These Are a Few of My Favorite Fonts

Posted by Scalzi about 1 year ago | Permalink | Comments (3)

This Slate article delighted me: Authors talking about their favorite fonts to write in. Fonts, of course, are the varieties of type you see in books, magazines and computer screens; it used to be that authors were limited by what their typewriters had (generally a variation of the Courier font, which is still popular today), but now computers can display almost any sort of font writers want.

I find this fascinating because, yes, I have my own favorite fonts. When I was younger I was a devotee of Helvetica, probably because it was one of the most readable fonts on early Macs. In college, I was quite fond of Goudy Old Style. These days I like Georgia and Times Roman. I find that I actually write a little bit differently in each. Can’t explain why. I just do.

Do you have a favorite font?

Comments

  1. Jon Rosebaugh's Buddy IconJon Rosebaugh

    Posted about 1 year ago

    Why, yes, I do have a favorite font. It’s Gentium, available at the quite unwieldy URL of http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=Gentium

    I actually set a book in it, once; I edited and typeset a friend’s collection of short stories and got it printed through Lulu as a gift for him. It turned out great.

    I also like Futura Light, but that’s not too good for long running text.

  2. Kevin Lawver's Buddy IconKevin Lawver

    Posted about 1 year ago

    I loooove fonts. I’ve sacrificed the speed of my computer to keep almost 300 available on my machine. My favorite? The Silentina family, definitely: http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/typodermic/silentina/

  3. W0PHT's Buddy IconW0PHT

    Posted about 1 year ago

    I write in Scrivener on my Mac. The default font is Gill Sans. It’s simple and readable. Having written plenty on typewriters in my day, I can’t stand Times New Roman. Brings back too many memories of IBM typewriters and white out.

    I look for sans fonts for my web site and blog which both feature my writing. For the web, I believe it’s easier to read.