Lars Eighner's Homepage Writers' Workshop FAQ

Q. What font do I use?

A. For anything that you hope will be set in type use Courier (or whatever the best Courier look-alike is called on your system) 10-pitch (= Courier 12 point) for printing. You can use anything tasteful for correspondence, summaries, and outlines that will not be set in type.

Because fonts in electronic files can be changed easily, it doesn't matter what you use in composing the electronic version of the manuscript provided it is clear an readily available (that means use one that comes with your word processor out-of-the-box, not one you may have installed yourself). However, even in the electronic file, use only one font (one family; only the normal rather than the bold, italic, or oblique versions; only one size). If you are asked to convert your file to ASCII (plain text), all the font information will be lost anyway.

Intelligent Follow-Up Questions

• Q. Why is Courier 10 the same as Courier 12 point and Courier 12 the same as Courier 10 point?
• Q. I don't have a word processor. What should I use?

Whiny Follow-Up Questions

• Q. I have desktop publishing software or a word processor with lots of desktop publishing features. Won't the editor be more likely to buy my stuff if the work of setting it up has already been done?
• Q. Why do you say Courier when leventy-dozen psychological studies show other fonts are more appealing?
• Q. My friend is a writer and makes oodles of money at it and always uses Times Roman. So what do you know?
• Q. I know an editor who likes Barnum and Bailey. Why shouldn't I use it?

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