Best Fonts for Academic Papers
What fonts to use when writing a paper vary from the web. Font’s appear much different on paper then they do on a screen, which presents you with a question not many people can answer.
Using Times New Roman is something a lot of people will do on their papers because it’s the default Microsoft Word font. Everyone else is doing, so should you! Unfortunately, while Times is a popular font, it’s not necessarily the best.
Readability studies have proven that the most readable font is a dark green Times New Roman (Serif) on a pale, washed out, pastel yellow background. They judged readability based on how fast the eye responded to the combination. Black on white scored very high of course, a close second, and white on black was significantly lower.
But why does green on yellow seem so readable? Well, really, it’s not. The reader’s eye responds to it the fastest because itis so damn ugly. Another thing I left out, the font was italicized. Yes, italicized green Times New Roman on a yellow background ranks supreme. Hand in a paper all in the aforementioned font, see what happens.
So assuming that Times combination isn’t indeed good for reading (for your teachers, professors and whatnot) then what is?
First, imagine a big, page long, unseparated block of text. The first thing you’re going to want to do is set your line height to at least 1.5. Depending on fonts, and their aspects 2.0 might be necessary.
Now, if you don’t know the basics of typography like Serifs and whatnot you’re going to want to read an article I write ages ago titled, “Considering Readability when Designing“.
So in print, Serif fonts are pretty much the way to go. Just like on a screen Sans Serif fonts tend to rule. The Serifs on the Serif fonts when put on paper aid the readers eye and are easier to read for longer periods of time then a Sans font. Exceptions can be made of course, like books that won’t have a lot of writing and need to look pretty. Cookbooks, for example.
But for your academic paper, a Serif in the copy (copy refers to the main text, thus the term “copywriter”) will work best. In fact, a lot of schools/teachers actually require you either use a specific fon, or at the very least a Serif. If a teacher tells you to use Times New Roman, don’t worry about it. Unless they’re your Typography teacher, don’t worry about them being able to tell the difference.
Some good Serif fonts:
- Georgia - Nice and round, and a relatively big font.
- Garamond - A good alternative to Times.
- Palatino - Another good alternative.
- Century - Don’t confuse it with Century Gothic!
For the headings of the paper, I like to have a different font. Whether you change the typeface or not, it will make the paper a little more aesthetically pleasing. I know papers aren’t about experimenting with typography, but sometimes you just can’t resist, right?
When using a Serif font in the copy, which you should be doing anyways, I like to put a nice bold Sans font in the headings. Sans Serif fonts are nicer to look at when they’re big and in short use, such as a heading.
A simple font like Lucida Sans (bold) works just fine. Be careful with that font though, it’s not very nice when it isn’t bold (unless it’s huge). For headings I like to have a font that isn’t too wide, like Verdana, Tahoma or Arial, unless it’s nicer looking, like Lucida. Georgia works nicely in headings (not bold works best) too.
Font size is something that you shouldn’t really have to think about. Here’s a short list on how to pick the right size:
- Small = bad.
- Too big = teacher thinks you’re just trying to fill the page. Bad.
- Just right = 16px max.
14-16px is a good range. A font like Georgia looks good at 16px, but it’s up to you how big you go. You don’t want it to look like you have one big heading, or your entire copy is bold. Copy should look like copy! Don’t forget that line height too! It’s something people tend to forget, but make sure you’re at at least 1.5 spacing.
I wish the best of you on your paper ventures, and maybe you’ll get a little aid in the grading if your paper looks nice 
Leave a comment
Steve
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:01 AM
16px is quite large in my opinion. The general size for schooling papers and articles is 12px over here in the Uk.
Connor Wilson
May 23rd, 2007 at 3:44 PM
Yeah 16px is quite large, but it’s the farthest most can go without becoming too bold, or wide. 16px is like m max, anything bigger doesn’t look right, and some fonts look too big at 16px anyways.
Carl Pei
May 24th, 2007 at 7:02 AM
Actually, human eyes are more sensitive to the two colors of green and yellow. This is something we went through in Physics class last year in Optics, I don’t remember the specifics. There might be an evolutionary link too.
Adnan
May 24th, 2007 at 8:26 AM
I always go for Garamond in 12px size. Dunno why!
Chester L. Sigua
June 4th, 2007 at 10:10 PM
This forum sucks.. why the hell dya want to talk about fonts and everything.. tooo old school.. FREAKSSS
Connor Wilson
June 4th, 2007 at 11:12 PM
Forum?
And I write about fonts because Verdana isn’t always the answer. Maybe you should actually read this.
benjamin noseda
March 20th, 2008 at 11:19 AM
Nice site. interesting, personaly i go for new century schoolbook at 12px.
how about titles though? does it matter if its in the same font, centred or whatever? is there a general rule?
Ranjani
March 30th, 2008 at 8:37 PM
My teachers demand that papers are turned in with Times New Roman 12pt throughout. When I write and print stuff for myself, I like using Book Antiqua. Not only does it look lovely when italicized, but it’s also not quite as big as Georgia, so I don’t have to worry about sizing down what I write to make it look right on the page.
Connor Wilson
March 30th, 2008 at 8:53 PM
I’ve seen Comic Sans on essays and I even have a friend that thinks he a “Typographist” for using Tahoma. I guess to cut down on the artistic liberties they put it out there that they want a font they know they can read.
I’ve always seen Book Antiqua as a heading font, but it does look nice italicized. Usually when I feel like getting artsy I’ll go to Calisto MT (also good italics, and for some reason awesome lowercase B’s) or something. I have a lot of serif fonts lying around.
I’ve never had something turned away because of the font, and I’ve never really used the specified Arial/Times. If it came up I guess I could just say that it is Times and they wouldn’t know
kavun
June 4th, 2008 at 10:34 AM
more examples of fonts would be nice. maybe even some fonts that most people don’t have would be nice too.
like in a list format
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