Having said some words on free fonts
for publishing (in the previous post), I thought I’d, ah, say some
more words. Specifically, I’d mention a few popular choices that
have become widely available. Why not in alphabetic order?
Alegreya is a lovely serif typeface
that seems a little too ornate for the typical fiction book. I would
not however, hesitate to use it for poetry—and have. Moreover, it
pairs beautifully with the sans version, also free. Alegreya Sans for
headings, Alegreya for body, is a combo that works great.
Century Schoolbook is one of the fonts
included in the URW++ Ghostscript package I mentioned before. CS is
always a good, workmanlike, and highly legible typeface. After all,
it is widely specified for legal documents. For a novel? It would
certainly work but might look a little old-fashioned, stodgy even, to
some readers. For children’s books, as well as nonfiction, it
remains a good choice.
Cormorant is a variant on the
ever-popular Garamond style of typefaces, but one a little too quirky
for long stretches of text. It lacks the readability for that. Great
for titles, though (as is the related sans, Ysabeau), and we used it
for a book of quotes once.
Crimson I mentioned before and
suggested getting the latest version from the designer. It is another
Garamond-ish font (or more in the Granjon vein, actually) and has
some similarities to the popular Plantin typeface. That’s a good
thing. There have been reports of oddities when it is printed so that
is something one must watch for (as with any font). Another good
workmanlike font with a touch of elegance.*
EB Garamond is pretty much the cream of
the free Garamonds (although we mostly use the URW++ Garamond No.8)
and practically identical to the widely used Adobe Garamond. As both
are based on the same original type samples, this is not unexpected.
Some might claim it is not quite as refined as the Adobe offering in
terms of kerning and such, but it looks every bit as good to us. One
could certainly use this typeface exclusively for text and forget the
rest.
Gentium has been around a long time and
is thoroughly tried and tested. It looks pretty good, too, less
stodgy than many popular choices but not overdone. It does suffer
somewhat from the same problem as Times New Roman; that is, it can
look too closely packed in long lines. We’ve used it for poetry and
it works there. It would not be a bad choice for a magazine, used in
narrower columns.
The same is largely true of Linux
Libertine, another font that has been around a while.
PT Serif was designed for the Russian
government. It has more than a passing resemblance to Microsoft’s
Constantia, probably the best of those ‘Clear Type’ fonts they
brought out as a package some time back. Of course, any and all those
Microsoft fonts included for ‘free’ with Windows are off-limits
for publishing, but PT is a quite adequate and usable typeface.
Which brings us at last to the very
popular Volkorn. As much as I like this font, I’ve never seen it as
working that well in a novel. Maybe it could but I’d be more likely
to use it for nonfiction. It is a solid, readable font—almost too
solid.
***
Some others I might mention: Fanwood,
which is based on a ‘standard’ typeface for fiction, Fairfield.
The same designer, Barry Schwarz, has also crafted OFL Sorts Mill
Goudy, based on Goudy Old Style. Both certainly look good but are
perhaps not quite as time-tested and refined as some other offerings.
Schwarz has some other Goudy-based offerings too; one might or might
not find them useful.
Libre Baskerville and Libre Caslon are
both projects that might not be completely perfected but might
provide what one needs for a self-published project—especially if
one wants that classic look such fonts provide.
Literata is a Google font originally
designed for use in e-readers but one needn’t limit it to that.
There is a version for print, in a large variety of weights. I’ll
note that it looks somewhat like Adobe’s Minion.
Lora is also available from Google and
is, again, intended more as a screen font than a print one, but
doesn’t look bad on a page.
All these typefaces may be found
readily enough online. Search the names. Perhaps I’ll write a post
on a few of the commercial fonts we like and use, down the line, but
this is enough for now.
*An addendum: There is now a Crimson Pro that is an even better choice, and available in a number of weights. If you wish to try out Crimson, this is the way to go (and it may be downloaded from Google Fonts).
