Writing about writing
Check out this article in Slate. They interview a dozen writers and ask them what font they write in. Courier New is a surprisingly common choice. Personally, I’ve just switched to Word 2007 and tend to use its default, Calibri. What font do you use?
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Matthew Stibbe is Writer in chief at Articulate Marketing and editor of Golf Hotel Whiskey, the free online magazine for pilots.
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They’re all serifs? That’s remarkable. I write in Arial Narrow. That way, I’m always surprised at how much I’ve already written, even if it doesn’t look like it
Good idea, Nils!
For my submissions, the publishing company requires Courier New. Most of the time I write in Ariel or Times New Roman just because it is the default. I also like Verdana.
Do you think the they might all be serifs because of the readability factor? Serifs tend to help the reader along by leading into the next letter.
It looks like a lot of them prefer courier because they grew up with typewriters, although the enforced ugliness seems to make proofreading easier when they eventually see typeset manuscripts.
I have a strange preference for Palatino Linotype. I don’t know why; it just looks nice on the page. Other than that, I tend to use a similar trick to Nils by writing in a smaller font size (and in Palatino), so when I get it set for submissions it looks a lot longer
Arial for me, used to use Lucida Grande then started associating it with work so changed. No doubt I will change again soon.
I thought the reasoning was that serif is better printed as it leads the eye onwards but it’s too busy for the screen? I don’t tend to print my stuff out ever, it’s just emailed straight to the mag/client.
it’s?
It depends. For on-screen reading, Georgia. For legal briefs in 12-point type, Century Schoolbook. (The reason Judge Posner uses it is probably because it approximates the U.S. Supreme Court’s preferred font.) For legal briefs in 14-point type, Times New Roman is fine.
If the recipient is going to receive it electronically rather than on paper, I tend to stick with relatively universal fonts: Times New Roman for text, bold Arial for headings. There are better looking fonts, but they’re of no use if they’re not on the recipient’s computer.
Ray’s point about your recipient having the same font is really important. I spent several days on a PowerPoint deck for a client only to realise that the template used Futura, which I did not have, and PowerPoint substituted Arial automatically. When my desk displayed on their computer, all the layouts were wrong!
Arial double-line spaced
db
when i write screenplays – courier 12 – industry standard.
for my blogs – arial – b/c you have to use a font that most people will have on their computers
I’m a bit of a font slut. On my PC, I find myself vacillating between Tahoma and Georgia for readability reasons.
I find the writer interviews interesting — so many use typewriter style fonts because that’s what they started with. I wrote on a typewriter for a while (in school and my first few jobs), and I have no interest in going back.
Courier New has a certain nakedness, it says, “This is the raw, un-designed copy you paid a writer for.”
I’ve recently switched to Calibri. Great font!
I think in Courier New. Anything else is a distraction.
Lucida Sans Unicode for proportional, Lucida Sans Typewriter for fixed pitch.
sans serif (like arial, verdana), not serif
Garamond. Sometimes verdana. I learned to type in high school and I can leave high school and Courier happily behind. I’m curious now about Calibri.
This reminds me of when students ask me what my favourite font is, hoping to get an extra mark on their submissions. I’ve never felt attached to any particular font – but am known to use Comic Sans in study notes so I can see which students are sucking up when the assignments come in…
Courier. Forever! For all the reasons, emotional and practical, that others have cited. Also, I stay away from Courier New, which is a bastardized version of Courier. There’s a meaningful difference between the two: CN uses a much thinner stroke, so it looks washed-out and hard to read on the screen and on the page. If you’re a Windows user, you’ll have to find and download Courier proper, but it’s worth the trouble. Fun question!
Bitstream Vera Sans and Bitstream Vera Sans Mono. The menus on my desktop are in Blippo.
Either Arial Narrow or Century Gothic. Although I often switch to Verdana size 10 there and then.
Arial. 12pt. 1.5 linespaced
db
10-point verdana. I find its screen legibility even better than calibri.