# Questions on format



## Androxine Vortex (Jan 25, 2012)

(This may not directly relate to publishing)

I have read that typing in fonts such as Time New Roman is not good, because it was designed for newsprint. So what are good fonts to use? Also what size font (I know some might vary depending on the font style) and should you use any kind of spacing?

For the time being I am using Georgia font, size 12, normal line spacing.

Also, when you have a page that is the beginning of a new chapter, how much should you skip down to place the words, "Chapter [number]" ?


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## zizban (Jan 25, 2012)

For an MS, you can use any font you want. Follow the publisher's guidelines when formatting your MS for submission but usually it's Times New Roman or Courier, 12 point, 1 inch margins all around, double spaced. I would just place your chapter name/number right where it begins, no spaces. Some publishers want page breaks before each new chapter, some don't. Keep it simple to avoid hassle for yourself later,


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## Graham Irwin (Jan 25, 2012)

I like to use the "Century" font. It's a bigger font, but it's the font that most of my beloved children's books were written in, and I like the memories it evokes.


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## Telcontar (Jan 25, 2012)

I have never heard any such negative things about Times New Roman.

Personally, I leave a single blank line before and after "Chapter ##". Page breaks can be inserted later by applying styles.


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## zizban (Jan 25, 2012)

I don't mind Times New Roman. I just don't write with it.


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## Devor (Jan 29, 2012)

Androxine Vortex said:


> I have read that typing in fonts such as Time New Roman is not good, because it was designed for newsprint.



It's true, in terms of typography Times New Roman is antiquated.  Garamond is one of the fonts they recommend for publishing, but I'm not sure if that translates into e-publishing.  I'd have to look up the others.

I had to read about some of these things when I took some InDesign tutorials.




> Also, when you have a page that is the beginning of a new chapter, how much should you skip down to place the words, "Chapter [number]" ?



Before the Chapter #?  I think that's up to you.  After the chapter number, the typical answer is 4 lines or that the first paragraph should begin after two inches from the top of the page.  I don't know if either of those answers gets used very often anymore, so it's still really up to you.

If your book is going to be published by a traditional publisher, they'll decide these things anyways.  If you're publishing yourself online, on the Kindle, everything is different and I don't know if norms have really been established yet.  So I'm not sure there's a given answer for you.


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## hppavmx704 (Jan 29, 2012)

If you are going to use a publisher to publish they will want you to go through an agent. With this being said, every agent has their own personal preference to how they want the piece formatted. Some one Times 12 point single spaced while a different one will want Helvetica 12 point double spaced. I believe most agents have their formatting requirements posted on their website.

If you don't go through a publisher and want to publish on the kindle I would go with something that looks good to you. I'm going to agree with Devor, I don't believe there is a standard as of yet for publishing on the kindle. If you could I would try a couple of different things and see how they look.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Jan 30, 2012)

As far as I know, Kindle doesn't let you specify fonts -- all Kindle apps use the built-in font, and there's no way to change this.

This might be changing with the KF8 (Kindle Format 8) stuff, but I haven't looked into it extensively yet.


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## MichaelSullivan (Jan 30, 2012)

Benjamin Clayborne said:


> As far as I know, Kindle doesn't let you specify fonts -- all Kindle apps use the built-in font, and there's no way to change this.
> 
> This might be changing with the KF8 (Kindle Format 8) stuff, but I haven't looked into it extensively yet.




You "can" specify fonts in an ebook - you just shouldn't ....as it doesn't allow the end user to select the font of their choosing.  Actually for regular kindle it will ignore any font selections you make and only show it in the one default font - the only choice you have is size.  On fire - they allow for different fonts ... not sure if you "hardcode" them whether it will ignore those commands and use the user defined fonts - or whether they will follow what the coding is .... bottom line.... you really shouldn't specify "layout" type infomration in an ebook - let the reader decide.


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