What font to use?

[REDVAN]

Hey all,

As a science degree guy, I haven't had to do any write-ups for a while. Business or arty people help me out?

Have to hand in something tomorrow, just a couple pages. I think it'll be single spaced, MAYBE 1.5 spaced, and I don't want to use times new roman or anything too crazy either.

What are some standard office fonts? I know the new MS office versions use Calibri but I don't like how it prints out on my inkjet.

Any good ideas?

[Swarly]

wingdings2

[MarchHare]

Comic Sans

[kermitology]

Why not TNR?

Arial? Verdana?

[REDVAN]

No this is serious I am not 8 years old haha

[Table 5]

resident design fag on call....

It's hard to get specific without knowing what you have, but use a serif font (ones that have the little notches) as opposed to a san-serif. It's easier for reading documents and your reader will not get as tired of reading (unless what you write is boring!). This is not the time to reflect your fun personality through funky font selection, its about legibility.

Garamond or Sabon are pretty standard fonts that you probably have that are acceptable for what you need.

FYI, couple of other suggestions...dont bold and underline at the same time, and try not to use more than two fonts in a document....ever.

[FFR]

Was it not stated to be double spaced? Most papers I wrote were required to be at least 1.5 spaced so I'd probably do that. I stuck mostly with arial as my font. Again, some profs are really picky and want either Times New Roman or arial. Verdana isn't too bad either, but go with something that is easily readable.

[Pagal4321]

At the office we use Times New Roman and Arial....if that helps?

I always kept my font at Times New Roman when writing stuff for school. But Arial Size 10 is growing on me.

[Table 5]

Arial is a bad font for body copy, only use it for headlines. Using a sans-serif is hard on the eyes when you have to read a lot of it....whether that helps the reader in deciding a mark is up for debate. Arial in general is a bad rip-off of Helvetica, I'd try to avoid it if you have Helvetica anyway.

[REDVAN]

I just want something different than TNR or arial, and was thinking of veranda, or garamond, which I have used before.

Just so mine is different from everyone else's homework, you know.

[Barnes]

I hope you mean Verdana and not veranda.

Table 5 is spot on though.

[Table 5]

redvan: honestly, font selection for a document is not where you should be trying to be different. Make it as legible and easy to read as possible, and you will most likely be "different" enough from half of your class.

I can recommend other typefaces that are much nicer than standard MS fonts (things i use at my magazine) but those things youd have to buy. Doubt you want to spend $50 on a typeface.

[octothorp]

I'll second the vote for Garamond; my favorite of the commonly available serifs. Georgia is also nice. Also really like using Minion, but I think that comes with Adobe products and may not be available in a standard office setup.

[llama64]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

I just want something different than TNR or arial, and was thinking of veranda, or garamond, which I have used before.

Just so mine is different from everyone else's homework, you know.

Resist that urge.

There is a reason Times New Roman and Arial/Helvetica are default fonts.

The standard is to use a serif font (Times) for body text, and use a sans-serif for headings and titles. This creates a very attractive, easy to read format (assuming you stick with the standard 12 point font). Standard line spacing is also recommended.

Think of a reviewer reading through stacks of these papers. If yours is tougher to read then the rest, they will be less inclined to grade you higher.

If you really feel the need to play with new fonts, try the new ones in Office 2008. Cambria for body text (serif), and Calibri for titles and headings.

Whatever you do, do not use Comic Sans or Verdana. Comic Sans is, well, childish. Verdana is not meant for print as it looks terrible on paper (it's meant to replace Arial/Helvetica on webpages).

This goes for standard business documents as well as school documents.

[photon]

Helvetica and Verdana I like.

What do you think of Calibri, the new MS font Table 5? I was actually surprised by it, I kind of like it. I tried using consolas as a new font for programming but couldn't adjust.

[photon]

Originally Posted by llama64

Whatever you do, do not use Comic Sans or Verdana. Comic Sans is, well, childish. Verdana is not meant for print as it looks terrible on paper (it's meant to replace Arial/Helvetica on webpages).

This goes for standard business documents as well as school documents.

Interesting, I never knew that! I just tried it and I totally agree.

That's amazing, maybe I've finally achieved the paperless office.

EDIT: Does that mean all my font preferences are biased to a computer screen?? Great, now I have to print out my favorites.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Comic Sans

Worst font ever

I don't know how anyone can use it.

[Ford Prefect]

Lucida Grande is a good one. Souvenir, Bookman and Palatino work in a lot of situations too. Aside from being primarily a screen font, Verdana can cause system problems much like Helvetica, so I tend to stay away from it. If you've ever had the notorious Helvetica Bold problems you'll know what I'm referring to.

[photon]

Font nerds are a special kind of nerd.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by GGG

Worst font ever

I don't know how anyone can use it.

Obviously I was joking when I suggested it.

You may be interested in this site: http://bancomicsans.com/home.html