# Choosing fonts for professional documents



## jcfynx (Mar 26, 2011)

In a world where there are so many fonts to choose from, I often find myself at a crossroads about which font is the right font for me.

Faced with so many choices, I have recently decided to choose Calibri for every document I write. However, sometimes I feel like it would be more appropriate to use a more formal font for documents at work such as plans and reports. I'm sure I'm making too big of an issue out of it, but I'd like to ask about fonts to use for documents that are going to be expensive and important so as to not embarrass myself.

The old standby of Times New Roman seems played-out by now. Is it an acceptable font? Are there other fonts that graphic design nerds find more attractive?

Please, gentle nerds. Help.


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## RedFoxTwo (Mar 26, 2011)

There are lots of fonts available. 

Pick one and stick to it. Your piece of work is not going to be showered with criticism due to font choice.

If all else fails, use Times New Roman.

/thread


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## Captain Howdy (Mar 26, 2011)

Comic Sans MS all the way.


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## Runefox (Mar 26, 2011)

Book Antiqua / Palatino Linotype is a semi-favourite of mine for a serif font. Personally I prefer Helvetica/Arial or DejaVu/Bitstream Vera for sans, but that's just because I like fonts that I can work with for web design; Calibri is pretty good too. Lucida Console is great for monospace


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## Duality Jack (Mar 26, 2011)

Verdana is pleasant easy to read and not too plain. It is my favorite and you probably can see why in my post now as the forum uses it per standard.

Read this:
http://www.cracked.com/funny-5647-fonts/

It will tell you most of what you need to know. Odd that it is on a Humor site but it is all fantastic advice


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## theinkfox (Mar 26, 2011)

arial, arial rounded, lucida console
this three are very common on formal documents and easy to read


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## Aden (Mar 26, 2011)

Georgia is my ol' standby when and if I need a sarif font
but I do web work for a living right now, and Georgia is really meant for screen. It's good for print as well, but perhaps another choice would suit your needs better

for sans I just go for Helvetica
I THINK IT'S PRETTY SHUT UP

\actually if any of you have ever been in an Aveda store and seen their sign with the leaf background and all the nice smallcaps sans-sarif text - if you recognize that typeface please message me because I love it so much (especially the Js) and I want it k thanks


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## Leafblower29 (Mar 26, 2011)

Calibri all the way.


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## jcfynx (Mar 26, 2011)

Lastdirewolf said:


> Comic Sans MS all the way.


 
Thank You For The Comment! I think I will use it for all of my posts, now. What can I say, you have inspired me.



Runefox said:


> Book Antiqua / Palatino Linotype is a semi-favourite of mine for a serif font. Personally I prefer Helvetica/Arial or DejaVu/Bitstream Vera for sans, but that's just because I like fonts that I can work with for web design; Calibri is pretty good too. Lucida Console is great for monospace


 
I am loving Book Antiqua right now. I'm afraid to use Helvetica/Arial (I consider them the same font as they are indistinguishable to actual human eyes) because they've been a default font for too long. Is that pretentious of me? Perhaps.


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## Folgrimeo (Mar 26, 2011)

I believe Calibri (sans-serif font), Cambria (serif font), and the other similar C-fonts introduced by Microsoft for... what was it, Word 2007, I think they were introduced to become the new preferred fonts for documents and to be easier to read. They certainly look good. And Consolas is a particularly good monospace (fixed width) font.

But in practical terms I don't stray much in my choices of fonts. I'm not one of those people who sees incredible beauty or appreciation of differences in fonts. They all mostly look the same to me. So as a second choice, yeah, go with Arial (or its close equivalent Helvetica).


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## net-cat (Mar 26, 2011)

I just use Times New Roman.


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## jcfynx (Mar 26, 2011)

Folgrimeo said:


> I believe Calibri (sans-serif font), Cambria (serif font), and the other similar C-fonts introduced by Microsoft for... what was it, Word 2007, I think they were introduced to become the new preferred fonts for documents and to be easier to read. They certainly look good. And Consolas is a particularly good monospace (fixed width) font.
> 
> But in practical terms I don't stray much in my choices of fonts. I'm not one of those people who sees incredible beauty or appreciation of differences in fonts. They all mostly look the same to me. So as a second choice, yeah, go with Arial (or its close equivalent Helvetica).


 
I have to say Calibri certainly is easy to read; that's why I use it for nearly everything. I sometimes worry that it's not professional in some cases. I've been playing around with Garamond today and I think I'm stuck between that and   Book Antiqua   for reports I am going to present. I want them to look nice. I think these are nice.

I've never honestly tried Cambria before, but it looks  easy to read on a screen, even easier than  Times New Roman.  I'm glad to see they got something right with the train wreck that is Office 2007.


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