I work at a consulting engineering firm and write a lot of reports that are read by the public. I have an opportunity to recommend a different font for all of our written documents and am looking for something more modern/fresh than Times New Roman. Also open to recommendations for purpose specific communities about typography/fonts.
CMU Serif is always a good choice imo.
Times, which I think NeurIPS uses, is pretty solid.
Latin Modern Roman is another good one, used by TMLR.
IBM Plex just looks so nice too.
For regular text, something sans-serif that is not fixed width like Calibri.
For code or numbers, a fixed width sans-serif font like Consolas or Inconsolata.
Serif fonts definitely have their place, far away from technical documents.
It feels like low effort to use the default Office font when there are so many other options, but in my sans serif font tests Calibri ended up looking the best so far. I really didn’t want to like it! Curious where you think serif fonts belong? I don’t know shit about fonts/graphic design…
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Calibri is bad for technical documents because you can’t easily tell the difference between I and l.
Whatever sans serif you use, choose one that makes the difference legible, like Trebuchet or Bierstadt.
I really like me a good serif. Computer (Latin) Modern is very satisfying. Also, according to some research, it’s up there with the Helveticas and the Arials for readability. Note that 12-point is where serifs flourish (figuratively).
I prefer serif fonts in fiction and humanities, but maybe that’s just my STEM bias showing.
gotcha. Serif fonts seem more readable to me in every setting, but they also look stuffy. ¯\(ツ)/¯
I write mostly for web, so I don’t use serif a lot. I think it’s still fine for use with headings.
If your reports are destined for print, it still belongs, imo.
What counts as print these days though? When I first started working, we’d get literal boxes shipped to us with 1,000+ page documents inside. Now it’s a cloud link that opens with a PDF reader. Does that still count as print? Genuinely curious, because I see conflicting advice depending on if its print or not.
Anything literally printed on paper. If you’re in PDFs and you know your audience is going to be reading it on a small screen, I’d say stay away from the serif fonts. Especially since you mentioned elsewhere that you’re concerned about document length; you can get away with smaller letter tracking size on sans.
OpenSans
OpenDyslexic if I’m reading it myself. Especially for a long technical report because I don’t need that eye strain.
This one is going to be an unconventional one but I do love the Ubuntu font and I try to sneak it into some documents I write.
Do that one font that’s friendlier to dyslexic people. There’s actually a reason to use that.
Dyslexie was one of the first fonts I looked at specifically for accessibility purposes. Unfortunately, despite it’s utility, it looks too much like a ‘fun’ font for our documents. Our reports are publicly published for the legal/administrative record, and need to reflect that level of professionalism. :/
Someone else suggested a font that’s helpful for vision impaired people that I will take forward in this process, so maybe I can get a different accessible font through. Really appreciating the thoughtfulness for people with various reading challenges!
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Newer research actually says that it mostly doesn’t matter. Use a readable sans or serif, there’s no measurable difference.[1][2][3]
[1] Wery, J.J., Diliberto, J.A. The effect of a specialized dyslexia font, OpenDyslexic, on reading rate and accuracy. Ann. of Dyslexia 67, 114–127 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-016-0127-1
[2] Kuster, S.M., van Weerdenburg, M., Gompel, M. et al. Dyslexie font does not benefit reading in children with or without dyslexia. Ann. of Dyslexia 68, 25–42 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-017-0154-6
[3] Rello, L., Baeza-Yates, R. How to present more readable text for people with dyslexia. Univ Access Inf Soc 16, 29–49 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-015-0438-8
I am incredibly partial to Computer Modern Unicode because it’s a Unicode-capable version of the default LaTeX font. I’ve used this web port of Computer Modern for a very long time as well.
I usually go with Fira Sans for sans serif, if the document I’m writing isn’t super formal. Mixes well with Inconsolata for code and Latin Modern (or other serif stuff) for math.
DIN was made for German highway signs. It’s pretty good.
Do not use Georgia, Times New Roman, or Verdana. Those are screen fonts.
Isn’t TNR a print font? It looks rather bad on a screen actually. I certainly wouldn’t (and never have) use it for a technical report.
I’ve recently become a proponent of Atkinson Hyperlegible (while discovering I have some vision issues). Not sure if it’s appropriate in your industry, but the improvements to accessibility are hard to argue with.
Our designs have to comply with ADA, so accessibility is definitely a familiar consideration. This looks like any other professional looking sans-serif font, so if it’s more accessible for low vision/vision impaired people, all the better! I like that uppercase i and lowercase L are distinguishable, which is a personal peeve I have with some sans serif fonts. Thanks for the suggestion!
It’s hard to explain exactly why but switching my ereader over made a night and day difference in my comprehension and reading speed.
That happened to me when I started using OpenDyslexic. I read so much more now, and I already read a lot.
improvements to accessibility are hard to argue with.
It’s pretty good, yes. But other fonts not specifically designed for this fare quite well in contrast to what you’d believe: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/garethfordwilliams_dont-believe-the-type-axe-con-2021-activity-6904510195884445696-93xG
Whatever LibreOffice is. I don’t really care about fonts. And neither do the ones who read what I write.
Cool cool cool. Really valuable feedback. Thanks for dropping by.
When it doubt, I use Noto Sans.
If I’m feeling fancy (almost never), I’ll choose a serif font for section headings.
