The Perfect Page

Font Choice

Fonts are the smiling face of your document. A well chosen font can accentuate the value of the content it is communicating. An ill chosen font is disastrous. Most of us do and should play it safe when it comes to using fonts.

Fonts used to be referred to as type. That was in the old days of typewriters and printers with movable type. Today fonts are little electronic files waiting like first graders in almost all software applications, with their hands up in the air, saying, "Choose me, choose me." However, we don't play fair with our fonts, we play favorites. One font is the favorite of all. It's name is Times New Roman. It rose to favoritism as a type face, before computer software was ever invented. Newspapers with names like the New York Times latched onto it as a good, readable little font, and it has been a favorite ever since.

There is a list of about a dozen other fonts that have captured a level of status that is also exalted. These have been knighted by the "kings" of computing and dubbed "standard" in applications such as Microsoft Word. They are good solid fonts, all-purpose, and pleasing. If you have never downloaded additional fonts to your computer, do not fear. You have been provided with these old stand-bys and they will serve 90–95 percent of your font face needs.