Best Fonts to Use for the Interior of your Book

One of the biggest mistakes that can be seen in self-published print books, is in the choice of typefaces. There is no bigger decision that you can make in designing a book than picking the typeface. A book is a long reading experience, and as a book publisher or a writer, we want our books to be as easy to read as possible.

Many fonts lend themselves to book design nicely while others do not. Arial and other san-serif fonts should not typically be used for the interior bulk of your book. They work well for headings, but it looks amateur in the body of your text.

Computers have become more powerful, and the users have become more enlightened about typography. There has also been an explosion of new fonts from many designers. It might be a surprise to you to find out that by far the best fonts for use in books are actually the oldest designs.

Some fonts prints well, are easy on the eye, and economical with space. That is an important consideration for a print book as page numbers and length push up the price of printing your book thus forcing your hand on what you can list it at. There are also nice fonts for the interior, but they take up a lot of space and result in a longer book. Ideal for a short book that you want to create, but not for a huge novel that you are trying to keep from getting too long. Choosing the right font can also depend on the genre of the book.

Here are some of the fonts I like to use when I work on my client’s interior design book projects (all showing in 12 point size):