Friday, April 22, 2011

Font suggestion needed

What font should I use for the regular text in the Swords & Wizardry Core Rules? I want to use a serif font for sure, so that it's more readable. Several people have told me that Times New Roman is boring to the eye.

But I don't have the artistic-layout "eye" to gauge what other fonts might work well.

This is Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone ... help ...


Georgia seems to be a pretty good font...
Posted by at

17 comments:

  1. DanApril 22, 2011 at 2:10 PM

    I like Old Bookman.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PatApril 22, 2011 at 2:14 PM

    Souvenir

    ReplyDelete
  3. Spawn of EndraApril 22, 2011 at 2:15 PM

    Yes, please nix Times New Roman. It evokes either newspapers or Microsoft (... or occasionally tasteful blogs such as you own). You might try Book Antiqua, Bookman Old Style, or Garamond. These can be be a bit large on the page, so where you might have a TNR as 12pt, you might want these at 11pt.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AlanApril 22, 2011 at 2:29 PM

    I've always liked Garamond on dead trees.

    ReplyDelete
  5. PontifexApril 22, 2011 at 3:18 PM

    Considering the old school look you are probably going for, I would suggest Footlight, GoldenType, Stratford, Swift, TenseC, or VremyaFWF. Centaur is pretty appropriate thematically, but the serifs are fairly small. Cushing is also borderline, with a more Victorian feel. Journal could also work, but it is a little plain.

    ReplyDelete
  6. PontifexApril 22, 2011 at 3:19 PM

    If you can't find any of those for free, just email me and I will hand them over.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Il Male™April 22, 2011 at 3:58 PM

    I love the font used in Humanspace Empires, you should really ask The Drune on ixians.blogspot.com about it ^^

    ReplyDelete
  8. MuninApril 22, 2011 at 3:59 PM

    Garamond seconded and please. :) It's pretty and very readable. It's the standard font I've been using for RPG work.

    Arno is also nice.

    ReplyDelete
  9. NathanielApril 22, 2011 at 4:10 PM

    Garamond is a very good choice. Linux Libertine is another good font (not just for Linux, despite the name).

    ReplyDelete
  10. UnknownApril 22, 2011 at 4:46 PM

    Good suggestions so far. :)

    Fontin is also rather nice and comes in both serif and sans.

    ReplyDelete
  11. AcademicianApril 22, 2011 at 5:13 PM

    As they say, "when in doubt, use Caslon".

    ReplyDelete
  12. Roger G-SApril 22, 2011 at 5:25 PM

    I dig Cambria, myself.

    ReplyDelete
  13. sycarionApril 22, 2011 at 9:26 PM

    I really like Gentium. It's free and a joy to read in print.

    ReplyDelete
  14. zhu bajieeApril 23, 2011 at 3:32 AM

    Garamond is great. But make sure you get a good cut, Adobe Garamond Pro has some lovely Opentype features, such as swash caps, alternates and ligatures which, if used sparingly can add real character - italic/swash titles - amazing! (You'll need opentype compatible layout - InDesign, not OpenOffice).

    I also like Palatino as a bookface.

    ReplyDelete
  15. GrayPumpkinApril 23, 2011 at 9:18 AM

    Helvetica.

    ReplyDelete
  16. TomasApril 25, 2011 at 5:21 AM

    Adobe Caslon (or Gentium for a good royaltyfree typeface)

    ReplyDelete
  17. huthMay 2, 2011 at 11:50 PM

    Another vote here (from a guy who's looked at a lot of serif body text typefaces) for Adobe Caslon. Adobe Garamond is good too, but for whatever reason it might be a little more 'formal' than what you want.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)