Putting together my cover (with the help of the talented Photoshop genius Samantha Collins), I'm thinking about what fonts to use.
The first think I should do is to figure out what fonts to avoid at all costs.
Some of the (apparently) big no-nos?
The first think I should do is to figure out what fonts to avoid at all costs.
Some of the (apparently) big no-nos?
- Papyrus
- Comic Sans
- Brush Script
- Lucida Handwriting
- Bradley Hand
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| What goes on the outside helps sell what's on the inside. (Books by Leon Brooks) |
I did a web search for the most-hated fonts, and found these:
Top Design Mag's Top 10 Most Notoriously Hated Fonts
PrePressure.com's The Most Hated Fonts
GlantzDesign's Designers Reveal Their Least Favorite Fonts
Definitive last word on fonts? Probably not. Industry standard is to write your novel in Times New Roman or Courier, of course, so don't deviate in your manuscript pages from that. But for your title, steer clear of average and hated.
Meanwhile, I'll be choosing something just a little more awesome for my own title. Remember that it should easily readable, even from a distance, and to keep it large enough on your cover to be seen from far away.
I want to avoid making the basic mistakes. I don't know how many self-pubbed books I've seen using lovely fonts for the title, and I have no idea what the book is named, because the elaborate script has so many extra lines and curls that the letters are completely obscured.
Just as bad are scripts so spindly they fade right into the background, effectively becoming invisible. Why, what a fantastic horror font--wait! Danger, Will Robinson, danger! Use something thick enough you can see it! And I'm averse to eye-popper colors: no red on a black background for me, thanks.
I also want something indicating the correct genre. Sure, those dots and swirls are cute, but for a contemporary fantasy, high-adventure and high-action, where the hero has lost her entire family except her twin and the only way to bring the rest back puts him at risk, light and cheerful is just not appropriate. And while I love a good cyberpunk font, computers aren't a central theme, nor is programming used anywhere in the plot--thus, another font style to be skipped.
Now to dive in and find a font I like.
What's your most-hated font? Favorite?
