Question for Authors of KDP/Createspace/B&N etc books

[Harlowgold]

I am planning to do a book this year and have signed up at CreateSpace (now KDP) and have a couple of questions about doing so, particularly in regards to fonts. What type of fonts do you prefer to use in your books? What size? Are the fonts you use public domain or royalty free? Are all (or some of) the fonts on programs like Wordpad free to use in these self-published books? I tried to post a question on KDP's community page but for some reason when I click the "post a question" link it only locks up the page and I have to back space to get out of it (have tried this several different times on different days).

[mwalls]

When I did a book on Createspace I used either Times New Roman or Bookman Old Style (forget which). I do not recall any rules or hassle about the font.

Matthew

[Mike Gebert]

You're submitting them a PDF, it doesn't matter what the font is, technically.

For Kindle, you take the text and give it to them in Times. You normally have much less control over the layout there, but it works well enough.

For readability, I like Baskerville and Century Schoolbook (though for some people the latter is too reminiscent of schoolbooks).

[Spiny Norman]

I wonder if you're not overanalyzing a bit. You can trust your own eyes.

The big choice would be serif (slightly more traditional) or sans-serif (a bit more futuristic). (If you search for images, you will quickly see the difference.)

[boblipton]

Just keep away from Dingbat, Baloonatic and Comic Sans.

Bob

[oldposterho]

I'm totally doing my upcoming book in Comic Sans. The internet loves it.

[drednm]

Since you likely have to upload a PDF of your book, it doesn't matter what fonts you use since the PDF is read as an image file. If you were to upload Word files, that would be a different matter.

I hired a designer to do my last book and there was no problem using a variety of fonts. The old standard used to be to use serif for text and sans-serif for displays and captions. That probably doesn't hold water anymore.

[Mike Gebert]

The old standard used to be to use serif for text and sans-serif for displays and captions. That probably doesn't hold water anymore.

People set text in sans serif all the time, it's true. That said, one of the best tools you have for making something easier to read and understand is a judicious mix of the two. I helped a friend with a cookbook layout recently and I made the headings and recipes sans serif, the two page story attached to the recipe serif-- much cleaner and more welcoming to read. You can see how I mix the two in my Chicago restaurant guide in this picture:

[drednm]

That's why it was the old standard. Serif type is supposedly easier to read in text and and sans-serif type usually makes for bolder headlines, titles, displays etc. Today, I think anything goes ... especially on web sites!

[Spiny Norman]

Since you likely have to upload a PDF of your book, it doesn't matter what fonts you use since the PDF is read as an image file. If you were to upload Word files, that would be a different matter.

Uhm... So then you have to choose the fonts BEFORE you convert to PDF, so... maybe it's at an earlier stage, but yes it still does matter.

[Spiny Norman]

Just keep away from Dingbat, Baloonatic and Comic Sans.

Bob

I'm totally doing my upcoming book in Comic Sans. The internet loves it.

Sadly, I had already found out that [font=Comic Sans MS]changing fonts[/font] is disabled here. What a pity(!)!

[Mike Gebert]

Uhm... So then you have to choose the fonts BEFORE you convert to PDF, so... maybe it's at an earlier stage, but yes it still does matter.

Two different issues. You need a nice, attractive layout with good font choices, so your book looks professional and readable when you convert it to PDF.

But the PDF means that the reader doesn't have to own the fonts you used on their system—the point of a PDF is it preserves the fonts, the layout, the images, exactly as you laid it out. Where if you sent them a Word doc, say, it's an open question whether your layout would look like you meant it to look, depending on what was installed on their system.

[Spiny Norman]

But the PDF means that the reader doesn't have to own the fonts you used on their system—the point of a PDF is it preserves the fonts, the layout, the images, exactly as you laid it out. Where if you sent them a Word doc, say, it's an open question whether your layout would look like you meant it to look, depending on what was installed on their system.

If the concern is for the reader, and while using word, that is different of course. It would have to be preinstalled, to be precise; I don't own garamond, and I certainly don't own Comic Sans. In that case it would be rather stupid to use any font that isn't ubiquitous. Otherwise nearly all the readers would get to see the text displayed in a replacement font.
But I'm not sure if that that's what the OP meant.

[Harlowgold]

But the PDF means that the reader doesn't have to own the fonts you used on their system—the point of a PDF is it preserves the fonts, the layout, the images, exactly as you laid it out. Where if you sent them a Word doc, say, it's an open question whether your layout would look like you meant it to look, depending on what was installed on their system.

If the concern is for the reader, and while using word, that is different of course. It would have to be preinstalled, to be precise; I don't own garamond, and I certainly don't own Comic Sans. In that case it would be rather stupid to use any font that isn't ubiquitous. Otherwise nearly all the readers would get to see the text displayed in a replacement font.
But I'm not sure if that that's what the OP meant.

Re the fonts, I was asking because in the KDP "details" it mentions be sure that you have rights to use the font you are using for the book so I was concerned that several types are copyrighted. Of course, there are several fonts that have been centuries so they are surely public domain. I like the "Broadway" font for chapter titles in a show biz book but I wonder if that one's copyrighted given it's so distinctive and likely created sometime in the 20th century.

[Mike Gebert]

Actually, fonts are not copyrightable. But you should be licensed to use and distribute it, since technically you're distributing a copy with a PDF, even if no one can install the font from it, only use it within the PDF.

Honestly, nobody's gonna check. That's basically them covering their behinds by putting the onus on you. That said, if I were doing something and I wanted to use an art deco showbiz font that was similar to, but maybe not as much of a cliche as Broadway is (to me, it screams the nostalgia craze of the 70s), I would search "art deco free fonts" and you'd find something like these which don't seem to have any licensing at all.

[Darren Nemeth]

Check out the older fonts. Nearly all that I am familliar with are public domain OR were newly created from original font books for the puropse of free downloads.