Microsoft font. However, it is designed to display well onscreen and on the printed page, and it does. I also like Century Schoolbook, which is the choice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Palatino is a nice font, though a bit thin. Garamond is also nice, although the italics are a bit funny-looking sometimes.

For a guide to writing for readability, the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has a nice typography guide: http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/Rules/type.pdf

(Obviously, I am a lawyer. But then again, that means that readability and writing are at least as important to me as to any other profession, so I take a keen interest.)

[Onyros]

I'll second Georgia as a great looking font. It goes well not only in small text, but it also looks cool bigger (even though it sucks in bold).

My favourite and most used font is Bitstream Vera Sans (size 7 at 100 dpi, hehe).

[Ub1476]

Many good tips here, keep them coming!:)

[yatt]

Monospace.

Or Vedana.

[bruce89]

LaTeX and its default Computer Modern (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Modern).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/74/Computer_modern_sample.svg/270px-Computer_modern_sample.svg.png

It's used in a lot of technical documents.

[-grubby]

Garuda looks good

[Whiffle]

LaTeX and its default Computer Modern (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Modern).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/74/Computer_modern_sample.svg/270px-Computer_modern_sample.svg.png

It's used in a lot of technical documents.


Same here. Looks great.

[knopper67]

FreeSans Rules, I'm using it right now in firefox. The contrast of the font makes it easy to read.

[inversekinetix]

i really like the windows system font and also one i found on font freak called elementric.

[TeaSwigger]

Bookman Old Style.

Yeah it's a ttf, and so is my other preferred font, Georgia.

In linux on screen though, I do appreciate what appear to be fairly common defaults, Sans and Sans Serif. Solid fonts.


For full-width text, only book fonts will do. Times New Roman is a newspaper font made for two-inch columns, not full width. (Further proof that editors are designed by programmers, not writers.)

I use Georgia, which is, alas, a Microsoft font. However, it is designed to display well onscreen and on the printed page, and it does. I also like Century Schoolbook, which is the choice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Palatino is a nice font, though a bit thin. Garamond is also nice, although the italics are a bit funny-looking sometimes.

For a guide to writing for readability, the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has a nice typography guide: http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/Rules/type.pdf

(Obviously, I am a lawyer. But then again, that means that readability and writing are at least as important to me as to any other profession, so I take a keen interest.)

Nice post :)

[stinger30au]

use what ever font you can find that is easily read, and does not need to be decrypted like hieroglyphics

[jeremy]

I use Bitstream Vera Sans.

[Kingsley]

Times New Roman.

[Chrisj303]

Arial or Calibri

[Ub1476]

Arial or Calibri

Calibri is beautiful, but it's not for Linux is it?:(

[hessiess]

dont care, whatevers the defalt and/or easy to read

[alwiap]

I'm fluent in Webdings, so that's all I use. Shame more people can't read it :)

[FurryNemesis]

Was there a point to wing/webdings in the first place, or did MS's font design team get bored?

I use Georgia.

[Bruce M.]

Was there a point to wing/webdings in the first place, or did MS's font design team get bored?

Probably hungover from a big party the night before.
And to look busy ........

:lolflag:

[hugmenot]

Minion Pro. The small set ships with acroread.

[zeDuffMan]

Calibri. I use it for almost all of my work.

[picpak]

Trebuchet MS.

[50words]

I am a bit dismayed at the number of people saying they use sans-serif fonts for writing.

SANS-SERIF FONTS ARE NOT FOR WRITING. Numerous readability studies back this up. They are for titles, graphics, and are sometimes more easy to read on a screen.

I think everyone just freaked out when the first non-dot matrix printers came out and got all fired up that they could use "edgy" fonts like Arial. And from there, everyone's eyes started deteriorating

[Kingsley]

Was there a point to wing/webdings in the first place, or did MS's font design team get bored?

I think it's a failed attempt at being a substitute for some images. Back when 56k dial-up was fancy.

[timpino]

tahoma all the way

[vishzilla]

Trebuchet, Tahoma and Bitstream Vera Sans

[LaRoza]

SANS-SERIF FONTS ARE NOT FOR WRITING. Numerous readability studies back this up. They are for titles, graphics, and are sometimes more easy to read on a screen.


I use Sans-serif fonts on web sites and envelopes, but never for writing.

[jointstereotype]

Onscreen: I stick with a sans font for plowing through large blocks of text, something like Verdana or Vera Sans. I don't use monospaced fonts because every letter is the same width and oftentimes my tired eyes miss things like em-dashes, which tend to look a lot like hyphens when I'm in a hurry. ;)

Offscreen: I much prefer a nice serif font, like Garamond or Palatino.