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Our standard font is ZapfEllipt BT. Many of our clients do not have that font, and they often e-mail manuscripts to us for the purpose of drafting a specification and often want a copy of the draft specification sent to them by e-mail.

Because our clients usually use a more conventional font such as Times Roman, tables, symbol fonts etc often get stuffed up when they are changed from Times to ZapfEllipt BT and vice versa.

Any ideas on the best font to use for such documents.

Also, I have heard that a serif font such as Times is regarded as easier to read than a sansserif font, particularly in long documents. That is why novels and texts are usually printed in Times.

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Not knowing exactly what you do with these documents, I would suggest that the best font to use is the font they had when you received them, unless you have good reason to change them. On the Windows platform Times New Roman is as ubiquitous as you are likely to get.

As regards serif fonts, they are regarded by most to be better suited for reading long tracts of text. The following links might be of interest to you if you want to find out more about fonts. These links have plenty of links to other sites, if you want to pursue the topic.

World of Fonts True Type Typography

Andrew C

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Hi Lorraine:

One of the most readable fonts, I’ve heard, is Garamond. Nevertheless, Andrew’s advice about using what the client uses is best.

Just my .

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If you use a TrueType Font, the you do not have to worry whether your client has it or not. When you send him the file, he will have it, if you turn on “Embed TrueType Fonts” in Tools – Options – Save.

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Rajesh,

Embedding fonts is not automatic, and can only happen if the licence for the font allows it. In most cases where embedding is allowed by the licence, and especially with any professional font from the leading foundries, editing is not possible. If it was it would a nice way of sharing all those prefessionally designed fonts !

Andrew

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Thanks everyone for the responses. I’m checking out Garamond right now, and then I’m away to check those font sites.

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If you want to find out to what degree a font can be embedded, try:
Microsoft’s font property add-in

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Thanks, Andrew & Doug for the tips.

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