# What is the preferred 'professional' font nowadays? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 30, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-professional-font-nowadays/684900 "2014-03-30T15:42:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-professional-font-nowadays/684900/41 "2014-03-31T13:10:29Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > My gut-feel answer to the OP is that any font is fine for business communication if it doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb and scream “look at me!” - That’s really the key; I’ve done my share of looking at resumes for positions we’ve hired for, and the main thing you don’t want to be is that resume with the weird looking font. Generally speaking a sans-serif font looks a little out of place relative to the dozens of TNR ones I’ve seen- not necessarily bad, but noticeable. I’d go with TNR or Garamond for a resume and cover letter if for the only reason that nobody’s going to look at your resume and go “Why’d this guy use that fucked-up font?” And that’s likely how it’ll roll; nobody’s going to go “Oh, he’s unique!” or “What a cool font!”. They’re most likely to consider it to be weird and out of the ordinary in a negative way. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-professional-font-nowadays/684900/42 "2014-03-31T13:13:50Z")
> [@waterj2](#): > > I guess Florida is a bit behind the times in matters typographical, as in so much else. Hey, we’ve got mandatory electronic filing for all case types now. Baby steps. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-professional-font-nowadays/684900/43 "2014-03-31T13:16:46Z")
To take one more crack at answering the OP’s question: If I was preparing a letter to send to 500 companies (let’s say I’m asking for donations to a serious cause) there are dozens of typefaces that I’d regard as entirely appropriate. Popular music is more diverse than 20 years ago, and so is design. Computers have put serious production tools into the hands of millions and people with talent can go wherever their muse leads. Decades back companies might actually be afraid not to set their logo in Helvetica, but it’s not that way anymore. But as a designer, if I get a flyer or a letter set in Arial or Times I’ll assume the creator is incurious and probably enjoys glurge emails. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-professional-font-nowadays/684900/44 "2014-03-31T13:21:26Z")
One of the things you have to consider about font choices is how they will be rendered. It’s quite one thing to talk about the extremely high-res rendering in quality books or commercially-printed stuff, and another to talk about things coming out of laser printers and inkjets, and yet one more thing to consider screen rendering. Most traditional fonts have problems with laser/screen rendering; there’s not enough detail and nuance to carry their shapes precisely enough. Many of the newer font iterations (particularly TNR over traditional Times) are intended for lower-res rendering. Calibri and Cambria are fonts developed for office-grade rendering. Those fonts will render and print more clearly across a wide spectrum of office-grade equipment than Garamond or Jenson will… and some look worse when they come off of a high-res device. They depend on the slight fuzziness to appear properly, the same slight fuzziness that can make some traditional Garamond sets a PITA to read off of the office HP. One of the few combinations that do well across the board, inkjets to maximum res, are Minion Pro and Myriad Pro. They’re my go-to pair for general design, and the Pro sets have 12 faces each, making them extraordinarily flexible. If anyone is going to pitch a ‘different’ and distinctive font for their office or company, you can’t go wrong with this pair. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-professional-font-nowadays/684900/45 "2014-03-31T13:32:17Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I had never heard of Minion until I noticed it was the default font in the current version of Acrobat (X?). It’s alright. > [@pulykamell](#): > > Huh. I didn’t know that. Correction: it’s Minion _Pro_. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-professional-font-nowadays/684900/46 "2014-03-31T13:43:22Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > One of the few combinations that do well across the board, inkjets to maximum res, are Minion Pro and Myriad Pro. That’s one of my favorite go-to pairings. Clean and classy, easy to read. It looks different enough, elegant even, but subtly enough that folks used to the “usual” fonts might not immediately tell the difference. Plus I second **tapu** ’s recommendation of _Helvetica_. The best documentary of a typeface ever produced. 😉 I love the love-hate relationship graphic designers have with it. Similar to Times Roman. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-professional-font-nowadays/684900/47 "2014-03-31T19:03:31Z")
Some courts prefer briefs in Times New Roman, but others like the U.S. Seventh Circuit recommend that you only use Times New Roman in your brief if you’d like for them to wipe their butts with it. To this end they’ve written a lengthy discourse on typography and font: > [@](#): > > Typographic decisions should be made for a purpose. The Times of London chose the typeface Times New Roman to serve an audience looking for a quick read. Lawyers don’t want their audience to read fast and throw the document away; they want to maximize retention. Achieving that goal requires a different approach—different typefaces, different column widths, different writing conventions. Briefs are like books rather than newspapers. The most important piece of advice we can offer is this: read some good books and try to make your briefs more like them. > > … > > Use typefaces that were designed for books. Both the Supreme Court and the Solicitor General use Century. Professional typographers set books in New Baskerville, Book Antiqua, Calisto, Century, Century Schoolbook, Bookman Old Style and many other proportionally spaced serif faces. Any face with the word “book” in its name is likely to be good for legal work. Baskerville, Bembo, Caslon, Deepdene, Galliard, Jenson, Minion, Palatino, Pontifex, Stone Serif, Trump Mediäval, and Utopia are among other faces designed for use in books and thus suitable for brief-length presentations. The whole thing is worth a read. [Requirements and Suggestions for Typography in Briefs and Other Papers](http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/Rules/type.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-professional-font-nowadays/684900/48 "2014-03-31T19:36:16Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > …It’s not evidence that Times New Roman is intrinsically hard to read, which it certainly is not… I’m on the TNR-hating side. It is more difficult to read quickly, skim, or scan for keywords. TNR has a tendency for the skinny letters, i, l, to snuggle up and merge with the vertical-sided letters, K, m, n. Note also its near-universal absence for use in any interface application, be it physical labeling or graphical interfaces and buttons. It is not friendly to quick recognition. It is just style over function, a holdover from the typesetting days. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-professional-font-nowadays/684900/49 "2014-03-31T21:04:41Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > I’m on the TNR-hating side. It is more difficult to read quickly, skim, or scan for keywords. TNR has a tendency for the skinny letters, i, l, to snuggle up and merge with the vertical-sided letters, K, m, n. Fair enough if you perceive it that way. I don’t, at least, not on hi-res laser output. I do prefer Georgia for document reading on my tablet, as mentioned before, but that’s only because of the tablet’s more limited resolution where Georgia appears more distinct than TNR. I think **Amateur Barbarian** had a very good point about taking into account how the font is going to be rendered; different fonts will be better in different circumstances for that reason alone, aside from style considerations. Apparently the Baskerville that I like on the Kindle was, like the other fonts, specifically fine-tuned for its display. I guess that’s why there are relatively few available built-in fonts and why they all look so good. > [@GargoyleWB](#): > > Note also its near-universal absence for use in any interface application, be it physical labeling or graphical interfaces and buttons. It is not friendly to quick recognition. It is just style over function, a holdover from the typesetting days. Labeling is an entirely different matter. I would tend to use sans serif fonts for that, possibly bold and vivid ones. It’s a completely different font application. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-professional-font-nowadays/684900/50 "2014-04-01T17:03:32Z")
> [@j666](#): > > Times New Roman is a cramped, cluttery default that makes every document a torture to read. Done! 🙂 TNR is worse than useless if the document is more than 3 paragraphs long. It is fine for 1 paragraph memos. ---
**Author:** ![Itself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d07c76/32.png) [@Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-professional-font-nowadays/684900/51 "2014-04-01T18:43:37Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I really like Knuth’s Computer Modern. People always think I put way more effort into my work than I do, even though I’m using the default LaTeX template – which basically looks like a Word document with a different font. Agreed. Computer Modern is attractive and easy to read. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-professional-font-nowadays/684900.md?page=2)