Times New Roman is a perfectly ne classic, conservative font that is very easy to read if you don’t display it in miniature.
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!” – i.e.- when looking at a document, the first thing that should strike the reader is the content and not the awesomeness of the font. And in general, I agree with the rule of thumb that sans-serif tends to be best for the Internet and serif for printed material. I’ve occasionally come across printed books that were done in a sans-serif font like Helvetica and I personally find them really annoying and hard to read.
BTW, on my Kindle Paperwhite, I have Baskerville selected by default and really love the look of it. Much more elegant than the clunkly default Caecilia. Interesting note about Baskerville here.
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.
I didn’t change the font size; I quote myself in the default font, then pasted the same text, changing only the font to Times New Roman. Just like this …
There is no “one font” that is the preferred “professional” font. If anything, the standard fonts that come with MS Office are at a disadvantage because they are used ad nauseum by millions of people who have no knowledge of typography.
I don’t think you can go wrong with Times or Times New Roman. If you got it, Minion Pro (or Minion) is probably my favorite all-purpose serifed typeface. Classy font, doesn’t draw attention to itself. Then again, there are those who say it’s too clean, too “polite.” I’m fine with that.
Bookman Old Style and Baskerville are nice and, to give you a little curveball, I’ve always been in love with Zuzana Licko’s Mrs. Eaves typeface, but that’s a relatively modern typeface (c. 1996).
For long runs of text that are printed, I generally do not like sans serifs. For screen display, sans serif seems more natural to me. in that realm, I tend to be conservative: Helvetica, Optima (a sans serif with a “serif-like” feel to it), and Verdana (specifically tailored for the screen.) Fairly boring choices, but I tend to like fonts that don’t draw attention to themselves unless I want them to.
Believe it or not, the rule (Fla. R. App. P. 9.210(a)(2)) goes on to state that:
Brief research does not reveal any decision in which a pleading was actually stricken for failure to comply with the rule, but it probably would have been by an order that wasn’t selected for inclusion in the local reporters.
I didn’t accuse you of deliberately fudging the font size, I’m just saying that the sample you posted is hard to read because that’s the size in which that particular font displays on this site with the particular display defaults that apply. It’s not evidence that Times New Roman is intrinsically hard to read, which it certainly is not.
I admit, however, that in particular circumstances I’m quite happy to select a different font. As I mentioned I love Baskerville on the Kindle, and on a bookreader app on my tablet I’ve always used Georgia, in preference to Times New Roman which is also available (along with many dozens of others). But for printed materials coming off my laser printer, I still like the traditional look of TNR for most documents, usually in 12-pt. If there’s one font that is guaranteed not to scream out, “wow-- look at this font!!” it has to be the quiet and traditional TNR. Which very often is precisely the idea. Obviously we have different opinions but it’s hard to argue that TNR calls attention to itself in any kind of negative way.
The United States Supreme Court requires Century Schoolbook. The California appellate courts require something that is equivalent to Times New Roman, but they have never complained about Century Schoolbook in my briefs. Or my tighty whities, boxers or boxer briefs. (Boxer briefs are the greatest invention of the 20th century.)
Huh. I didn’t know that. I first encountered it about 10 years ago, and filed it away as an updated Times New Roman kind of typeface. It’s alright about sums it up. It’s not going to wow you, but it’s an understated, elegant typeface that doesn’t draw attention to itself. I found an interesting discussion of it here. Lots of critiques of Minion, but I’m obviously of the side that agrees with statements like these, which exemplifies why I like it so:
It is cramped for most uses. It was designed for newspaper use, specifically the Times of London, where the text is displayed in narrow columns. So the idea was to squeeze in as much writing per line as possible, while still being clear. Typefaces designed for longer line lengths, such as Century Schoolbook, are a bit wider to make them easier to read in longer lines.
Times New Roman was popular in the courts when briefs had a maximum length defined by the number of pages. A narrower font allowed for more words. The federal courts, at least, have switched to a maximum length defined by word count, and have started recommending Century Schoolbook. I guess Florida is a bit behind the times in matters typographical, as in so much else.
As for me, I’m partial to Goudy Old Style. It’s a bit on the light side, but otherwise quite legible in a variety of uses as far as Ican tell.
I used to work in a typography shop. Part of my job was to identify type samples that clients sent in with their jobs. They may want, say, an annual report done, and they’d attach a sample of the typeface they want, and I’d have to identify it. This meant looking for distinctive characters unique to the font, like the cap “R” or lowercase “g” or an ampersand. Through a process of selection, I’d eventually identify the font.
Except with Times Roman. It has no identifying characters. It got to the point of a joke: if all identification fails, it must be Times Roman.
I hate that typeface with a passion. It just screams “default.” And it gives the impression that the user didn’t know that they were allowed to change fonts or didn’t know how.
